Update

Well, I'm back. I'd like to say I feel a lot better after resting for what felt like forever, but I'm still very, very tired. Must be my age ... ;-)

Anyway, I did manage to read quite a bit. Not just comfort reads either, altho I did indulge in Moment of Love and The Family Feeling. I also read a couple of young adult novels that really blew me away (they're called My Heartbeat and Lost and Found and I'm featuring them in Tots to Teens this Sunday); and started Oliver Sacks's Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim by Ziauddin Sardar, and JP Taylor's Wormwood. So far, I'm enjoying Tungsten and Paradise and struggling with Wormwood (I did not like Taylor's Shadowmancer either).

I'm looking forward to this Sunday when a friend is going to pass me some Girlsown-type books. For those who are clueless as to what these are, they are books that are written to appeal particularly to young girls. Therefore, stories about boarding school, ponies and ballet would definitely be Girlsown (of course, no one can really agree on what to include and exclude in this genre). The books I'm being loaned are mainly set in boarding school and I own quite a few myself, most of which are out-of-print, but, owing to their sorry physical state, not at all valuable.

Malory Towers and St Clare's are the two boarding school series that Malaysians are most familiar with, and they are the ones which have remained the most consistently in print. However, they are my least favourite as I find the characters silly, unreal and predictable, ditto for the plot.

Are you a Malory Towers/St Clare's fan? Who is your favourite character? Do you have another boading school series or book that you prefer? Do you know of any men who enjoy boarding school books? Are you one? (My husband likes them!) Do comment or email me about your favourite Girlsown books!

Comments

[Subashini]

i was just cleaning out my bookshelves, and stumbled upon old, old, OLD copies of the malory towers and st.clare's books... i was excited to find them again. back then, for a primary-school kid with not much of a life, they were quite magical. i quite often traipsed around at home pretending it was my very own british boarding-school. it just seemed really fun that all these girls had class picnics out on the beautiful english countryside, held midnight feasts on every birthday, and boxed each other's ears whenever they felt like it.
rereading them again, there were bits i could skip because they were predictable, or because i had already read them 52 times before... but i don't think i'll stop liking those books. they are essential comfort reading. i read them obsessively back then because it portrayed an entirely new world, but not so different that i couldn't see what i had in common with the protagonists of these books. it helped that i attended an all-girls school and was basically your average bookish, studious nerd. i still am, i suppose, just with better hair.

add to that the chalet school series by elinor m.brent-dyer and the trebizon school series by anne digby. (better quality writing than enid blyton, but more "contemporary" in tone... well, late '70s to early '80s, anyway!)

books by noel streatfeild, for sure... then there's "a little princess" and "the secret garden," all the laura ingalls wilder books, the emily series by l.m. montgomery, "little women," and oh my god, all those nancy drew and trixie belden mysteries.

"blue castle" by l.m. montgomery is a book that i read only recently, although i wish i had it by my side when i was 12 and disliked everything about myself. well, it still helps even at 24...

and embarrassed as i am to admit it, i read all those sweet valley twins and high books. i don't know if those are in the "girlsown" category. (interesting term, btw - how did it come about?) i am glad to report that those books did not permanently stunt my mental capabilities - it did help me become a more voracious reader, if possible.

[kwan]

Adding to "Comfort Reads" (I'd prefer to call mine "Indulgent Reads" more like):
Peter Mayle's " A Dog's Life" - Hilarious view of human beings from a dog's perspective. Makes you look at your pet differently. I just love PM's style and wit . This is my favourite of his cos I enjoy his Provence Trilogy too. Maybe his early career in advertising (he was a copywriter who later became a creative director of a top ad agency before quitting to write full time) has something to do with the lateral way he puts things.

Agatha Christie's "Listerdale Mystery and other stories" tops my list of fav ACs. BUT don't think I've ever read Roger Ackroyd. Could you lend it to me if you have it , please?

Antonia Forest's School Stories, all of them! Have read at least 3 times! Plus "Thursday Kidnapping" (hope I remember the name correctly.)

Noel Streatfield's "Shoe" stories (Ballet, Tennis, Theatre, Skating".

Right now, can only think of these. Can I add more when I remember them?