Reading.
We were encouraged to read from a young age. My grandmother had a bookshelf with children's books in the hallway of her house. We read most of these books over and over. My mother also frequently bought us books, as she was a librarian. As such we grew up as young readers.
When we were a bit older, in late primary school, we started reading Westerns and Adventure Novels. There were two second hand bookshops where we used to go and buy books. The one was near our house; the other was in Menlo Park near my grandmother's house. The second hand books were quite cheap, and we read and collected many of them. Among our favorites at that time was Louis L' Amour, Wilbur Smith and Geoffrey Jenkins. We had large collections of these authors' books. (I had a large collection of toy soldiers, as well as many books about the Second World War. It was my main hobby at the time. I also played war board games.)
I myself was into comics in a big way at the time. I had a huge collection of Marvel Superhero Comics, as well as the old War Picture Library books. We read Mad Magazine, Astrix and Oblix, Tin Tin, Lucky Luke, Dick Tracey, Andy Capp, Peanuts, Archie Comics, and Marvel children's commix such as Hotstuff etc., and many other comics.
I read a lot in Afrikaans as well. At school we read such well known South African authors as Herman Charles Bosman and Dalleen Mathee. After school I started reading literature aimed at more mature readers. I read 'The World According to Garp' and 'The Water Method Man' when I was in the army. I also read quite a bit of Shakespeare, and well know poets such as Edgar Allen Poe, and the classical poets. A few years later I discovered E.E. Cummings and grew very fond of his poetry.
In East London there was a second hand bookshop near my work. I bought books there at the end of each working week. Among the books I bought was a collection of short stories by Guy D'Maussuapant. I bought and read '1984' by George Orwell, and a good science fiction book by an unknown author, 'The Second Son' and the complete Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings'.
Over the next few years I read a lot. Among the books that I read were 'The War of the Worlds' and 'The Holy Terror' by HG Wells, 'The Chronicles of Narnia' by CS Lewis, and the two 'Alice' books by Lewis Carroll.
Here is a list of some of the books and authors I read during this time:
Atlas shrugged ' Ann Ryan, The Naked and the Dead ' Norman Mailer, several John Steinbeck books, several Douglas Adams books, 'The lord of the flies' and 'the inheritors' by William Golding, 'Tombstone' by Walter Noble Burns, 'Papillon' by Henri Charriere (read twice), a book of Roald Dahl short stories, 'Catch 22', 'The old man and the sea' by Earnest Hemmingway, Edgar Allen Poe mystery stories, several Sherlock Homes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 'Tom Brown's school days', 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens, various well know science-fiction authors such as Asimov and Ray Bradbury.
I read a few books while studying, but did not enjoy many of them. A few that were quite good was 'The hours' by Michael Cummingham (I think), 'Mrs. Dalloway' by Virginia Woolfe and 'Le Morte D'Arthur' by Sir Thomas Mallory. I also still enjoy my poetry and Shakespeare, but do not read much nowadays. Now I prefer to write myself.
The End.
JP Brown - 29/09/2006.
