followed by The Secret Garden.

My aunt gave it to me for Christmas one year and read (most of it) to me.

They are the first chapter books that stick out in my memory. Just bought an amazing 15 book Dahl collection for my nephews for Christmas

To my youngest daughter as bedtime stories.
She is getting married in a year and asked me to use my “BFG” voice when I give a wedding toast at the rehearsal dinner.

Just looked this up on wiki. Definitely won’t be reading these to the grandchildren.

You were inthe first grade and that was a natural follow-up to the See Spot Run Series?

I was a quick study..

It was all down hill from there.

Now it's my standard birthday gift to 9 year old girls.

Oh, I forgot about all the Nancy Drew mysteries!

..

Steinebeck, Of Mice and Men
Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, For Whom The Bell Tolls
Golding, Lord of The Flies

I moved on to my mom's Agatha Christie, and eventually my mom bought me some Trixie Belden books.

It was kind of funny - for the longest time my mom didn't have reading glasses (they weren't available at a dollar store like now!), so she read a lot of children's books because the font was larger, while I read her books. She was an insatiable reader as well, didn't really matter what it was.

I would sit at breakfast and read the cereal box.
As soon as we moved to a house near a library I could walk to I would take out as many books as they would allow me.
When I was a preteen I asked and was allowed to borrow the adult books.
Reading to me was as necessary as breathing.
It still is.

I was reading before I started school, so I don't ever remember a time when I didn't love to read.

Although I do have a fondness for the "Chronicles of Prydain" - I must have read them 4 or 5 times as a child (and twice as an adult).

Cereal boxes and all. I was painfully shy as a child and reading was my escape from things that bothered me.

We had an elderly neighbor, who would see me walking to school every morning with my nose in a book. She'd call my mother almost daily to exclaim that I was going to "get hit by a car" (in our small town with very little traffic.)

I'm no longer so shy, but still a bookworm. My daughter gave me another bookcase a few years ago for Christmas because I had the books shelved two deep, with more stacked on top of those, and it drove her nuts. Even after getting rid of all those that aren't favorites to be read again later, I still need that extra bookcase.

As necessary as breathing. Always.

While the other kids were playing at recess, if I found a good book, I'd find a quiet corner and read.
The book that I remember most was the "Eddie and Gardenia" books.
"The White Mountains" got me hooked on Sci-Fi.
Last count I had 1300 books on my Kindle-well, most up on the cloud.

2nd and 3rd grade.

Prior to that, I had read the Henry Huggins series, but there were only a few books in that series.

Those summer reading programs also helped. I was quick to get my 10 books in.

I read everything I could lay my hands on every possible minute of every day. I am amazed I didn't get run over by a car on my way to and from school because I would read and watch the ground for obstacles out of the corner of my eye.

Thor Heyerdahl

Last edited Tue Dec 19, 2017, 09:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Somerset Maugham short stories as a teen really got me interested in reading, though they were stories of their time.

My mom used to read me the Hardy Boys. I had the whole series at one point.

I couldn't get enough of them.

before I totally was hooked, could be talked into going out for a game of throwing dirt clods at each other but once I read the same book you mention, "A Wrinkle in Time" it was all over. I am anxious to see the movie, I hope it is good. I reread the book not long ago just for kicks. I remembered how and why I loved it so. Those old ladies were just the best.

Misty, Black Beauty, The Black Stallion series. I was a horse nut from an early age. Used to try to convince my dad that we could keep a pony in the bathtub.

Also a big fan of Dr. Seuss, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew. Call of the Wild. We always had tons of books in the house, and my mom took us to the library regularly.

I read it when I was 11

The stories about Henry Huggins and all his friends and neighbors captured my imagination. Because the stories took place in Portland, where I grew up, I was forever riding around all of east Portland, looking for Klickitat Street, hoping to catch a glimpse of Henry, Scooter, Beezus, Ramona, or Ribsey.

which were the only ones my local library had. I must have checked them out in a continuously for about three years.

10 years old, summer. Back then the 3 month summer vacation was glorious, free to do anything I wanted, outdoors biking, swimming, climbing trees, walking through the forest, wandering freely, playing with friends. Then Treasure Island transported me, put me on a pirate ship in a world I had never imagined. After that the entire world, through books, was my playground. I stopped going out. I read. My parents got very worried, wondering what was wrong with me (my parents both went to work at 14, Mississippi depression, never bought a book in their lives at that time.)

