The Child that Books Built - Tapa blanda

"Exhilarating. . .It's a brilliant book, beautifully written, its insights hard-earned, filled with stuff that will make you understand a whole lot better your own life in reading." --"The New York Times Book Review" "Ambitious. . .His enthusiasm for this material is often charming. . .Spufford is at his best recalling his bookish discoveries." --"Newsday "(New York) "Francis Spufford lures us in to reveal the original power of books--as landscapes, as spurs to inwardness, as the very crucibles in which the self is formed. He is the addict's unrepentant confession, poignant, witty, and true in the way that every real reader will recognize instantly." --Sven Birkerts, author of "The Gutenberg Elegies"

Children's books - from Narnia to The Hobbit - are celebrated in this enlightened examination of the joys of childhood reading. Fairy tales and Where the Wild Things Are, The Lord of the Rings and the Narnia books, Little House on the Prairie and The Earthsea Trilogy. What would you find if you went back and re-read your favourite books from childhood? Francis Spufford discovers both delight and sadness, in this widely celebrated memoir of a boy who retreats into books, faced with a tragedy in his family. 'A beautifully composed and wholly original memoir, sounding the classics of children's literature.' David Sexton, Evening Standard 'Exuberant and serious, funny and sophisticated, this memoir of reading and childhood is a delight.' Andrea Ashworth