This weeks Listography from Kate at Kate Takes 5 is a real admission of taste - the 1st 5 Albums I ever owned. Here goes and I can already hear you sniggering!
Bucks Fizz - Greatest Hits - Released 1983 - I was 7...
Oh Dear! I remember this one vividly. I had a big clunky tape machine and I was off school ill. I laid on my bed all day listening to this as it was actually the only tape I owned at the time. I remember that I really didn't like Jay - the lady, bottom right. Think I thought she was bit up herself and I definitely liked Cheryl Baker best.....
Culture Club - Colour by Numbers - Released 1983
I got this album for my birthday when I was 8 and I didn't just have the ordinary record - I had the picture disk and I loved it - it was one of my prized possessions and I would look at it over and over and also do lots of drawings of Boy George - I loved him, and had no inkling at all that he was gay! I obviously loved Karma Chameleon but loved "Church of the Poison Mind" - the real talent on that song was the female backing singer, Helen Terry.
Madonna - Like a Virgin - Released 1984 - I was 8
I got this on my birthday in December 1984 - I remember it so vividly because that morning before school my mum and dad had, had a row. I wasn't too disturbed by it but I think my Dad felt so bad about it being my birthday and the atmosphere that was created in the house in the morning that when he came home from work he was armed with an 'Our Price' bag with 2 shiny new tapes in it!! I was very excited. I got this and the Wham one below. I have my Dad to thank for me loving Madonna for many years after this. I really was too young at 8 years old to know what I was singing about when droning along to 'Like a Virgin' but I loved it! I loved all the lace, the beauty spot and her style.
Spandau Ballet - The Singles Collection - Released 1985 - I was 10
I don't remember who bought me this, but I still love Spandau Ballet and found the Kemp brothers fascinating and Tony Hadley's voice was so powerful. True, Gold - who can resist singing along to those powerful songs?!
Wham - Make It Big - Released 1984 - I was 8
My final admission is the Wham boys. Again, I had no inkling that George Michael was gay. I also harboured wished that Madonna would get it together with him. I could see no better pop match! I knew that Andrew Ridgely was the nobody in the group. I only had eyes for George. I loved the Last Christmas video with Pepsi and Shirley too, thought it was magical.
And so that brings me to the end of my Listography, I've enjoyed re-living the memories!
Ever since Isla was very little I have always read to her, reading is one of my favourite past times and I very much hope that she follows in my foot steps. I've blogged about the importance of reading on my Library post recently. Reading really does fire up the imagination and I loved becoming immersed in a book especially on winter days. I grew up in the 80's, in the days when TVs in kids bedrooms started becoming popular, but I just didn't want one! I was happy listening to tapes (!) and reading books - does that make me a geek?!
The following 3 books are regularly thumbed in our house, and we never tire of them!
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
We love this book, Isla has had it read to her millions of times practically since birth! The colours are beautiful and when she was really little she just loved putting her fingers in all the holes that the caterpillar made in the food. I like to get her to point out all the things that she recognises - the cakes on the last day of the caterpillars gorge-fest are her current favourite!
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
A really nice lift the flap book that helps babies to recognise animals and it gives me the chance to ad-lib and do all the animal noises. Isla's favourite of my animal impressions is when I pretend to spit like a camel! OK, not very ladylike but it gets a laugh every time!!
Spot's Noisy Night by Eric Hill
Spot goes camping with his friends and they have a very disturbed night what with owl's 'twowittwowooing' and frogs leaping around the tent! This one is so fun and brilliant because throughout the story there are sounds to play and for each of the sounds is a puzzle piece that your child can fit into the pages. This is such a great interactive book and is the latest in a line of Spot books that we own.
The next two books are obviously a bit too advanced for Isla right now, but they are two favourites of mine from when I was a child and I really hope she takes to them like I did. When I was at primary school I had to write book reviews of all the books I read and I've still got the folder up in Mum and Dad's loft! I read so much, I was a book worm, so choosing just these two was a struggle because I could have gone for Ramona and Beezus or Pippi Longstocking and actually all Roald Dahl books hold a special place in my book loving heart, so it was hard to pick one of his.
The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton
This series of books by Enid Blyton are just pure fantasy. I loved Moonface and Silky the fairy. Through the Faraway Tree they showed us magical lands and all manner of creatures. My favourite of all the lands is 'The Land of Take What You Want'
where, as the name suggests, you can take whatever you want for free!
Thinking about this book has made me feel all nostalgic about the Enid Blyton books I used to own, they all had hard covers and the pages felt so good (does that sound weird!?).
I'd love for Isla to get lost in these books imagining that she is visiting all these wonderful places. They are so escapist and can really help you forget about the real world...
The Twits by Roald Dahl
This is one of my favourite Roald Dahl books (along with The Witches, Georges Marvellous Medicine...). The descriptions of Mr and Mrs Twit are fantastic and I always loved how Mr Twit was just so extra disgusting with food in his beard and you could almost smell how unclean they were from the descriptions. They hate children and they torment animals but as is the case in all Roald Dahl's books the mean characters always get their come uppance!
Roald Dahl's books also have the extra benefit that they have gorgeous illustrations by Quentin Blake - something I have blogged about previously here.
One of my things I want to do at some time in the future is go to the Roald Dahl museum, something to save for when Isla is older.
This post is part of the Listography Linky that Kate Takes 5 runs every week. Pop over to her blog to see her book suggestions and also a whole host of others!
