h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Because this thread is getting very long I have sub-segmented the library a bit. See new conversations 'folders'. Feel free to add any more categories.

I remember being shocked the first time I read Wild Swans because I suddnely realised that the last part was happening in my lifetime - I think it shows how much we take for granted in this country!

I just wanted to say a quick ta for the info about the RLS book.

AS for Iaian Banks, he has got to be my all time favourite. The Wasp Factory was fantastic and Complicity was great. He's very graphic and times and very thought provoking. I have to say though that I'm not too keen on Banks sci-fi books. I think they are a bit weaker and lacking something.

When my son Alex read Voyage of the dawn treader in the Narnia series he came downstairs and said "you won't believe this, we were standing by a lake and at the bottom of the lake was a gold statue. When the water lapped over our shoes, the tips of our shoes turned to gold." He in his mind was truly standing by the lake.

I have to admit that I've tried to read the Narnia books many times throughout my life but I've never found them to be particularly good. In fact, the are one of the few books I've been so bored with I've not been able to finish. Am I alone in this or does anyone else think they're not all that?

I think it depends how your brain works. My mother personally dislikes them, and she is an infant school teacher. I like them but I have the sort of brain that accepts talking beavers quite readily. It's probably a good thing if we are not all like that!

Well the new Harry Potter book was unveiled at 3.45 pm last week, a great marketing ploy, so children didn't attempt to bunk off school to buy the book which created lots of good publicity. JKRowlings has been on tv a lot talking about her days as an impoverised writer/single parent in grotty one bed flat, just a couple of years ago. So don't resent being forced to buy hardback copy for my son an avid harry potter fan. i have read a bit of the book which does seem to be well styled well for young children. Will give review when he has finished!!

Thought I would give the library a bit of a shake up today!! I have just read all three Harry Potter books. I can seen why children like them, they are unconventional, amusing, exciting. All about Hogwarts school for wizards..every child would live to go to a school like that one!!

I read about three quarters (ooh, four or five years ago? Something like that) and then left it. I think it's still hanging around somewhere with a bookmark in it, waiting for me to return (don't think so - so many books, so little time). It's probably the most boring book I've ever tried to read.

Yup, Harry Potter's a good one, and I'd recommend making sure your kid has all of them... all three so far are good, although I get the feeling that by the end of the series (I think the author's planning for seven altogether), they might be stretched a little thin.

Recommendations for younger readers: The Redwall Series (Brian Jacques), Animal Farm (George Orwell), The Giver (Lois Lowry), Watership Down (Richard Adams), North To Freedom (Annie Holm), The Gammage Cup (Carol Kendall), The Borrowers (I don't remember!), and anything by Shel Silverstein.

If your reader-to-be is more of a visual, some good comics are ElfQuest (but be aware of some sexual content), Tintin, and Asterix.
Whatever you do, get a kid to read. Literacy is the best thing that ever happened to me (well, short of getting slapped by that doctor fifteen years ago and starting to breathe). Get 'em started and they won't stop. Thanks. ~ Lares

Hi - is anyone out there as concerned as me about the attempted ban of Harry Potter books in a US school? Is this the thin end of the wedge - will h2g2 be next??

(This is my first entry in a forum - no-one seems to be visiting my home page, so I thought I'd come out to play.

well you will be mighty pleased to know that To Kill a MockingBird (which i am also a big fan of) just got named number 2 (at least i think it was number 2, it was certainly up there) in the Books of the Century in NZ's largest bookchain (which probably isn't very big by non-kiwi standards but those of us who work there like to delude ourselves).

Lord of the Rings got number 1, and HHGTTG got 15, which surprised me, not because it doesn't deserve (because it most definitely does)but because they actually thought to include it at all. the top fifty books weren't that bad, but the bottom half had some pretty shocking books in it - i mean jilly cooper and danielle steel have their place and i'm not trying to put down people who read those (i've been known to dabble in ms cooper's tomes myself) but they don't belong in a list of the top books of the century. i'm not quite sure who exactly actually picked the list and i can't remember any more off the top of my head, well not in order anyway.

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if you're talking kids books you cannot forget Spike Milligan's classic Badjelly the Witch - essential.

tell you who else is good like that for kids about that age - the alanna books by tamora pierce - i read them years ago and they weren't available for about a decade but we've started to stock them over here again so they must be back on the shelves over your side of the world.

also in response to various threads above
Memoirs of a Geisha is by Arthur Golden
The Joy Luck Club is by Amy Tan (both are fantastic) - if you like these two try Once in a House On Fire by Andrea Ashworth, which is probably the best new book i've read in recent years

The Anne McCaffrey Series Peta was referring to is the Tower and the Hive series - you can start with the Rowan or if you want the background start with Riding Pegasus (?) then Pegasus In Flight first.


