@jo

I recently bought some old issues of Lighthouse Digest. A few years ago I had also purchased a few vintage back issues of Wildbird magazine from about thirty years ago. It was a beautiful birding magazine. It is a rather sad thing that some physical magazines are going out of business. Somehow a projection of a magazine online is not so attractive to me as the actual physical copies (especially with the pictures). Lighthouse Digest had an electronic version, but I preferred the paper copies. You can’t replace the real thing.

There are some very nice lighthouse books too. I recently bought American Lighthouses: A Pictorial History by Jill Caravan. Some of the others include Lighthouses of the Great Lakes by Todd R. Berger and Legendary Lighthouses (volumes one and two), by John Grant and Ray Jones, which is based on the PBS television series. The books about lighthouses in Michigan include Lighthouses of Michigan by John Penrod.  These books are all beautifully illustrated. They are mainly about American lighthouses.  There is also Lighthouses of the World by Lisa Purcell. I am sure that there are more fine books about the lighthouses of other countries.

@snowangel  I’m SO excited since I missed the first opportunity of subscribing at all. I read the first three thinking it was a trilogy. It’s wonderful timing too since I was just thinking I was due for a reread.  

First off, I got my copy of Chapter 16 of The Silent Bells this weekend! I'm not sure whether I'm shocked or just quietly stunned that there is actually a new chapter. Has everyone else's arrived?

@SnowAngel, it's always disappointing when the ending of a book series goes so far astray. Did you decide to continue the reread or just call it quits? And were these books you owned or got from the library?

Sorry to hear you won't be receiving any more copies of Lighthouse Digest, @Narnian78. I hope you can enjoy rereading the 20+ years' worth of magazines, though!

@Jo, your reads always sound so intriguing! Has anything stood out particularly in your rereads of classic children's stories?

I'm glad you got to join in now with the subscription, @Lady-Merian! You are not the only one who read it thinking it was a trilogy, though I actually had the opposite problem - thought it was a quintet for some reason, though I don't know why. I hope you enjoy your reread.

I am currently reading my first G. A. Henty book: The Cat of Bubastes. I'm only a few chapters in but while I'm appreciating the historical notes, I'm not really a fan of the style and the characters seem way too formal (or something - not sure I've quite put my finger on it yet). I'm wondering if I would've enjoyed it more if I first read his books when I was younger? Irregardless, I'm going to keep pushing for now and see how it goes.
I also recently read A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett for the first time, which I enjoyed pretty well overall. Like Heidi, I'd seen one or maybe two adaptations when I was quite a bit younger, so I was a bit surprised at how much I knew of the story and how faithfully the adaptations had followed the plot.

@valiantarcher 

I wonder if anyone here remembers this 1986 adaptation of A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, who also wrote The Secret Garden:

https://youtu.be/PX4dhw1fKo4?si=GK93eYjIjyrTD0g1

It is quite good (especially the acting).   Besides the original books of these stories there also is an audio drama from Focus on the Family based on The Secret Garden. It is just as good as the Narnia radio dramas. 🙂

Posted by: @lady-merian

@snowangel  I’m SO excited since I missed the first opportunity of subscribing at all. I read the first three thinking it was a trilogy. It’s wonderful timing too since I was just thinking I was due for a reread.  

I was planning a reread too, but then I bought a set of westerns. It's still on my list for soonish reading.

Posted by: @valiantarcher

First off, I got my copy of Chapter 16 of The Silent Bells this weekend! I'm not sure whether I'm shocked or just quietly stunned that there is actually a new chapter. Has everyone else's arrived?

@SnowAngel, it's always disappointing when the ending of a book series goes so far astray. Did you decide to continue the reread or just call it quits? And were these books you owned or got from the library?

Hooray! Mine came today, I sent my sister to check the mailbox as soon as I saw your post. And I also finally got my missing chapter of The Silent Bells the end of April, so glad that after three and half years my set is currently complete.

I did power through the final two books about Cheney and Shiloh. They're my books, purchased from a bookstore on a trip to visit my grandma over 15 years ago and because of that I won't get rid of them. Going to that bookstore was the highlight of visiting my dad's family as a kid especially in the summer. The whole family loved going to the bookstore, I don't think we ever left there with less than a whole book box full of books. That bookstore was everything a used bookstore should be, shelves piled high to the ceiling, stacks of books on the floor and in every nook and cranny with the smell of old books, and lowlight in the corners. Shopping there was like going on a treasure hunt. I think it was probably worth reading them just to remember all the fun my family had book shopping together.  

