First The First Book You Ever Read?

[Horselover Fat]

Now it is all beginning to make sense.

[UVA]

Pride and Prejudice -- first novel I read on my own at age 11. Got a score of 5 on the AP test on questions about the book a few years later. :cool4:

[Isis]

The first novel I remember reading was Witch Week by DWJ. I was about 6 or 7. I do remember being obsessed by fairy tales prior to that and having some really nice illustrated collections given to me. After that I was fixated on going to the library for more.

(null)

[Always_En_Garde]

Ann Likes Red.

A preschool book; I still have it :)

[Maia]

Bambi, by Felix Salten - not the Disney adaptation, but the real thing. I was 6 and have been reading fluently for some time, but I only read loudly and at the prompting of and alternating with the adults. Bambi was where I have first discovered silent reading and reading for pleasure. Never looked back, needless to say ;).

[Bastard of Godsgrace]

OK, if you really have to know, it was a science fiction novel by Czech author Frantisek Behounek called Space Robinsons (Robinsoni vesmiru). I was six years old, IIRC, and you may say it warped my literary tastes forever, so better be careful what you give your children ;)

[UndergroundMan]

As I remember, the first book for me was a YA Star Wars expanded universe novel. It's not canon though. Called "The Glove of Darth Vader", the story deals with some heirs to the empire, including Palpatine's son, who has three eyes for some reason, as well as a fake heir, also with three eyes, and a lot of random dark prophets. Luke and some guy named Ken have to take them down, but that's really all that I remember.

[Vrana]

I had a mate whose parents read him half the odyssey and had him finish it on his own before even starting school. He still hates it.

My parents had me skip preschool so I must have been five when I discovered the schools library and the mandatory collection of Astrid Lindgren novels. I think the first one must have been Pippi Långstrump, though the first one I actually recall reading was Ronia.

[Dave Vivian]

To Kill a Mockingbird. Only read it so I would get Lord of the Rings bought for me. Only wanted it because the cover looked cool.

[Scaeva]

I read plenty of children's books when I was very young, but can't remember any of them now. The first two novels I remember reading were The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, both of which I read multiple times as a kid. I got them as a Christmas gift from an aunt when I was about 10 or 11, and in retrospect they were probably two of the best gifts I was ever given. My interest in reading really got started with those two books.

The edition of Treasure Island I was given featured the artwork of N.C. Wyeth, which I also loved. My favorite painting in the book was One More Step Mr. Hands portraying the confrontation between Jim Hawkins and the pirate Israel Hands.

Jim Hawkins kills him.

One More Step Mr. Hands..

[nickg]

There is no way I can remember the first book. Countless children's books that i vaguely remember. But the book that truly made me love reading was The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander when is was around 8. Still read the series from time to time.

[Lannes]

The first book I remember reading over and over and over was Katy The Snowplow. I still have it and read it to my daughter.

The first series I went batshit over was the Encyclopedia Brown books.

The first real novel I read was The Hobbit when I was about 10.

[Lord O' Bones]

I've been reading continuously since I was three, so I really can't remember.

Like many of you I have a similar problem. Though I may be kind of slow as I wasn't reading until I was 4. ;)

We have some very young people posting here.

No kidding.

I won't count baby books (I remember having one I could read in the bathtub made out of floating rubber.)

And I guess I shouldn't count things like Go Dog Go! or Green Eggs and Ham. Though they happened too.

The first 'books' I read were The Hardy Boys (1960's incarnation.) And occasionally Nancy Drew when we were on vacation and my sister and I ran out of books and had to trade. This is why can say that I've read a book out of the Babysitters Club series. God help me.

The Chronicles of Prydain and/or The Chronicles of Narnia followed soon thereafter, one after the other in some order.

Then the Elfstones of Shannara was my first "thick" book. Damn shame that. It still fucks me up how much I loved that story and can't bear to read it now.

[QuickTidal]

I think the first book I fully read was DRAGONLANCE, DRAGONS OF THE AUTUMN TWILIGHT IIRC.

[blasted_saber]

No idea. I read a bunch of "Goosebumps" novels in my 6-9 age bracket, along with whatever we read at school. In grade 6 (about age 10) I read my first "adult" novel in Critchon's The Lost World. Its the first book I can actually remember reading of my own volition that wasnt just given to me or forced on me by the education system.

Truth be told, its probably something like "Hop on Pop" or "Green Eggs and Ham"

lol

[Emery Silverstein]

Not sure about firsts because of the countless children's books but I remember reading MANY Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books at a very young age and then I progressed into the Fear Street books by R.L. Stine and went on a horror binge soon after by getting into Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Those led me into the Dark Tower series where my love for fantasy began.

[Just a peasant]

I don't know. It was over 30 years ago.

My favorite book as a kid was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

[lady narcissa]

A Trixie Belden book around six or seven I reckon. She was my gateway to the Nancy Drew series, which I read in it's entirety twice when I was nine/ten years old.

I was the opposite of you as I read the Nancy Drew books when I was 7/8 and then found the Trixie Belden books when I was 10. I think thats because the Nancy Drew books were my mom's and we already had the entire series in the house but I had to save up and buy the Trixie Belden ones on my own. But I loved the Trixie Belden series and I still have all the books.

[SkynJay]

As I remember, the first book for me was a YA Star Wars expanded universe novel. It's not canon though. Called "The Glove of Darth Vader", the story deals with some heirs to the empire, including Palpatine's son, who has three eyes for some reason, as well as a fake heir, also with three eyes, and a lot of random dark prophets. Luke and some guy named Ken have to take them down, but that's really all that I remember.

I thought I had read most all the EU boks non related to the prequels, but I have not read that one. Sounds just as bad as the KJA drivel from that description though.

[dark sister]

First book: something about a clockmaker - my mother realised I could read when she found me going over a kiddie's library book she'd been reading to me. I was two and a half, and I don't remember it.

First book I remember reading: one of those books full of interesting facts for children. I remember sitting on my bedroom carpet with it, and reading the Interesting fact that the youngest person to have a book published was four and a half. I was three and a half at the time, so I decided to write a book to beat the record. (I didn't.)

First adult book read: assuming The Hobbit and Watership Down are filed under YA, LOTR would be the first. I was six.

Hehe no offense, but is it just me, or does she sound like she's bragging just a bit? Like did you feel that referencing the age made the story more impressive? Sorry if I sound mean, I was just wondering, because there are many precocious readers out there. But color me duly impressed.

Well anyway, I have no remembrance of reading my first book. My father especially encouraged me to read rather large tomes at a young age, maybe to inflate his own ego ("MY daughter read THIS!" *scowl*), so I remember having Charles Dickens and Mark Twain thrust on me at a very young age, which in retrospect is so dumb b/c both of those authors imbued their novels with social/political commentary. Perhaps I understood the stories, but certainly not the important underlying messages.

So, for a while, I was dangerously close to disliking the act of reading. I remember liking Tom Sawyer a lot, but what truly fired me up -- and simultaneously began my love affair with fantasy -- was when my father gave me the Narnia series. I had never read a fantasy book before because of the stuff my father kept urging me to read, so I was awed and delighted by this world where magic was taken seriously and not scoffed at.

I remember, even from a very early age, being intrigued by the idea of "magic" (or fantasy, whatever you want to call it). I would watch re-runs of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie on TV Land and just go wild (so to speak) whenever Samantha wiggled her nose and made something "magical" happen, or Jeannie crossed her arms, bobbed her head, and did something impossible. So once I had the Narnia books and plowed through them, I looked for more fantasy.

I happened to have an aunt who loved fantasy as well, so she gave me books that she thought was good "for my age" -- like Lloyd Alexander's The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, etc. (I can't remember what the series was called right now). But I wanted more, so I read Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet series, The Hobbit, LOTR, David Eddings, Terry Pratchett, Neal Stephenson, Terry Goodkind, and Robert Jordan. I remember looking at her fantasy library one day and taking down The Eye of the World (also thinking, "what an ugly cover!"), reading the flap, and being interested. I asked my aunt about it and she said "oh it's good, but it's probably better for when you were a little older". Haha I was inwardly indignant at that, so when I got back home I promptly went to the bookstore with my mom and bought a copy (unfortunately I ended up losing that special hardcover to a cousin who never returned it...damn!)

Anyway, I mention Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series the last because it had a really profound effect on my life for some reason. I remember coming home from school and reading for hours and hours straight. I would even read IN school, but I think my teachers secretly approved because they only mentioned it once and when my grades didn't suffer they left me alone. It made me a kind of solitary kid, though, until I finished reading the books that had been published thus far. Then things returned to normal, and I started interacting with my friends more and doing normal, active recreation.