Marcus Pfiser (or something like that) writes great (sparkly!) kids books and David Kirk (who you lucky English people can claim and ought by rights to give big warm hugs to everytime you see him) is simply the best children's illustrator in the world. He has written a series of beautiful kids books about a spider - the first one is called Miss Spider's Tea Party and they are just fantastic. But the second one about miss spider getting married is probably a bit scary for little kids.

btw am i in the wrong place? have you all run off to another thread?

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I share your concern, and view the whole thing from a rather peculiar perspective. I have been a school and public librarian for *coff, coff* years. [that's a really long time] I have been a Children's librarian and reviewed childrens books for professional journals. I have also been an enthusiastic reader of fantasy, including the glorious tradition of British children's fantasy for many years. And on top of that--I have been a practicing Wiccan for the last several years. So I see the whole thing in many dimensions.

There have always been efforts to ban books. One of the most important rights in any free society is the freedom of speech and of the press. Historically, countries that ban [and sometimes burn] books are either opressive, or are going through an opressive period in their development. Nazi Germany is one of the best known examples. Unfortunately, the US goes through periods where books are challenged, banned, and even burned. [a community in North Dakota burned Kurt Vonnegut and Mark Twain books, among others, a while back] And of course there was the infamous McCarthy Era where everyone was suspect [of communism].

The American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union have always been at the forefront of defense against such actions. They have also been the leaders in the fight against the 'Communications Decency Act' and other movements would attempt to censor the internet.

For children, their parent should always retain the right to decide what their own child can read. However, another person has no right to decide what MY child can or cannot read. A single group in a community should not be able to suppress books from schools or libraries simply because they are vocal in their protest. I want a variety of things in my schools and libraries and my tax dollars go to pay for the books just as theirs do. They can keep things from their children if they find the ideas objectionable, but I have a right to have them available for MY child.

As far as the 'witchcraft' issue is concerned, the fear is ridiculous. It overlooks the body of children's imaginative fiction in which magic figures strongly. The 'Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe' by CS Lewis is an example of a book containing witchcraft that is highly praised by many Christian groups, plus there are many other children's books that incorporate magic. Magic and witchcraft are an intrinsic part of folklore and legend, as well.

There is a fear in the religious right of the US of the resurgence of interest in the ancient religion of wicca/witchcraft. They fear fanatical groups doing evil to children. These fears are completely groundless. There are probably more 'cults' within Christianity that seek to control their converts in a destructive way, that in the practice of witchcraft today. It is not necessary to name some of the recent tragedies that have resulted from this. There are unscrupulous and fanatical groups in any movement, and certainly children should be protected from them. But the reading of the delightful adventures of Harry Potter is not one of the things that they need to be protected from.

So there.

[steps down from soapbox]
blu
}:=8

PS I think there is going to be an article on Banned Books very soon...

OK, I couldn't control myself.

The article on Banned Books is at
http://www.h2g2.com/A199109

It's very long. It' [mostly] serious. Sorry. Couldn't stop, couldn't help it. I'm a recovering librarian.

Lotsa names of books that have been banned, lotsa links to Intellectual Freedom sites.

FREE HARRY POTTER!!!!

FREE THE BOOKS!!!!!

I liked Complicity a lot more than The Wasp Factory. In fact, I have to admit that I couldn't get through it, which I feel faintly bad about, as it is so acclaimed. I'm glad I didn't read it first (I read Whit first) because I might never have gone on to read any more Iain Banks, and he's one of my favourite authors.

children's books:
I loved the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome
Rather liked Diana Wynee Jones, but they're really hard to get hold of


For adults:
Jean M Auel, Earth's children series :clan of the cave bear, valley of horses, mammoth hunters, plains of passage.
set 20000BC.
wonderfully researched (she spent a couple of years researching each one)
great descriptive passages but also moves along, keeps going rather than slogging it through the descriptions, wonderful character interaction, thought-provoking scenes (about rape, bigotry, racism, religion, cultural misunderstanding) that apply today still. Great. Wonderful. Read them non-stop (and I mean that, didn't sleep for 3 days) the first time I got hold of them.

Love McAffrey too, and Pratchett - death and witches books and good omens.

Anybody reading this, please read Terry Goodkind's books! They are VERY good.

The Giver is a GREAT book. I have read it about 300 times and every time it just gets better! READ IT!!!!!!