Tuesday, May 17, 2011

I love reading and I love books. Lately though I haven't found anything I can really sink my teeth into so I'm resorting to reading my old Adrian Mole's. Again. I have read Sue Townsend's hilarious Adrian Mole Diaries so many times it's not funny...well, the books are funny...you know what I mean. Poor Adrian. Pimples at thirteen, prostate cancer at forty and a heap of failed romances and other disasters inbetween! Have you read them? If you haven't grab a copy of this


from your local library and get started...let me know what you think... I bet you'll love it.
(the copy you find in your local library might look different to this one...this is a pic of my copy from 1982, the year it was published... picked up from a Garage Sale of course!)

Anyway this post isn't meant to be about Adrian...I've gone off on a bit of a tangent, which is most unlike me. Ha-Ha. My intention is to show you some pics from a pile of beautiful vintage children's books I've found lately...seven lovely old picture books for one dollar!

Have a look at some of them... 

a book of thinly disguised bible stories...
published 1964
Uncle Arthur sounds slightly creepy!

nothing like a bit of gender stereotyping...
one side for boys...
the other for girls
Yay! Vacuuming!

published 1965

the two hungry children came upon a wonderful sight...
watch out kiddies!

from Beauty and the Beast
 it's interesting that this style of illustration is quite fashionable again at the moment, don't you think?

a delightful collection of stories and verses for boys and girls to enjoy...published 1969

this owl would be considered positively de-regueur these days!

published 1976
(the kind of book I read when I was little)

which one are you?

Still on books, here's another pic from Life in Australia

Health studio, Surfers Paradise
David Beal

I wonder if that's Oscar? he hasn't been taking his own medicine if it is!

And a tea towel to end



18 comments:

  1. I loved reading Adrian Mole,though haven't done so in years,atm i'm reading My last duchess which seems to be better then i thought it would be.
    The fairytale book looks so cute.
    X

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  2. 'Yay for vacuuming!' - I was just saying that earlier today. I love Beauty's dress. And Oscar needs some 'weight and size reducing'.

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  3. I used to have the Deans Fairy tales when I was little, found myself a copy of the one i used to read at the charity last week (slightly different cover to yours but same pics inside). I must admit i used to find the pictures scary as a little 'un. Scarlett x

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  4. Adore those illustrations especially the gender stereotyping ones - pon my word! Hell, yes, I love a spot of vacuuming.

    I'm a Tuesday's child - full of grace NOT; clumsy oaf more like!

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  5. Oh I love this, great find. And indeed, yay to vacuuming - hmm. Beauty appears to be wearing Princess Di's wedding dress.

    You have the same copy of Adrian Mole as I do. I loved the earlier ones, but to be honest lost interest a little once he became an adult. Maybe I should try the later ones again.

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  6. Seeing that Storytime Annual jogged something long forgotten in my mind. I don't know what it jogged but something. Some ancient memory. Probably of blissful hours spent sprawled on the floor reading. Not a care in the world.

    I had heaps of books and (now this is embarrassing) I would happily sit and count them and catalogue them for hours. I aqcuired so many I had to do that often. Major pleasure. Yes I was a nerd.

    And why is it that the boys always got to do interesting things? Look at that lot. Building kites and racing cars and painting dog kennels and diving in secret swimming holes! And what do the girls get? Painting vases and playing the piano and dressing dolls. Naff! Sheesh.

    (Wondering why Oscar is wearing a skirt.)

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  7. I loved Adrian Mole when i was growing up such a great read ;-) Love the children's book to so lovely and colorful. enjoy the rest of your week, dee x

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  8. I hate vacuuming, hate it with a passion!Living in the country on a dirt road makes so much dust that I have adopted Quentin Crisp's philosophy.
    I have picked up a few Uncle Arthur's through the years thinking they had great graphics, but then dropped them as if burnt after looking at the content. Way creepy.
    (this is from the woman who thinks she will corner the 'religous market' in Utah after watching Big Love, with Biblical Little Golden Book Bunting!)

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  9. I'm with Nick up there. I HATE vacuuming. Rarely do it myself - it usually falls to the hubby to do it. I have long hair and it tends to drape itself on every surface and he loathes that - keeps mentioning it as though it's some wild new fact.

    How can I lose so much hair every day and still have a zillion on my head?

    I do vacuum my sewing room often though - otherwise I'd drown in all the thread on the floor.

    House work is such a TERRIBLE way to spend time.

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  10. If remember correctly that was the Adrian Mole that was very popular at my school. Vividly remember how we all sat with our breath held in English class to see who would be picked to read the 'naughty' bit!!!
    (ps I'd love to take you up on your kind offer Kylie. My email address is msmaxbennett@gmail.com)

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  11. I read the first Adrian Moles when I was in my teens, maybe I should go back and pick up where I left off! x

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  12. I love old illustrations. I often buy old books to do things with but then can't bring myself to chop them up. So they're stacking up here!

    I've bought a couple of things from this etsy seller but she's now published a version of The 12 Dancing Princesses and I think it is just lovely:

    http://brigetteb.blogspot.com/2011/05/twelve-dancing-princesses.html

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  13. Hi Kylie!! Hope you're well!! I've been AWOL the past couple of weeks so just catching up with your posts and I absolutely adore these books - they're fantastic! It's a shocker but I've never read any Adrian Mole (I know!) so I'm going to have to put the first one on my 'to read' list!

    Jem xXx

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  14. We have a few of those Uncle Arthur books!
    (I chopped them up and turned them into stationary - shhhhhhh)

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  15. Hey there - I found you via Lakota's blog :)
    I have a copy of that Dean's fairytale book, except mine is my original copy from when I was little and it's falling apart. The illustrations are beautiful though and I love it too much.
    As for Mr Mole - as a family we had it as our 'toilet reading' when it came out and each of us had a book mark in it for how far we'd got to as we all wanted to read it so much! I still have my original 1980s copy but like my fairytale book, it's falling apart!

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  16. I'm also lacking good reading material!!
    I do read non fiction and the latest I'm hooked with is Ken Robinson's The Element. It is great and so inspiring and helps me put some order in my head regards my dreams and passion in life.

    Anyway, hope all is well at our end! Have a good remainder of the week! x

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  17. I also adore the Adrian Mole books, I love them as a teem and I recently reread them and they STILL made me laugh out loud. I wasn't so keen on the cappuccino years but he is is a great character. I think he is Harry potter without the magic! x

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  18. i've read many adrians, and enjoyed them thoroughly. the bbc series (after perhaps the two or three first books) cracked me up to.
    my son read one for school (yeah, my old copy), but he wasn't impressed. maybe adrian's a girl thing? he he...
    n♥

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