The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I can always tell when you're reading somewhere in the house," my mother used to say..." (more)
Key Phrases: more brown beads, The Long Winter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Main Street (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this often incisive childhood memoir, a British journalist and award-winning author (I May Be Some Time) recreates his early reading itinerary and pinpoints the universal experiences of the constant young reader. Most important, he understands the escape that books offer a child "More than I wanted books to do anything else, I wanted them to take me away," he writes. He follows with musings on the particular effects created by the books he encountered: the ecstasy and longing of C.S. Lewis's Narnia chronicles, the community created in the Little House on the Prairie series (here Spufford offers interesting asides on how daughter Rose Wilder Lane's arch-conservative politics shaped her mother's books, which she helped write), and the "godsend," at a certain age, of science fiction, particularly that of Ursula Le Guin. Discussions of the ideas of Bettelheim, C.S. Lewis and others are serviceable but pale in effect beside rich evocations of communions with books, such as the pleasing power of libraries, the comfort of reliable Puffin Books, the experience of reading "faster than my understanding had grown" and the inevitable moment when a young reader reaches the "saturation point" and must move beyond children's books. Moments of literary discovery (even for "one-handed" reading of porn) are offered concisely. Readers will luxuriate in the memories of being consumed by books and the ways in which Spufford shows his developing talent as a reader.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

"I need fiction. I'm an addict," confesses Spufford, a British journalist and critic. Few will dispute the sincerity of this confession after following this autobiographical journey of an obsessive reading life, which Spufford began as an escape from the envy and pity he felt toward his seriously ill younger sister. To Spufford, reading is a way of balancing the real-world experience of incident with a controlled, or "piped," experience and is the force that shaped his values, imagination, self-understanding, and personality. With humor and passion, he chronicles reading experiences and the impact of books by authors such as William Mayne, Peter Dickinson, Alan Garner, Jill Paton Walsh, Kenneth Grahame, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Jane Austen. Spufford connects his personal development through reading with research and theories in child development, cognitive psychology, language development, and literary criticism. This is a boldly honest, enlightened, and enlightening testimony of the power of reading that all librarians and other educators should read. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.
Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, NJ
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Picador (December 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312421842
• ISBN-13: 978-0312421847
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #82,515 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-written, well thought out review of childhood reading, August 5, 2003

By	Andrew J. Platt (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading (Hardcover)

For me, a 34 year old British guy, one of the most interesting parts was seeing just how my childhood reading overlapped with Francis Spufford's. His re-reading has spurred me on to do the same and I'm enjoying taking a fresh look at my old favorites.

This is not a light-hearted read, though. This is a fairly academic exercise, picking the books he read as a child and really analyzing them as to how they affected his development. Do not expect a romp through the books, expect a detailed, studied analysis.

The writing, though, is beautiful. Francis knows how to read well and how to write better! Mingling a little bit of autobiography, Francis breaks the books down into various categories. Some, like the Narnia chronicles, get full chapters to themselves. Some, like the Swallows & Amazons tales, get mentioned in passing.

If you are at all interested in how childhood books affect our adulthood, read this book. At the very least, it might inspire you to embark of the same odyssey.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best books about reading as a child I've read, February 11, 2003

By	A. Craig "Amanda Craig" (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading (Hardcover)

This is a book I wish I'd written myself, and anyone who loves children's fiction or who wants their child to read should buy it. Spufford's loves - Narnia, The Little House on the Prairie, Ursula le Guin etc will be shared by many, but few will describe so beautifully the feeling of learning to read The Hobbit, or of the way books act as "mood altering substances". The essays on individual authors are excellent, but his evocation of a chilhood sheltered by books while his sister was slowly dying of kidney illness, and how his reading changed as he grew up and out of paradise is one that will strike a chord with many.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Childhood reading: both journey and destination, July 25, 2006

By	J. Cameron-Smith "Expect the Unexpected" (ACT, Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I read this book in 2003, the year after it was first published.

While I read some of the same books as Francis Spufford, my real interest in this book was in discovering someone else for whom reading was such an important part of growing up.

Reading can be such a solitary pursuit, especially where it is an escape route, that why we read what we read is sometimes not much discussed. The adult level analysis that Francis Spufford applies to his childhood reading will appeal to some more than others. I enjoyed it because I like the idea of revisiting some of the journeys of childhood and trying to identify some of the influences on the adult I now am.

I bought this book in hardcover because I know it is a book I want to keep, to refer back to, and perhaps to share.

Highly recommended to all who read.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith