The invention of the Internet (thanks, Al Gore!) has changed my book-buying life. Once I figured out (and since I’m a Luddite it was relatively recently – my dad was way ahead of the curve on this one, as a book collector) that you could scan Amazon and other book sellers for out-of-print and hard-to-find books, through all of the used bookstores that also sell on Amazon … well. My life has become a Trixie Belden novel, tracking down the books I once loved and ordering them. I’m a collector, too. I need to OWN these things. Which is why my bookshelf situation is so dire right now, but hey, some people collect cars, others collect shoes … I collect books.
There are times when I’m bored and I’ll suddenly start to think: “Okay, okay … so what else … what ELSE haven’t I found …” and I’ll scan my memory as a child. Some pretty amazing books have emerged from my mind in this manner. Suddenly I’ll remember – “Holy shit – Sarah and Katie – I LOVED that book!” With a couple of clicks through Amazon, and I find that SOMEONE is selling it. Amazing! Five days later, I have a battered paperback in my hand of a book I once adored, and barely remember.
Some of the books I have found:
Into the Dream
The summer sleigh ride,
When the Sky is Like Lace
The mystery of Lonesome Manor
Louly
Luvvy and the Girls.
The aforementioned Sarah and Katie.
NOW.
There is one book I remember from my childhood, and I cannot remember the title, the author, or anything about it. I think there were illustrations, but I can’t be sure. I believe, too, that I read other books by this same author. I can even see where it was at my local library, what shelf it was on … but I can’t remember, alphabetically, what that shelf was. I think it might have been early on in the alphabet … like F or G … but again, I can’t be sure.
Maybe this will sound familiar to someone out there.
It tells the story of a wacky British family who all live in the same “townhouse” in London. There’s a mother, father, some kids, and crazy relatives – all there together. When the book opens it is raining. Not such a big deal in England, but this rain just won’t stop. It rains so much that the “townhouse” – with the entire wacky British family inside – lifts up from its foundation and floats off down the street. The “townhouse” ends up in the South Pacific … and they have many adventures along the way, and I believe cannibals are involved at one point, as well as a desert island, and other craziness. I remember the book being very funny, with great characters – and the father being all proper and flustered, as his damn house floated away.
I have looked and looked for this book, but without a title or an author, I’m stuck. I have Googled crazy things like “children’s book, British house, floating away …” and come up with nada.
That’s the main book I’d love to find right now.
Until another one comes up from out of the memory bank, and I focus on THAT.
I WILL find this book. I thought I would never find When the Sky is Like Lace, and the journey of remembering that book and finally owning that book was a years-long affair. I have patience. All of this may seem rather pathetic, but gimme a break. I only have a duck and five books, what more do you want from me.
But I do wonder if any of the voracious readers out there remember such a book.
Sheila, was it The House that Sailed Away?
http://www.amazon.com/House-That-Sailed-Away/dp/1840020970
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YES!
And oh my God, I was right – it is a mid-alphabet last name –
Buying it right now!!!!!
Duh – obviously I didnt Google the most obvious phrase of all: “The House That Sailed Away” … I’m so excited – thank you, A!!!
You’re welcome! Now you have a duck and six books.
HAHAHAHAHA
I found one of my lost treasures the other day on Amazon. I knew it was from 78 or 79, because I was in junior high when I read it, and I remembered that it was a collection of short stories and one of them was titled “Chocolate Pudding.” You’d think that’d be easy to find but nooooooo. I Googled and Googled, but there’s another children’s book titled “Chocolate Pudding” and I didn’t have the patience to go through thousands of hits.
So one day I Googled something like “chocolate pudding” “short stories” and “late 70s” and I FOUND IT.
http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Bill-Remember-Norma-Mazer/dp/0440917492
It’s called “Dear Bill, Remember me?” by Norma Mazer and I ordered it immediately. It came in the mail on a Saturday and I locked myself in the bedroom and devoured it. Wow, YA books were a lot different then. This one was DEEP, and I’m not sure my mom would’ve let me read it had she known what was in it.
Lisa – yay, I am so glad you found it!! I have been doing the same thing – trying different combinations in Google to get what I need … It’s weird to go back and read these treasures from the past.
