When did you first experience 'book escapism' and do you have a three chapter rule?

So you lived in Hong Kong for some time? How long were you there and what were you doing?

I don't really watch anime much anymore - I do still enjoy them so if I get a good recommendation I'll gladly watch one, but I don't keep up with what's good or what's new etc. Anime's got a huge cult following online though, right? In England it's more of an alternative cult thing, and in the Czech Republic people are even crazier where they go to the point of learning Japanese and conversing in the language whilst watching anime in their čajovna (tea houses).

Ah, adjusting to social circles. I just don't really talk about it amongst my friends. Nobody was ever interested in anything I loved growing up - I was the odd one out I didn't realise how important it was for me to be able to share all these little trivial things and for the people I love to take an interest until I met my husband, who thankfully loves Chinese food and enjoys watching anime too he'd never heard of anime till I introduced him lol.

 

I was in HK until I was 13 or so. What was I doing? lol Being an awkward child I guess . What sort of fiction are you into? There's lots of darker ones I can recommend, but I enjoy stuff like that.

 

Japanese stuff in general can be very dark - right now being pregnant, I'm avoiding the dark stuff, but I used to be a huge fan of those I stopped watching Fullmetal Alchemist after 4 episodes cus it got too much for me. Fiction-wise - I'll watch/read almost anything. I like drama, romance, fantasy, crime, mystery, thriller. The only thing I don't do is horror You?

You were in HK till you were 13? So you were there from birth? Speak any Cantonese? I'm always looking for someone to practice with cus mine's really rusty, cus I only get to use it with my parents really. Gonna try and teach the kid Canto too but God only knows how I'll manage! We're visiting HK in Nov actually so granddad can meet all his great-grandchildren! (my first, and my sister's 2 boys)

 

lol The 4th episode of FMA. If I remember correctly, that's the infamous chimera episode. That's... pretty freaking dark. I remember watching it with a group of friends and a few of them thought it would be a feel-good story. It was not .

I like most genres too. The only ones I don't do are horror and apocalyptic movies. You know, The Day after Tomorrow and so on. I just don't see the appeal.

And yes, I speak canto! I can read Chinese well enough too. I grew up on those martial art novels. I think it's always hard to teach second or third generation immigrants their so-called native language. It's hard when their friends don't speak it. They don't get immersed in the slang and the jokes. It's hard for it to be cool for them. A few trips back to HK could fix that though

 

I read a lot as a kid so I can vaguely remeber novels that really made an impact, but the one that always comes to mind as "the first and the best" is René Guillot's "Crin-Blanc". This book is a mandatory read in Serbian elementary schools.
Also, I was a great fan of Enid Blyton's "Famous Five" and "Secret Seven" series.
I also gladly remember Edward Eager's "Half Magic" and a scary"Bella" by Anne Syfret.

 

Oh, how could I forget "Pippi Longstocking" by Astrid Lindgren? I absolutely adored that book.

 

Oh, oh, oh, and Mark Twain's "The adventures of Tom Sawyer" and Johanna Spyri's "Heidi". They keep popping out!

 

Hard to know when I first experienced escapism.
Books which were particularly impactful for me include The Hobbit, Phantom Tolbooth, and A Wizard of Earthsea.

 

Yup, particularly the images of shape-shifting humans. I was fascinated by this too when I was a kid but somehow, as I'm getting
older, I view this as alarming for some reason.

 

I don't even give a book three chapters. That's too long to wait for the author to do her job. And I'll put the book aside at any point during my reading.

 

1) Me neither.
2) Totally agreed.
3) So will I.

 

To answer the question as to first time for escapism... that I can still remember, it's probably The Humans of Ziax II / The Drought on Ziax II by John Morressy, published as a tête-bêche by Scholastic Book Services. Any Americans who were school aged in the 70's should remember the little pamphlet from which you could order these books once a year. I loved them! Anyway, I still have the very copy that I remember getting so eagerly in class as a wee lad. This was followed by Stranger from the Depths by Gerry Turner, also published and ordered through Scholastic Book Services. From there I jumped to the big leagues and tackled Frank Herbert's DUNE. Like a drug that book was for me. Intoxicating.

 

Please don't laugh, but someone found some Enid Blyton books in their attic and gave them to me read. I think it was the 'Secret Seven' books where I completely lost myself in the childrens' adventures. Then there was Swallows and Amazons and Winnie the Pooh.

They were so different to the books the children read now.

 

Enid Blyton rules!

 

Neither do I. On occasions I've not even given the book one chapter. It's not always the writing it's the way the story is told. Is there a hook to keep my interest to read the next chapter and the next etc... I have read a few books where I've been more interested in the style of writing, narrative etc than the story itself . Almost clinical textbook writing without a soul.