I've been reading through my recently acquired westerns all written by Luke Short, I just started the third of the four last night. So far I've read Paper Sheriff and Bold Rider, will be keeping Bold Rider. I'm reading Brand of Empire and have King Colt in my stack to read.

Posted by: @valiantarcher

I'm glad you got to join in now with the subscription, @Lady-Merian! You are not the only one who read it thinking it was a trilogy, though I actually had the opposite problem - thought it was a quintet for some reason, though I don't know why. I hope you enjoy your reread.

Perhaps because odd numbered series are more common? I don’t know, it makes sense to me.   Odd numbers are more aesthetically pleasing.
I have to admit that for a while after I found out that it wasn’t a trilogy (and perhaps more importantly having found the tweets that explained the situation) that I thought hoping for the next book was wishful thinking.  Then I saw the subscription thing somehow after it was way too late and realized I’d just come in too late. In truth it was probably for the best in terms of me being able to afford it!

Posted by: @valiantarcher

I am currently reading my first G. A. Henty book: The Cat of Bubastes. I'm only a few chapters in but while I'm appreciating the historical notes, I'm not really a fan of the style and the characters seem way too formal (or something - not sure I've quite put my finger on it yet). I'm wondering if I would've enjoyed it more if I first read his books when I was younger? Irregardless, I'm going to keep pushing for now and see how it goes.

I haven’t read that one, (my sister strongly disliked the story and so warned me away from it) but it sounds like the things that aren’t working for you are fairly typical of Henty. His male characters especially do tend to read like that. (I don’t know a better way to put it than formality in the characters, but I think I know what you mean.) I think his female characters, when they do get a chance to shine, do have more variety. In some ways the style of The Slipper Point Mystery reminded me of one he did with a female protagonist that was fun but less historical. I will have to look up the title because I forget it and it was one I got from Project Gutenberg on my old iPod touch.  
His style overall is something of an acquired taste perhaps, though I didn’t know how much so until I came back to it after a time away. Perhaps you would’ve liked it better if you’d read it when you were younger, but perhaps not. I may decide to give that one a try after all, my sister’s dislike notwithstanding, just to see for myself what it’s like.  

@snowangel my reread has been put on hold. I’m in the middle of a reread of Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray and I keep meaning to sit down and finish it before I start a reread of The Dragon’s Tooth. I should have more free time in June though so my goal is to start then. Also I’m glad you were able to get the missing chapters!

@narnian78 I have vague memories of that audiodrama but I don’t remember that video adaptation, I’ll have to take a look—thank you!   I love A Little Princess.

@Narnian78, no, I've only seen two adaptations of The Little Princess and neither of them was the '78.

You knew what I was driving at, @SnowAngel. I definitely understand keeping books for reasons beyond themselves - and that reason sounds like a great one to keep the last couple of books in the series! That bookstore sounds like a lot of fun. Hurrah for receiving the missing chapter of The Silent Bells and the new one! And it looks like the next one should be on its way now too.
Hope you enjoy the rest of the westerns (but not so much that you'll keep them all )!

I don't know, there's something to be said for quartets, @Lady-Merian. But it certainly did feel like the last one wasn't ever going to come out for a while - and I'm not sure I won't be a little bit dubious until the last chapter actually arrives. Oh, why did your sister dislike the story so much? I didn't like it, but it didn't rouse me to such depths of feeling as to strongly dislike it. I'm disappointed to hear that it appears to be typical Henty vs. me picking a dud. Interesting about some of his female characters getting to be less stiff, though - if you remember which Henty you're thinking of, I'd like to hear about it!
I acquired The Dragon and the Raven at the same time I picked up The Cat of Bubastes, so I'll give that a try at some point. If I feel the same way about it, I'll probably be hard-pressed to try much else by Henty.

I did just finish The Cat of Bubastes. Apparently it took me only (!) a week and it was a very busy and hectic week, but it felt like I'd been reading it for at least twice that long. 😐 I feel like it raised a few interesting threads, particularly about monotheism, but it didn't support them strongly or followed through in a way that felt unnatural or forced. I don't plan to keep my copy, even if it is a nice hardcover.
I needed something light and easy after that read, though, so I'm rereading an old Nancy Drew (The Clue in the Crumbling Wall). I think I've only read it once before (even the yellow hardback cover doesn't look more than vaguely familiar!) and I didn't remember anything about it going in, but I know what to expect and it's already been more fun than the Henty.

