Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Childhood books that changed your life

When I was a young boy I had an Insatiable appetite for reading, anything from the encyclopedia to sci-fi. I can't think of any that "Changed" my life but there where many that influenced it one way of another.

Still to this day I can remember that The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov was some of my favorites. when the TRS80 came along books went to the wayside, then came girls and the IBM PC.

The encyclopedia's were twenty-some year old hand-me-downs. I remember when my parents brought them home. They were exalted and lived on a green shelf adjacent to the wall where our heights were recorded. Many of the maps were about useless with all the 20th Century's geopolitical unrest. I couldn't imagine growing up with the internet. That said, I miss real academic libraries, which there's still no widely available alternative to.

Did you have a strange desire to run away from home and try to live off eating algae?

Too bad they had to make the hunters the bad guys in it.

That's interesting. My daughter was in the same program and she won the award for her grade school for reading the most books and she is still a voracious reader today, but I can also see how it could turn a kid off. They need to learn to love reading for its own intrinsic worth.

A few others I enjoyed: Old Yeller, Savage Sam, Bob, Son of Battle, Silver Chief, Call of the Wild, Where the Red Fern Grows, Tom Sawyer (which is now banned in many schools). I always looked forward to Boys Life coming in the mail and all the gun mags....Sports Afield, Field and Stream, Outdoor Life.

Constant. 'Cept the algae part.

I lost a weekend call in trivia contest because apparently.....the flag of Vietnam had changed since our encyclopedias were published in the 50's.

Sounds like my kind of pal.

The first books I remember reading as a kid were the Time Life Series about cowboys, gunfighters, indian chiefs, railroads, etc. that my grandparents had.

Paddle to the Sea

It was a fairly life changing event.

That'll taint you for sure.

Well....I had a fairly steady tobacco habit by then.

Das Kapital and Mein Kampf for me.

But Where the Red Fern Grows was the first one that came to mind. I wonder if that's been banned from schools cause it uses the word "coon" a lot and undermines the notion of white privilege.

These days, I tend to read books that I should have paid attention to in school, like the Federalist Papers. I couldn't get through that stuff as a kid, it seemed so boring and obtuse, but between the Federalist and AntiFederalist Papers, you can pretty much see how we were supposed to be as a country and how far we've strayed.

I am an avid reader to this day and it all started when I read "The Call Of The Wild", up until then I only read because I had to, but this one time in the school library the librarian made us all pick out a book, I picked up Call of the Wild because I liked the cover art. She noticed I wasn't really reading it so she came over and made me start reading to her. I've been hooked on reading ever since! I was 8 years old.....

Slaughterhouse-Five. My mom was a hardcore bookworm, and was constantly pushing my reading level. I don’t recall understanding any of it, but I was hooked.

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile and Flat Stanley had significant impact as well.

1. Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls
2. The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
3. The Hunting Rifle - Jack O'Connor
4. See Jane Strip - unknown




GR

That was the one for me also. A perfect example of how anything can be accomplished with the right mindset - a great life lesson in a kids book. The lesson has stuck with me to this day - that and my mother's saying "can't never did anything".

drover

When i was young and staying on Grandads farm without plumbing, Sears Roebuck.

Had some nice pics too.

'True meaning' of Watership Down revealed ahead of TV revival


Readers thought story was cryptic allegory, but its creator was firm: ‘It’s just a story about rabbits’

The new version of Watership Down. The original book’s author Richard Adams came up with the story to keep his daughters happy on a long car journey. Photograph: BBC

Mark Brown Arts correspondent

Mon 10 Dec 2018 01.00 EST

Last modified on Wed 1 Jul 2020 12.49 EDT


It has been endlessly picked apart and analysed and described as an allegory for both communism and Christianity but the daughters of Richard Adams have revealed the true meaning of Watership Down. “It’s just a story about rabbits.”

Rosamond and Juliet, to whom the story was first told to keep them quiet in the car, have spoken ahead of a two-part animation to be shown on BBC1 over Christmas.

The 1978 animated version of Watership Down holds a particular place in the cultural psyche of an entire generation. Everyone remembers the hopelessly sentimental Art Garfunkel theme song. Many will never forget the trauma of witnessing big-eyed bunny rabbits being mercilessly and bloodily slain.

In an interview published in the Radio Times Christmas edition, Adams’s daughters explain how the book, first published when their father was a civil servant in his mid-50s, came into being.

They also address the multiple theories about the true message of Watership Down. “Honestly, the stuff we got through the post from fans about what they think the book is about,” said Rosamond.

Richard Adams pictured in 1974 holding a pet mouse. Photograph: Express/Getty Images

“‘Is Woundwort an allegory of Stalin?’ ‘Is Hazel Jesus Christ?’ It shows that people really connect with the story, they really think hard about it, but it cut no ice with Dad. ‘Rubbish!’ he always said. ‘It’s just a story about rabbits.’”

They recall being six and eight in the mid-60s and on a long car journey to the theatre from London to Stratford-upon-Avon. They pestered their dad for a story and then came: “Once upon a time there were two rabbits called Hazel and Fiver …”

Persuaded by his daughters to put pen to paper, Adams’s book was published in 1972 and won the Carnegie medal and the Guardian children’s book prize.

The 1978 animation, featuring the voices of John Hurt and Richard Briers, was scarringly graphic.

Rightly so, said the daughters. “Daddy didn’t like the way people babied, and pandered to and ‘icky-ised’ children, lying to them about death and so on,” said Juliet. “We’re destroying the environment and endangering all the animals – I think it would be strange to ignore that.”

Producers have suggested the new version, a BBC/Netflix co-production, will be less violent. There will also be more comedy and more prominent female characters.

Nicholas Hoult, who voices Fiver, has predicted people will watch it and cry. “I remember me and (director) Noam (Murro) both crying when we were doing the last scene. We were both hugging as we were crying. I did the take probably 450 times and I cried every single time. I defy anyone not to cry.”

Other voices include Gemma Arterton, Anne-Marie Duff, John Boyega, James McAvoy and Olivia Colman. Sam Smith has recorded a song called Fire On Fire with the BBC Concert Orchestra. The programme will be shown on Saturday 22 December and Sunday 23 December.