After that summer I became physically active again but every single day I was also reading a book. I owe so much to Treasure Island.

She handed me a book called something like ‘The Monkey Paw’ and told me to leave her alone and I haven’t stopped since. 😉

Guy de Maupassant. My mom told me that story when I was a little kid, Scared the heck out of me.

She was into H.P. Lovecraft and Ambrose Bierce, probably lots of authors that horrified my teachers when I wrote book reports on them.

It was the first book I read and there was definitely a "Tip" in it. After that, there was no turning back.

When I first read it, "A Wrinkle in Time" was the best book I had ever read.

It still has a special place in my heart.

in English translation, of course. The movie was the first time I was disappointed when comparing it to the book. Thumper and Flower - wtf?!

Others:

Nancy Drew mysteries
The Boxcar Children
Encyclopedia Brown
Trixie Belden series
Henry Huggins series (I loved Ramona)
The Forgotten Door
Dr. Seuss books
Madeline books
Pippi Longstocking

a Little Golden Book my dad read to me when I was two years old. I can't really remember a time before I was hooked, but that is the first book I remember. I have always loved to read. The trouble is that there isn't enough time to read everything I want to.

Wrinkle in Time.

To be fair, that's just the first I remember. I think it took me most of fourth grade and part of fifth) )in fourth grade the librarian read the chapter Riddles in the Dark from the Hobbit to us all and I was off). But I was already a Big Reader by then.

until I was in my 30s, and to this day I consider it one of the greatest things I've ever read. And I have read thousands of books.

I kind of wish there had been. I didn't like reading until I was an adult.

I did discover a world of great children's books when I read them to my children, but not when I was a child.

Henry, Henry and Ribsy, Henry and Ramona, etc followed closely by Asimov SF.

my dad loaned it to me, and Gone With the Wind, Rudyard Kipling and many others.

go to the library before I started going to school and was actually reading a little before I started school. The first books I remember reading myself were Dr. Seuss, most particularly "One Fish, Two Fish"; The 10,000,000 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins"; "McElligot's Pool". I also liked "Horton Hears a Who" and "Horton Hatches an Egg" too. After those I was reading all kinds of stuff, we had books in our house and we were expected to read them.

Did the 26 volumes of World Book Encyclopedia.

But before that my dear father read a story to my sister and me every night from a book of fairy tales.

I STILL love to be read to. I listen to half the books I read.

Somebody else who read Half Magic.

I thought it was awesome that you had to double your wish or you were screwed!


Geeze, that had to be close to 60 years ago. How time does fly.

to find other Half Magic lovers here. It wasn't my first book but it may well have been the first to make me laugh out loud (the half talking cat). I still remember the cover, green and white. Wonderful memory.

I'm serious. I remember reading the Dick and Jane books in first grade and loving them.

See Spot run.

I loved learning to read. I loved those books.

Stone soup became my guiding principle for dealing with people-still is.

We lived with my grandfather, a retired teacher, and both my parents were voracious readers. I remember the Freddy the Pig books, "Kidnapped," "Treasure Island," "Tom Sawyer," "The Adventures of Robin Hood," etc. I was nine years old before we got a television, and by then I was hooked on reading. I had to be persuaded to stop reading and watch TV. Actually, it could be "A Night to Remember," about the sinking of the Titanic, that really set the hook in me. I joined the Book of the Month Club at age 11. You could get four books for a dollar, so I filled out the coupon and put 100 pennies in the envelope and placed them in the mailbox. The mailman got a kick out of it, and put in his own dollar, after asking my mother's permission. The four books were: "The Robe," "A Man Called Peter," "The Fields of Home," and "So Long as Love Remembers." I liked them all except the last one, which I passed along to my sister. I still have "The Robe," 61 years later, and though its cover is torn a bit and it's a little worse for wear, I still treasure it. Thank you, kiairos12, for such an interesting question and for making me remember things I hadn't thought about in years. Oh, and one more: "Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels." It's incomparable.

then my first adult book was The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.

Unfortunately they seem rather dated now.

But it was a series that I had to read every one of (until roughly book #100)

The main character loved books too, Francie.

My cousin gave me "Trixie Belden and the Mystery of the Emeralds" when I was nine. I was already a devoted reader, but that book introduced me to the word, "ennui" which I mispronounced in my head for decades.