 

I don't remember the title of the book. It was a small paperback with what was for then (1970s) realistic pictures of dinosaurs, with names and descriptions. I got lost, pouring over the pages again and again, imagining the big brutes wandering through jungles and grasslands. I can still see the ankylosaurus, with its golden-brown coloration, plated armor and horny spikes and club tail. That led to me reading The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...okay, I got the book from the library and could read only a smattering of the words...I was in first or second grade. But it was 'big person's' book about dinosaurs.

I don't have a page or chapter rule, but I am pretty selective before I pick up a book to read. As with many, I have limited time to read, and no time to 'waste' on a book that I don't find interesting and/or entertaining.

 

The first book that got me into reading was definitely Harry Potter.

But, the first book that made realize how much I loved books was Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. The protagonist comes from a family who cherishes books. The way she talks about books and reading was beautiful. It changed the way I look at books. Instead of carelessly folding pages and leaving books all over my room, I keep them safe on my shelf and never fold over pages or bend them too much. I still have my first copy of this book and I protect it with my life.

To be honest, Inkheart was the book that made me want to be a writer.

In regards to the three chapter rule, no. I am prone to starting a book, getting to the middle, and stopping. If a book gets boring halfway through, I have a hard time finishing. There are a good number of books with bookmarks stuck in the middle left on my shelves.

 

When I was in elementary school. Books like Philip Pullmans His Dark Materials, a slew of pony books, and Harry Potter. I identified with the characters more strongly than with the cast of The Lord of The Rings, so I'd consider those more espacistey for myself. The pony books were total fluff, but they offered an alternative reality where horse stables were full of intrigue and romance, something real-life horse stables unfortunately seem to lack.

 

Ranger's Apprentice. Without spoiling the plot, Will is what I want to be. Not that exactly but I want to be someone looks up too (writing wise).

And as for giving a book a chance, it varies. Sometimes I read them because I have nothing else to read, sometimes, and I find this bad, I don't give a book a chance at all. Fablehaven is a good example.

 

The first book I remember falling into completely was Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock when I was fifteen. A bit late, but I was a late starter.

As for books I haven't finished: Lord of the Rings. Well, technically, I read all the way through The Hobbit and through the first in the trilogy. Half-way through the second one, I just couldn't stand it any longer and stopped reading. I don't connect with fantasy; I don't know why, but I just don't. I really tried with LotR because I thought I was missing out on a phenomenon, but I've moved on now.

Then again, I read several of the Harry Potter books and didn't really connect with those, either, so I didn't finish the series.

 

I'm not sure if it's the first series that I fell in love with, but I remember really getting into the Chronicles of Narnia. I read almost every book overnight respectively.

 

Probably Beverly Cleary's "Ramona" series. I was like, eight, nine? I liked them because they were an actual depiction of how little girls thought and acted. Then, I moved on to her "romance" novels, like Fifteen. That book was really dated, but I still enjoyed it, and read it like five times.

But for book escapism, the 39 clues series. Looking back, yes, the premise is ridiculous and makes no sense, but it was enjoyable! It was probably my first step outside of "sanitized children's fiction" and "comics". (I mean, it was still very sanitized. It just killed off a couple characters here and there.) It probably had a big influence on my writing, too.

 

Yes! Ramona - one of my fave parts was when she lost her new boot in the mud and made herself a slipper of out Kleenex. And The Mouse and the Motorcycle. PPpppppp. Ah, if only all vehicles could run just by making vroom noises.

 

The first book that introduced me to the world of fantasy was The Darren shan Saga and it sounded pretty cool to me. When I remember how gloomy the whole thing was, I have a complicated feeling. I love them and simultaneously am frightened of those harrowing memories of shooting your childhood friend and so on...

 

For me it was Harry Potter without a doubt. Ah I remember the first time I read it, I was in middle school. I finished four of the books within one month! My grades took a dive because of it but I really didn't care! I hardly ever put the books down, from the second I got home from school until late at night when my eyes couldn't possibly stay open one more second. I've read many books before and after harry potter but none, absolutely none have made me feel as Harry Potter did.
As for the three chapter rule, I personally don't have specific rule for this. it depends on the book I'm reading and the format of the story. sometimes I drop a book after only a page but sometimes I stick with it even if at the beginning it might be a little boring and it is usually worth it. there are of course books that grip you from the very first book, sometimes even the very first sentence and you can't put them down until you reach the very last word. these are the great books, those that will never be out-dated, like Harry Potter, like Lord of the Rings.