What was your first 'proper book'??

[Lioness_Heart]

What was the first proper book that you read as a child?

Not necessarily great literature, but the step up form Topsy and Tim or Janet and John that made you think that reading was what you loved most in the world.

And why that book?

Mine was Five have plenty of fun by Enid Blyton when I was 5. We were going to see the stage production of the famous five at the Oxford Playhouse, so mum bought me the book as our bedtime reading. The familiar story then followed with me picking it up and turning my lights back on to read ahead... and I was captivated; I've loved books ever since. Although my Famous Five phase lasted for a while, thankfully I have moved on somewhat.

So what about you?

[Dori]

Legends of King Arthur by Janyce L. Minnton

[Julian Koller]

Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[Aeltya]

What was the first proper book that you read as a child?
The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

[loggats]

I've been told that my first 'proper book' was the Little Prince, but I most remember Peter Rabbit and Alice. We read along with our parents, so it's difficult to remember when I started reading alone.

I do remember that the first book I ever brought home from the school library was Swallows and Amazons. The dog tore it to shreds.

[amalia1985]

It was "Jamaica Inn", my mother's all-time favourite book. She gave it to me in my 12th birthday.

[manolia]

My first proper book was Antigone i think or Aristophanes' "The frogs". I was about 11 years old.

[Nossa]

The Return of the Spirit by an Egyptian writer called Tawfiq Al-Hakim...I was 11 or 12 can't really remember!

[amanda_isabel]

i think it was freckle juice, by judy blume..or one of those babysitters club books.

[jon1jt]

Call of the Wild by Jack London. I think I was eight, maybe ten, I don't remember, I was very young. I read it once wearing my winter coat on in the house, and my mother came into my room to ask me why I was wearing it--it was one of those jackets with the fur around the hood. I told her that I was cold, but the truth is I was too embarrassed to tell her that I was living in that novel.

[kratsayra]

Call of the Wild by Jack London. I think I was eight, maybe ten, I don't remember, I was very young. I read it once wearing my winter coat on in the house, and my mother came into my room to ask me why I was wearing it--it was one of those jackets with the fur around the hood. I told her that I was cold, but the truth is I was too embarrassed to tell her that I was living in that novel.

That is adorable Jon!!

I think my first "chapter book" (which is how I interpreted the question) was Stuart Little. And I read most of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books too. Those were the first books that I really sat down and read at length on my own.

[Bakiryu]

My father taught me to read with Gulliver's Travels and Ronia, daughter of the bandits. The spanish translations.

[capek]

I read a ton of the Piers Anthony Xanth books starting when I was ten or so. Fun stuff, even though I'm sure I didn't get half the puns that were the mainstay of that series.

[Pensive]

I started reading Urdu afsaanas (stories of relations, family problems or love stories) from quite an early age, let's say from Grade 2 or Grade 3. Oh and I also used to read suspense Urdu novels. And from Grade 3 or Grade 4 got interested in Enid Blyton's Secret Seven and Famous Five series.

[Oniw17]

The first real novel I read was the first Harry Potter in third grade. The first novel that I read and liked was about a Jewish girl in WWII(not Anne Frank), a year later; sadly, I can't remember it's name. I didn't decide that I really liked reading until relatively recently, and it was reading a Napoleon biography, not a novel. I really liked the feeling my brain got while I was reading Felix Markham's biography of Napoleon, I don't think there was anything particualy significant about the book though, I just decided that I liked reading while I read it.

[ex ponto]

The White Fang by Jack London.

[Lioness_Heart]

And from Grade 3 or Grade 4 got interested in Enid Blyton's Secret Seven and Famous Five series.

Yay! someone else who liked Enid Blyton.

The first fantasy book that I read was The Hobbit when I was about 6. Then I tried reading The Lord of the Rings when I was 7 but it somewhat got the better of me.

[sysiphus]

hello. for me it was frank herbert's dune in the fifth grade. i was just engrossed in all the sci-fi movies back then (star wars came out when i was 8) and my dad gave me the book and said i'd love it. he was right. that led to asimov, then clark and finally to heinlein.

it's been years since i read any sci-fi, but it still has a special place in my heart.

[LadyWentworth]

I was 11 when I read E.M. Forster's Maurice. I then read Gone With the Wind at 12. I followed that, still 12, with Wuthering Heights. That ended up being the book that really got me going with reading.

[grace86]

I read so much as a kid. While still young I read all those Dr. Seuss books, then about 3,4, and 5th grade I was reading Baby Sitter's club, Black Beauty and Goosebumps. I had a bunch of L.M. Montegomery books but I don't think I read those. My favorite book around sixth grade was Phoenix Rising along with a lot of the Redwall books. But I didn't start really absolutely enjoying the classics until I saw my older brother reading Robinson Crusoe. I had always known he loved reading (especially fantasy like LOTR), so I bought Robinson Crusoe and just started devouring novels since then.

Hehehe my elementary school teachers would have our classes do silent reading, and I managed to acquire a lot of novels that belonged to the class for my own library....so I guess you can say I loved reading!

[novelsryou]

A Choice Of Weapons ~ Gordon Parks

I read this book 30 years ago and have never forgotten it. Now I'm going to read it again.

[Matilda]

My first real books were the Famous Five by Enid Blyton (me too!!!), when I was about 5 or 6.
I also loved Laura Ingalls, Astrid Lindgren ( The Brothers Lionheart!), Bilbo and Narnia.

[Pensive]

Yay! someone else who liked Enid Blyton.

