The following is something I wrote... this time last year actually. I remember being outraged when I realised that the sequals were being written, but now, thinking back, it's more a sign of respect. But rewriting them... ah that still riles me, and I realise this is more fitting on this blog than over at bells and genes. So here it is.

This is how I felt

It has recently come to my attention that someone has written sequels to Enid Blyton's Mallory Towers. I remember reading, and loving those six stories about Darrell Rivers and her class and the books end as she and her friends go off to university. (St. Andrews. Oh the implicit money...) So what were the six new books? Turns out they follow Felicity, her sister and their class. I can't help but think that there is something wrong there, that the next generation of children will be thinking of the 12 books in the Mallory Towers series.

I genuinly don't think that books like Enid Blyton's, or Elinor M Brent Dyer's should be changed just because it is seen as politically incorrect or it is too hard for children today to understand the grammar and language of  sixty/seventy years ago. It is too hard for children today to understand the grammar of sixty or seventy years ago because they aren't given the chance to try.

I know that some of the books I read and loved as a child were changed, even then from how they were  originally written and that saddens me too. There is always something that rings a little bit false, that jars with the spirit of the text. There is always some sub-text, some shadow of meaning that is lost in these attempts to make the book current, and nothing makes me want to stop reading the books more than that. So I have decided that I want any children I may have in the future to be able to read the books as the author wanted them to be read, not as some interfering busy-body twenty years down the line thinks they should be read. To this aim, I have decided to start collecting the old stories I used to read, as close to the original script as possible. I am fully aware that this is probably going to be a monumentally hard undertaking, because in most cases the original scripts are going to be out of print.

I have already made a start with, yes, Enid Blyton's Mallory Towers and Famous Five, as well as Elinor M Brent Dyer's The Chalet School (all 60 odd of them... horrors!) because if I leave it until I do have children (being at university now, it is far to early) it will be far to late.

Eventually I shall move onto the books by people like Tamora Pierce, Diana Wynne Jones and Diane Duane, all authors I loved, and to be honest still do. I am quite happy to curl up on a rainy afternoon with a cup of tea and a stack of the books I used to read ten years ago.

Some people comfort eat. I comfort read and well, I don't want my food to be contaminated. So I will collect the books I love and keep them safe so others can read them in the spirit they were written.

:::Edit::: 
D. Duane is releasing New Millennium editions to bring her Young Wizard books into one timeline, instead of the main characters growing about 3 years in roughly 30. So You Want To Be A Wizard was only Duane's second book. (You can read about my love of these books  here ) But that's ok, because she's doing it herself (and possibly adding more content o.0). So the spirit of the books won't be lost.

Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire - Mistborn Book One

I promised this a week ago. But it's here.

And the cover art is amazing too

Brandon Sanderson's first book of The Mistborn is amazing. It had one of the most original and plausible magic systems I've ever encountered. The magic is based on different metals, with different effects. the metal 'burn' for a certain amount of time and then they are finished. You need to expend some energy to get some energy. I can't wait to buy the next two in the series. It's a good thing they're completed.

Set in the final empire - a barren, ash-filled world of overlords and underlings, with a hereditary magic passed through the noble line. The story focuses on a half peasant, half noble street thief who has inherited some 'mistborn' magic and has been using it intuitively as a good luck charm for her crew. She is found by a man in charge of a group of magical gentlemen thieves who have the cooked up the plot of the century: Overthrowing the evil overlord who has ruled for a thousand years.

This is an amazing book and the other two look as promising. Brandon Sanderson Started the trilogy after wondering about what would happen if the bad guys won, and he has pulled it off spectactularly.


::EDIT::
I thought I pressed the publish button three days ago. Turns out I didn't. Sorry!

What books mean to me - part 1

I read an awful lot. It wasn't always like that. There was a time where I refused - absolutly refused - to read anything but Enid Blyton's Famous Five. And then, one day in Eastbourne Central Library's most excellent children's section, with their seasonal displays of Sylvanian Family in the glass fronted issue desk, my dad said something along the lines of  "For goodness sake Hanna. Try something new." 

So I did. I tried Enid Blyton's Secret Seven, which I didn't like, and Enid Blyton's Adventure series, which I did like. And my dad sighed and no doubt thought he'd take the smaller victory. Wise man that he is. I doubt he even remembers that Saturday now.

That was the start though. I tried those, someone introduced me to Arthur Ransom's Swallows and Amazons, and the rest of the books in that series, Noel Streatfeild, Jenny Oldfield's horse stories and more. I started reading at every spare moment I had, and my dad, and my uncle did - do - the same.

And then one day I ran out of stuff to read whilst visiting my uncle, and he gave me Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong, and I loved it. And I realised how much I loved the genre. And I still do. I consumed everything else of hers that I could get my hands on. After that I moved onto people McCaffrey had collaborated with. Mercedes Lackey, Jodie Lynn Nye, Elizabeth Moon and that moved me on to people like David Webber, Diane Duane...

I would say that now, about 60% - 80% of the books I read are science fiction or fantasy. There are a lot of other writers I also read, in a lot of other genres. I have books I read because the are a good story. They're well written and I engage with the characters so I'll read them.

I started this post with the intention of talking about what the books mean to me, why I read and have read. This post would be better entitled what I read and how I go there. I'll have to write another post on what I was actually going to write.

I want...

...Neil Gaiman's Library:

http://blog.shelfari.com/my_weblog/2009/09/neil.html

My mouth is watering a little.

Ok. A lot. Have a look at the HD photos and see the individual titles.