@valiantarcher 

The 1986 adaptation of The Little Princess was presented as part of the Wonderworks series, which was the same program that included the BBC Narnia. I am not sure, but there may have been a production made in the 1970’s based on the same story. I haven’t seen any adaptations of this book from the 1970’s.  There are also several different productions of The Secret Garden.  At that time PBS was willing to show series based on children’s books that were made without a lot of money, but the acting and story were very good.  Thank goodness for PBS!   🙂

@valiantarcher I did just finishThe Cat of Bubastes. Apparently it took me only (!) a week and it was a very busy and hectic week, but it felt like I'd been reading it for at least twice that long. 😐 I feel like it raised a few interesting threads, particularly about monotheism, but it didn't support them strongly or followed through in a way that felt unnatural or forced. I don't plan to keep my copy, even if it is a nice hardcover.

Yes, G A Henty, or George Alfred Henty, who was born in 1832, & died in 1902, is a bit hard to read. A one-time war correspondent, he also wrote "With Clive of India", a volume I could never read comfortably, because of the heavy Victorian style of writing, made worse by the cramped typeface, which I found hard on my eyesight, even as a teenager. It was a book that apparently had been around in my grandmother's home, since the 1920's or 1930's, along with a set of William Hickling Prescott's entire works about the history of the Americas as well as Renaissance Spain, which are even older publications. The set was at the back of where we kept the telephone at the time.  I was rather surprised to learn that any of these books are still in print, even in audio form, read by Gary Oldman, of Harry Potter fame. I'd imagined that these books were out of print by now, and that therefore any originals would be worth a fortune. Though I did make an attempt at reading all of them, I gave these books away long ago.  

Maybe The Cat of Bubastes might be a bit more interesting than With Clive of India? On the other hand, as well as Robert Louis Stephenson's Treasure Island & Kidnapped, not to mention The Black Arrow, I have also read R.M.Ballantyne's The Coral Island, a rather gruesome tale of the South Pacific, as well as John Buchan's Greenmantle, A Prince of the Captivity & The 39 steps, much easier books for me to enjoy.  

@waggawerewolf27, part of the issues I had with the Henty was pacing, so while the plot may've been more intriguing than With Clive in India, I'm not sure if the execution was. That said, apparently they do have an audience out there as I've seen a few different fairly recently published editions.
I've read Treasure Island too, as well as a number of Buchan, none of which seemed to be as much of a struggle as the Henty.

I received chapter 17 of The Silent Bells yesterday; I am expecting it to trickle into everyone else's inboxes shortly if it hasn't already.

I've hopped around a bit in my reading, but have gone back and reread a couple more of the original editions of Nancy Drew books. Even before the revisions, they start suffering from the "Nancy is uniquely talented at everything and the best at each talent", but there have also been some fun things (such as multiple mentions of Bess Marvin enjoying reading and it taking most of a book for Nancy to figure out that her suspicions of someone have been raised intentionally by them as a prank).

How old is the oldest bookstore in your area?  There is a small bookstore in the next town from where I live that has been in business and in the same location since 1967! I remember it fondly from my childhood.  It has survived several recessions when three other bookstores in my area have closed. It not part of any chain but is more like a family owned business.  Somehow it has kept going all these years!  

Here is their website and you can see it is a charming small town bookstore:

https://readersworldbookstore.com/

I always liked its name.  🙂

@narnian78 Hmmm, can't find any info about the oldest bookshop in Manchester (the nearest city to where I live in north-west England), but I just found out we do have the oldest public library in the English-speaking world: Chetham's Library, founded in 1653. (That's pretty remarkable, since although Manchester has existed since the Romans built a fort there in AD 79, it was only a small market town until the late 18th century when the Industrial Revolution took off.) I haven't been to this library, but I'd better put it on my list!  

Elsewhere in the UK, the oldest bookshop in London is Hatchards, founded in 1797. It's been in the same building (on Piccadilly) continuously since 1801, apparently.

And one that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and their friends would have known very well is Blackwell's in Oxford, still operating from its original site in Broad Street where it opened in 1879. I've bought a number of books from them (in person or online) over the years that I've lived in the UK and I've had a few enjoyable times getting lost in there — the place is HUGE!!!  

@courtenay 

And I thought a bookstore that has been around since the 1960’s was old. But if bookstores in the UK have been around since the 1600’s and 1700’s I guess they could be considered antiques. I would think their charm would attract many customers. Libraries would also be a draw for bookworms if they are historic buildings. 🙂

@valiantarcher   I've read Treasure Island too, as well as a number of Buchan, none of which seemed to be as much of a struggle as the Henty.

