the good old days...

[schmosef]

Just doing some unpacking and I found a box of old books, most of which I haven't read since middle school.

Ah memories...

The books I enjoyed most when I was younger were "game books". I have a bunch of old "Fighting Fantasy" series, among others. I'm flipping through a book titled, 'Trial of Champions." It was published in '86. There's a picture of a worm monster in here that's remarkably similar to a level boss in Ninja Gaiden, a game published last year. It must be a coincidence; how varied can you get when drawing a worm?

Anyway, my absolute favorite game book series was "Be an Interplanetary Spy".

(It feels like only yesterday that I was nose deep in these books. I don't know how I grew up so fast or where the time went. I guess it's true what they say; youth is wasted on the young.)

Anybody else read these when they were younger? Any nostalgic stories to share?

[Brian Ellis]

When I was a kid, the New Testament was fresh off the press

One of my favourites was "Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa" by Paul B du Chaillu, a Belgian explorer with a rather vivid turn of mind, largely discredited by the scientific community. Actually, he did contribute a lot to scientific knowledge of both flora and fauna of tropical W. Africa. His downfall was the "nshiego mbouvé", which he described as a very large, white, hairless, bipedal, anthropoid ape, IOW the missing link plus a steaming imagination when it came to his own prowess.

I still have the book and occasionally look at it for fun.

[Fat Tone]

My son is now ploughing through all my Famous Five books, by Enid Blyton. They are rather sexist and the language can be quite amusing (gay and queer meant something quite different back then), but they are a jolly good romp, making me want 'lashings of ginger beer' and wondering where the nearest smugglers cave or secret passage might be

Ah, the memories...

[Brian R.]

I still have my old Tom Swift and Hardy Boys collections

[KRSESQ]

somewhere around here I have a set of "Golden Books Encyclopedias" from 1961. They're what got me started.

Nobody can figure out how I can read an encyclopedia for the pure pleasure of it.

Kevin

[Paddy]

Oohh I loved lashing of ginger beer