I also remember "Beautiful Joe", a more obscure book called "Star Girl" and a collection of stories about a older gentleman babysitter.

Whenever he looked after the children, wonderous things would happen. Once, every faucet in the house produced a different flavor of soda pop. This was actually a lesson for the children, because they had been clamouring for soda earlier. Then, of course, they missed the simple pleasure of water.

In other stories, there were bushes that popped popcorn, and once it literally rained cats and dogs. If anyone out there has similar memories of these stories and can remember the name of the main character, I would love to hear from them.

Your help is most appreciated. And not only because of the lovely memories surrounding the stories, but because not remembering the main character's name was making me c-Wazy!

It was a book I found at the supermarket and bought every one I could with my allowance money.
I didn’t even know about Nancy Drew at the time.
I LOVED spunky Trixie!

Those of us who preferred Trixie because she had chores and annoying brothers and problems in school, sometimes refer to the better known girl sleuth as "Nancy Who?".

I'm serious. Dennis the Menace, Superman, Superboy, etc.

Easy to read, good pictures.

(I later graduated to the classics -- and Mad Magazine.)

Especially black & white horror magazines. My first memory of actually buying something is the demonic chess piece cover on Eerie 41.

I started with the short stories of the Mad Scientists' Club by Bertrand R. Brinkley. The first two volumes. Gosh I read and re-read those stories soooo many times. I turned 50 this year and ordered myself those first 2 volumes and read them again. Such great and powerful memories they brought back: Being ten years old in the bottom bunk of our bunk beds, my little brother up top.




And that led to the chapter books of The Three Investigators by Robert Arthur Jr. who included Alfred Hitchcock in a minor character role in this series.



Thanks for such a cool topic that brought back wonderful memories! I am so happy to be a lifelong reader.

Thanks Mom!

...with the author--Hugh Lofting's--great illustrations. To this day, the West Country of England means Puddleby-on-the-Marsh to me...

...A Wrinkle In Time for Christmas when I was 11. I have read and re-read that book more times than I can count, even as an adult. Absolutely captivating.

I fear the new movie will be disappointing from a visual perspective. L'Engle created such vivid descriptions of each of the characters. Those descriptions are such a part of the story. Mrs. Murray - flaming red hair, creamy skin, and violet eyes. Mrs. Whatsit in her multi-colored scarves and gray hair covered with a man's hat. Mrs. Who - a plump little woman with enormous spectacles. Mrs. Which - little more than a shommer or a figure in a black robe and a black peaked hat, beady eyes, a beaked nose, and long gray hair; one bony hand clitched a broomstick.

In the teasers/clips I have seen, none of these descriptions has been honored by the film maker.

Once I learned to read I read everything I could lay my hands on.

To me the idea that one specific book was needed to hook a kid on reading is a bit scary. It shouldn't come down to one book. Either you read or you don't.

I was 8 and it got me hooked for life on Sci-Fi.

"A Wrinkle In Time" wasn't too far behind.

Then I found that the local library had most of the "Tom Swift" series. They were good at showing the progression of Sci-Fi through time.

It made no difference though, if it was Sci-Fi, I read it.

it was a book about Jewish heroes from the bible that I found on my parents bookshelf. It had larger print and and illustrations and great stories about Moses, David and Goliath, Saul, etc. Unfortunately my mom gave it away years ago, but I would read it over and over.

It was a gateway to reading. Read a lot of comics from there and there were so many references to books within them that I had to find out more.

Mine was also "A Wrinkle in Time". Showed me that there are worlds in books so different than mine that I wanted to go back as often as possible.

Watership Down.

After reading it in fifth grade and becoming enchanted with the concept that a brand new world not limited by the vagaries of skepticism existed, I thought that more books would show me more new worlds with new people and new solutions and new beauties.

It worked.

I cried and cried at the end because I didn't want it to end. And I was in my 30s then!

Love the series. Then came The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Those books still make me laugh my ass off

n/t

Were the novels of Jules Verne. Not sure what I read first.

I guess my favorite was "Mis Primeros Conocimientos"

I was just about to say "A Wrinkle in Time". But there were others that moved me. Like Bambi. And rocked my world and made me re-think everything. Like Animal Farm and 1984. Yes, I read Animal Farm as a child. Had nightmares for weeks.

Oh, and The Phantom Tollbooth. I absolutely love that book.

Thanks Mom, for pushing these books toward me. You were right.