Thank goodness that we never had to study Henty's books at school! Charles Dickens was bad enough at primary school level (5th & 6th class) . We did have to study R.L. Stevenson's Kidnapped, Thor Heyerdahl's Kontiki Expedition, and other books of "derring-do" in high school. One of the joys of going to an ordinary co-educational public (state) school was that having both boys & girls in the classroom ensured that the selection of books in the English curriculum, then, was more slanted to keep everyone engaged in the subject, I think.  Thus, I really fell in love with Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, though not so much the Man in the Iron Mask.  

On the other hand, though the likes of H Rider Haggard's equally Victorian era, King Solomon's Mines and She (who must be obeyed), were also around invitingly, I never got around to reading them either. And when our 3rd grade teacher insisted on reading to us Girl of the Limberlost, Huckleberry Finn or Uncle Tom's Cabin, I simply couldn't relate to whatever she was talking about.  

@courtenay 

but I just found out we do have the oldest public library in the English-speaking world:Chetham's Library, founded in 1653.

Wow! But when the Birmingham Commonwealth Games were televised in 2022, we were told that Birmingham had the first free public library service in UK.  Again, Birmingham, in the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, like Manchester, never really took off as a city, until the late 1700's when the Industrial Revolution began, after the American Revolution of 4/7/1776. 

@narnian78  Libraries would also be a draw for bookworms if they are historic buildings. 🙂

Though it might add to the ambience for bookworms to have a library in a historic building, there are also other things to consider, when a library doesn't need to be accommodated in some place where termites are getting into the woodwork, or genuine bookworms (not the human sort) or water leaks or mould starts infesting the book stock.

The oldest library in Australia was the 1826 Australian Subscription Library, which opened on 1st of December, 1827, in the Sydney Dispensary building, & which eventually led on to become both the eventual State Library of New South Wales, with its Mitchell Library Collection, and also the City of Sydney Public Library, which when I worked there, from 1965 to 1972, was accommodated in the Queen Victoria Building, with stacks  accommodated in what used to be wine cellars, and which still smelled of wine long afterwards, whenever anyone had to work down there. The oldest free library in Australia was the State library of Victoria, when Melbourne was only founded - eventually - in 1835.  

In December 1969 to January 1970, City of Sydney Municipal Library (as it was also known) was moved from the Market Street side of the QVB, where it was on 3 levels, with offices & staff facilities on the 4th floor & a bindery in one of the domes on the roof, just accessible around the corner, from the staff tea-room. We moved the entire book stock through the QVB, itself, using our own book trolleys, to new quarters, which took up half the 1st floor and I ended up with a desk (doing Interlibrary loans) beside the fan window at the end of the building which looked down into Sydney Square, opposite the Sydney Town Hall & St Andrews Cathedral next door. We could look down into the massive 1970's Anti-Vietnam War moratorium, held in Sydney Square, and see all the processions, like the now abandoned Waratah Festival, up and down George Street, the main street of Sydney at the time. The QVB, which had a couple of iron spiral staircases going nowhere, a stained glass window, ancient birdcage type elevators, & other mysterious nooks & crannies, was later renovated & turned into more fully commercial hub for the area, not only the street-level shops always downstairs, whilst the library, itself, was moved (again) in more modern premises behind the Sydney Town Hall, facing Kent Street. 

The then Children's Librarian, when I was there, was Lilith Norman, who wrote The Flame-takers, based on her experiences of moving those books through QVB, along with two other books, Climb a lonely hill and also The shape of three, about one of twins being exchanged at birth in a hospital mix-up, and how the two families involved resolved their problem. 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

@courtenay 

but I just found out we do have the oldest public library in the English-speaking world: Chetham's Library, founded in 1653.

Wow! But when the Birmingham Commonwealth Games were televised in 2022, we were told that Birmingham had the first free public library service in UK.  Again, Birmingham, in the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, like Manchester, never really took off as a city, until the late 1700's when the Industrial Revolution began, after the American Revolution of 4/7/1776. 

That's interesting. I've done a bit of searching online for "oldest free public library in the UK" and "oldest free public library in Birmingham UK", and I honestly can only find references to Chetham's Library in Manchester for the former, or the Manchester Free Library, founded in 1852, as the first under the provisions of the Public Libraries Act 1850. Birmingham didn't follow suit until 1866.

I honestly can't find any references to free public libraries in Birmingham that are any older than that, and certainly none that are anywhere near as old as Chetham's in Manchester, so I reckon the Brummies are bluffing.  

The oldest free library in Australia was the State library of Victoria, when Melbourne was only founded - eventually - in 1835.

Yep.   I know it very well from my high school and university days!