I have to say – for the most part, they hold up. I haven’t read much from my youth where I think, ‘Wow. That was trash.”
Okay, Flowers in the Attic – but that was TOTALLY the exception. Everything else really holds up.
Did I send you The Velvet Room? I know you and Cash read The Egypt Game, but you really would like The Velvet Room too.
I remember the first time I read Flowers in the Attic, the whole ickiness went right over my head. It was when my friends read it and started talking about it that I went, “WHO THE WHAT NOW?!”
There are a couple of books from my childhood that I wish I could find again. One I think might be a John Bellairs novel, but I have no idea which one. I do remember that I found it creepy as hell, especially the illustrations. The other is something from when I was five or six years old – a picture book about two dogs fighting over a bone. They ask various people for opinions on who the bone actually belongs to (including a hairdresser that gives them haircuts)until a bigger dog steals it from them. The illustrations were really flat and solid, like cutouts or shadows, and I just loved them. I haven’t got a clue what it’s called.
Yay! This is so exciting. I absolutely love finding books from childhood. Since I don’t have the money to buy every book I want right now, I have to content myself with making a list so that I don’t forget any of them.
And I have found that most of my favorites have stood the test of time.
“Sheila, was it The House that Sailed Away?”
“YES!”
Hahaha…Bam, right off the bat. I love that.
There is also a site out there called Stump the Bookseller where people can post descriptions of “forgotten” books in the hopes that someone else will recognize them.
Thanks to this site (no, I didn’t even have to post on it) I re-found “No Flying in the House,” one of the FIRST “chapter books” I ever read, which I had remembered fondly for YEARS (I read it at about 6 and didn’t re-find it until I was 24 or so). I went out and bought a copy after finding it out.
There’s something so wonderfully comforting about re-finding a book you loved in the past!
How cool!
The only thing I remember about a book from my childhood that I want to re-read is that there was a chapter called “Otto the wrecker” I think.
Somehow Otto (sp?) and a girl who is the main character “run away” or go on some kind of adventure together as kids.
For one of my birthdays my wife found me an old, out-of-print Christmas storybook called “The Christmas Whale,” by Roger Duvoisin. (I may not have the last name correct.) It is a wonderful feeling! Now I’ve got to recover my beloved “Half-Magic,” a YA page-turner about four children who find an ancient talisman that grants wishes, but only in halves.
I LOVE that you got your answer in the first comment. Before I even clicked through I knew someone would have it for you.
ricki – I think I remember that No Flying in the House conversation. How did the book hold up??
I find that I actually had pretty good taste as a kid – these are all books I have read again, and really enjoyed!
And Stump the Bookseller – wow, I am bookmarking that now. Great idea.
I am pretty sure I remember Into the Dream… I think I had an “apple paperback” edition which I considered to be a mark of a book I might like! I love Carol Ryrie Brink –you’ve inspired me to blog about her. And this book you’ve just found after some other comments… well, I think I have to read this one! It sounds like a hoot. Then as I’m browsing blogs through google reader I run across a We Heart Books post that actually mentions this book: The House That Sailed Away by Pat Hutchins. How wild is that? It must be fate! Here’s the link to their post: http://weheartbooks.com/2009/03/09/when-we-were-little-17/
That is really fascinating that you had the positional memory of where the book was on the shelf at the library!
I am just so happy reading this post and the comments–there is something incredibly enjoyable about seeing someone reunited with a beloved book. This is what I do at the library for patrons and in the bookstore for customers–find books. I love it.
Last weekend, there was a used children’s/YA book sale at the library, and some of the books in the sale were incredible blasts-from-the-past. Some obviously had been in someone’s house or basement for a long time–and there they were, being sold for a quarter or fifty cents. I got a near-pristine copy of “Speak” with dust jacket.
If there are any titles anyone wants me to look out for. . .
Hi Sheila! Wow I just “met” you by coming across your blog reading up on Teahupoo (and Laird Hamilton).. anyway looks like you’re a very very intelligent woman and that fascinates me.. You may see me around (on the blog, not stalking you!) so gimme a halla some time! :D