Fire (1948)
Storm (1941)
Earth Abides (1949)

When I went to the first grade the teacher asked me to tell the other students why I could read so well. I didn't have the faintest idea why. I now realize it was my mother reading to me from my very earliest memory.

i always had my dungeons and dragons books mixed in with my school books.

First "adult" book I finished as a child was the Autobiography of Helen Keller. After than, all so-called adult books seemed easy.

I think they came monthly. I read those books forever, because each book had a variety of stories that ranged from picture books to pre- adolescent novels.

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith. I just loved that book and read it over and over.

I was already a bookworm when I discovered it, but it will always be my favorite book. (Yeah, he wrote The Once and Future King.) It's about a young girl who discovers Lilliputians living in hiding on her family's run-down ancestral estate. It was written during WWII, and has some very nice metaphors about how Big People have no right to bully or control Little People. Also lots of little jokes about British history . And lovely illustrations.

By the time I got to Sr. in High School (12th grade) I learned coping techniques (still undiagnosed then) but fell in love with reading the Bible as a book (ie literature) rather than a book of God. Opened my eyes to so many things.

Hope you have made up for it since.

... and my parents were always generous whenever the Schoolastic book sales came around, giving us money for three or four books we wanted. There were always one or two books my mom tacked onto our orders. A Wrinkle in Time was one.

I remember one book about magnet experiments that came with a strong alnico magnet taped to the inside cover! Those magnets weren't common then.

One of the books I obsessed about was The boys' first book of radio and electronics by Alfred Powell Morgan. My third grade teacher had it in her classroom library and she'd let me borrow it as long as I liked. Star Trek was still new on television and I had my first TV crush. Lt. Uhura was someone who knew her way around radios and she happened to be beautiful too.

Later I had a Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, which was full of wonderfully dangerous, but very inspiring stuff. Nothing like it could be published today. Soon after receiving that book as a gift, and working my way through most of the experiments, I began devising my own experiments, mostly with rockets and explosives. In many unsuccessful experiments my rockets would explode, and explosives would take flight. By some good fortune I didn't kill or seriously maim myself or anyone else.

From the day I turned 2, my dad brought home a little golden book almost every night, and we'd read.

David and the Phoenix - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_the_Phoenix
David and the Phoenix is a 1957 children's novel about a young boy's adventures with a phoenix. The first published book by American children's writer Edward Ormondroyd, it is a tale of friendship between two different species—a young boy and a mythical bird—and focuses on David's education in the ways of the ...
?Plot summary · ?Characters · ?Major themes · ?Developments

The one that I remember most really hooking me was "The Sword of Shannara".

But I always read. To the point where my mom had to encourage me to go outside.

Then I was disappointed that the movie didn't go much into the details like the book did.

was a gift from a favorite Aunt. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. It would have been around 1955, I was 10. I still have the book.

I read a lot and still do. The most reading I ever did was when I lived in Germany. I was 19 when I went to join my new husband who was in the USAF. We lived in a small farm village a few miles from the base. I didn't have a license to drive in Germany so I was home A LOT. With no TV and AFN radio, i started to get pretty bored. Then I discovered the base library. I checked out and read ten books every two weeks. After I finished all the novels, I started on SciFi.

I don't read that much now, but when you add up the internet, books, magazines and a couple of on-line newspapers, I still read a fair amount. Oh, and what was my job when I retired? Paralegal with an engineering firm reading, analyzing and editing contracts -- more reading!

four siblings who pooled their weekly allowance and took turns letting one sibling have their own adventure. Since I came from a large family, it resonated.

It was one of his anthologies. "Men Without Bones" scared the heck out of me. I didn't realize mere words could be so entertaining. Given the book's title, I would think one of the stories should've been "Tippi Hedren Finds a Good Lawyer."

Especially the poem, The Potatoes Dance.

http://www.sienafallsmedia.com/gems/2010/07/07/vintage-childrens-book-illustrators-samuel-armstrong/

Although it was illustration, Holling C. Holling’s little masterpiece captivated my 5-year-old mind in like no book before it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddle-to-the-Sea

and all the Anne books. She was a poor orphan with red hair, adopted by a family that wanted to adopt a boy to work on their farm and they got Anne instead, but, of course, they grew to love her.

A few yrs ago, I decided to reread this book to see why I liked it so much as a child. OMG! all through the book Anne was being blamed for things she did not do - every chapter. She was the victim of massive unfairness.