Posted by Ed Kiser on August 01, 2017 at 09:59:59 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re-reading 'the twelve' after a decade-long gap posted by Magnus Smith on August 01, 2017 at 00:04:39:
After a decade of so of going without, I, too, felt it was time to re-read the Ransome tales and renew my childhood friendships with those people. I was amazed how quickly I was able to finish a book, just several hours. It was not re-reading, it was scanning and turning pages, reminding me of what was happening without going into detail. This led me to an alternative procedure: TYPE the stories to a computer .TXT file. It forced me to avoid skimming, but to look at every word, every punctuation mark, note any spelling difference from my American spell checker and the British style of Ransome (ignored up to then). It also got me to notice some errors in the books. This time, I came across parts that I did not remember, that perhaps on previous readings I had just skipped over the descriptions and got onto the actions. There was "newness" in this project that made it a delightful adventure of discovery, much to my pleasure. It also provided me with a computer readable source to search for words or phrases to enhance my relationship with these childhood friends. It was a grand adventure, well worth the efforts, presenting me with a renewal of those adventures that continue to be dear to me even after all these years.
Now I am motivated to re-read, not the books, but my typing, as I am looking for typo errors, which somehow managed to escape notice on previous re-readings. At least this medium avoids wear on the books themselves, some being rather fragile with age. Looking for these errors of my own making helps me to want to look closely, with avoiding the scanning that had previously diluted my revisits to the books.
It is a labour of LOVE that continues to return joyous bounty. I feel I know these people, knowing them as dear friends, continuing to bring me the delights of being "with" them, regardless of my true age.
I am grateful to Ransome for having given me so much pleasure, for having taught me so much without me having to feel I had to learn something, for letting me enjoy the sailing my own with my children on board, for bringing signalling to my attention for me to learn, and then to teach, not only my friends, but my children, and now my grandchildren. My reward was for a grandson to send me a birthday note, consisting of a printout of just dots and dashes. The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof, and he ate it well.
And my thanks to the Ransome internet community for enhancing my understanding and appreciation of the wonders of these stories. and providing photographic peeks into the land he wrote about, a place I will never get to go, but with the pictures giving me a vicarious visit.
Total so far from Tony Richards Lakeland Camera is 23 GIG of photos.
Not that Ransome's word descriptions needed any further enhancements, but those photos do help make it all so real.
So my THANKS to Arthur, and to You All.
The adventure continues...
Ed Kiser, Kentucky USA [ kisered@aol.com ]
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