[niteowl77]

I was an early reader in a family that read, and I still enjoy it, though I gave up most fiction at one point, preferring history. As I near my three-score and ten, I get more like the Scottish stonemason/engineer Matthew Davidson in thinking the Bible is the only truly necessary book... and it would profit me more to concentrate on it.

I would toss in things like Doyle's "The White Company" and "The Complete Sherlock Holmes," along with lesser-known Twain works like "Roughing It" and "A Tramp Abroad." A lot of Kipling's stuff (like the collection "The Day's Work") is first-rate, but harder to access these days.

Some kids are not going to be fiction fans, and things like the (older) Golden Guides to Birds, Weather, etc are still good places to get them interested in nature. Horace Kephart's "Camping and Woodcraft" is dated but outdoorsy fun. Authors like L.T.C. Rolt and Dorothy Hartley are worth exploring.

[Cleebie Grums]

Wild Animals I Have Known, by Seton. A great read.

[thingumbob]

All excellent choices but alas I decided to limit my list some how to the ones who lead me to the many futures books read in my life.

I enjoy the Bible myself but the thing that makes it so hard for me to read is that I always want to dive into the historical framework which takes me away from the chapter’s I’m really trying to read. It’s a struggle but a worthy one. I’m not sure I’ll ever get it unscrambled in a way I will truly understand beyond just reading it and let the rest go. That’s how I trust in it’s truth and have faith that I will understand it as he determines it to be understood.