Nostalgia for childhood books and movies.

Last weekend marked another birthday and a further step on the way to the big 30! It was my belief that as the years went on I would become a wiser, more cultured individual. Taking countless trips to the opera, listening to classic FM, reading the great philosophers and watching French cinema.

However, to my surprise and initial horror I have found myself immersed in a deep nostalgia for childhood pleasures. Books and films that I discarded at the entrance to my teenage years with some disgust have now become my new obsession. It all started when I was called back to the parents' to clean out my room, which had pretty much been left as it was since I decided to become a Midlander in 2008. I came across all these children's books I had completely forgotten about such as Matilda by Roald Dahl, Horrible Histories, My Friend Walter by Michael Morpugo. Intrigued to see if I still found them as a good a read as back in the day, I took them back home and I was hooked!  

I started remembering all these books I loved as a child and wanted to read again, Secret Seven and Famous Five books by Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew Mysteries, Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh etc. Unfortunately it turned out that I had given away most of my books in my haste to become a moody, cynical teenager. So began my trawl through charity shops and second hand bookshops to try and compile the perfect childhood collection of books for pure escapism. This quest did not stop at books, I have also started collecting old childhood Disney films such as Beauty and the Beast and Winnie the Pooh and I forgot how fantastic they were!

So why has this nostalgia come about? Is it just another obsessive rung on the addictive personality ladder to madness or could it be something deeper than that? An article in The Telegraph in September this year asked this exact question of Dr Louise Joy, a Cambridge University academic. Her theory is that adults go back to reading childhood books because they are looking for a world where "self-consciousness is overthrown and relationships are uncomplicated." Put more simply, life is so stressful these days that sometimes we don't want to be reminded of the harsh reality of modern living and would prefer to regress to the fantasy world of talking bears and faraway trees provided by our favourite books from childhood.

It would seem more and more people are discovering that childhood books can be the key to stress relief and happiness. In her book 'The Happiness Project', Gretchen Rubin talks about how her initiative to start a children's literature book group for adults and her discovery that more people than she thought shared her passion for children's books. For Gretchen it was about 'returning to the world of stark good and evil, of talking animals and fulfilled prophecies.'

For me it was all about the nostalgia for a time when I could curl up on the sofa and disappear into a great book or film without nagging thoughts about work, money and other daily stresses circling around my head. So next time you are feeling stressed out with modern life, why not take a trip to the library and pick up a children's book, it maybe just what you were looking for.

Do any of you still read children's books or watch movies from your childhood? Why do you find yourself still drawn to them?


All pictures courtesy of Amazon.co.uk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8783522/Why-do-adults-like-childrens-books-Blame-modern-life.html

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2007/07/are-you-looking.html