Bookworm a memoir of childhood reading

Our Review

Bookworm: A memoir of childhood reading by Lucy Mangan was a must read for me as soon as I read the description. Why would a bookworm not want to read a book about books and being a bookworm?

Lucy Mangan begins the book by telling the author she still has all her childhood books and that she loves them all because they made me who I am.

She talks about her sister saying that was a friendless child but she counters who needed flesh-and-blood friends when I had Jo March, Charlotte, Wilbur and everyone at Mallory Towers at my beck and call?

I loved the mention of Mallory Towers because it brought back to me my own love of that series and a memory of upsetting my mum by asking her why I couldn’t go and live in a boarding school like the characters in the book.

Lucy Mangan explains, I read because I loved it. I read wherever I could, whenever I could, for as long as I could.

She talks about her lack of interest in baby bouncers and the like and her explanation is one of my favourite quotes from the book:

“I think the explanation lies in the fact that I wasn’t really a baby. I was a bookworm, life doesn’t really begin until you get hold of your first book, until then – well, you’re just waiting really.”

Bookworm: A memoir of childhood reading added to my own list of books I want to read as well as reminding me of some of the classics I enjoyed reading as a child. I have vague memories of reading both The Hungry Caterpillar and Spot The Dog. Like Lucy books by Enid Blyton formed a large part of my childhood reading, although other than the Mallory Towers books I preferred the like of The Tower in Ho-Ho Wood.

One of the other things I found I shared with Lucy was that as a child one of the things I loved the most about reading was the joy of discovering new words and their meaning.

Her description of trying to narrow down her choice of library book was familiar to me as well, not just in a library but anytime I had to choose a book to take home with me. Many times, my dad would give in out of frustration and let me make an extra choice just so we could go home.

My favourite quote from the Bookworm: a memoir of childhood reading describes a process that often happens to me still whenever I read and probably frustrates those around me as it frustrated Lucy’s mother.

“I never deliberately ignored her calls to come to lunch or dinner or to start cleaning my teeth and get ready for bed. Like every bookworm before and since, I simply and genuinely didn’t hear them.”

This book is a must read for any bookworm and for anyone wanting to build a library for their own child but aren’t sure where to start.

Our Final Rating...

Mon, 26th February 2018