:)

I still like her stories/novel series, recently read a story from her Adventure series (The Island of Adventure) in order to revive the childhood memories. :p

[*Classic*Charm*]

C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe in grade 2. So I guess I was about 7?? I was partial to The Saddle Club before that, but those fell along the same lines as the Babysitters' Club so they weren't a big challenge.

[Tersely]

My first was Anna Karenina when I was about 10 that turned me on to reading. I didnt finish it at the time because it was so advanced and I knew what my limits were. But I vowed to stop then and try to go at reading little by little until I could get to that level. By the time I started high school I was ready to try again and take it more seriously. Can't describe that awesome feeling of knowing I really improved.

[daisyday]

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain.

(recently read it again, 50 or so years later and enjoyed it again)

[The Intended]

The books that really got me into reading were K.A. Applegate's Animorphs series. As for the first proper book: Dracula, when I was twelve. I absolutely adore that book (I'm actually reading it again.) I can remember thinking, "So, this is classic, right? Why isn't it boring?"

[Lost Arts]

When I was 8, my 14 year old sister (and roommate) died and I was left with all her favourite books. I'm pretty sure one of the first I read was "Little Women" and it was definitely a big part of my grieving process. To mourn for Beth helped me to mourn for my sister.:bawling:

[Nightshade]

The secret Garden , my mum refused to read it to me a 4th time so I read it to myself twice in one day and that was it... my speed of reading and love of it was born.

[Tersely]

The books that really got me into reading were K.A. Applegate's Animorphs series.

I owned every one of those. :D

[The Intended]

I owned every one of those. :D

Me too! And then I got so mad at how they ended I put them all in a big garbage bag and gave them to the library.

[Nightshade]

Me too! And then I got so mad at how they ended I put them all in a big garbage bag and gave them to the library.
:lol:
I borroweed the lot from a friend while we were on holiday... my sisters weher abiut 10 books behind me , I hod the last one and told them it was for their own good that they didnt read it, Ive found most of applegates books end horribley.!

[Hira]

Can't really remember. There was this book Mr. Meddle's Muddles by Enid Blyton and I loved that when I was six or seven. Can't remember many Urdu ones either. There were these book containing the adventure stories of Hatim Tai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatim#Books_About_Hatim:) in Urdu and it was wonderful.

[Dark Star]

I owned every one of those. :D

:D I loved that series, too. Didn't own every one, though. All I had in my town to buy books at was a Wal-Mart and they didn't always stock the new monthly (or was it bi-monthly?) copy so I missed some here and there.

[Igetanotion]

The first book I chose to read on my own was The Inferno of Dante Alighieri. I was really quite young, but had heard something about it somewhere and decided I was old enough to read it. I'm not sure how far I got, though on re-reading it a few years ago I remembered enough to substantiate the memory.

...I was a really wierd kid lol...

Other then that, The Diary of Anne Frank was the next "proper" book I read.

[Shalot]

Well, when I was in the first or second grade, my grandmother bought me a collection of abridged classics, such as twenty thousand leagues under the sea, the prince and the pauper, heidi, black beauty etc.

they were illustrated and they sat on my book shelf forever.

I think my first proper book was Little House in the Big Woods. After I read that, I read little House on the Prairie and then started reading baby sitter club books and Nancy Drew and after that I finally got around to reading those abridged classics.

[annakarina]

Oh God, I can't remember a specific one... the LM Montgomery books of course (I was actually a bigger fan of Emily of New Moon than Anne, though...) Black Beauty, A Little Princess, the Secret Garden, Ballet Shoes, Charlotte Sometimes, the Chronicles of Narnia... and mountains and mountains of pony books.
There's one thing I'm looking forward to about having kids some day, and that's being about to pass on my carefully preserved childhood library... I know I'll feel so jealous of them entering these magical worlds for the first time! I don't know what I'll do if I end up with loathesome video-gameaholic bibliophobes though... probably have to drown them.

[illuminatus]

I think my first "chapter books" were the Hardy Boys books by Franklin W. Dixon.

[RagleGumm]

I had been reading "bad" literature for quite some time but one day (was 15 at the time) a friend of mine bought me a copy of The Stranger by Albert Camus. That's when everything changed.

[mmanuelap]

I believe it was Metamorphoses by Franz Kafka :D
had to read it at least 3 times to understand anything :p

[Tersely]

All I had in my town to buy books at was a Wal-Mart and they didn't always stock the new monthly (or was it bi-monthly?) copy so I missed some here and there.

Eww...I have that problem now. I used to live in a city with 8 bookstores under a 20 mile radius. Now I moved to a smaller town with only a walmart as my book store. Amazon.com became my best friend.

The Intended- I feel the same way about the series, and its such a shame because I spent years following it and its one of those books that were in my early childhood that I can't take back.

[ntropyincarnate]

I'm not sure, but I think the first "proper book" I actually read on my own might have been Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field(?). I think. I really can't remember. I really have no remembrance of how old I was when I read certain things.

[dramasnot6]

I was 5 when I became a true bookworm, although I have been told I loved to be read to long before that.
I loved a collection of tales of folklore from around the world, illustrated and simplified for children. I remember a few short stories, particulary one about rice balls and mice from Japan. In the story, an old man would sing "Rolling...Rolling...Rolling rice balls".
I got a big 5 year old kick outta that.

[lucidnightmares]

my first where probably the books by R.L Stine:blush:
but my first book that actually drew me into it was A Dirty Job....best book ever

[Lioness_Heart]

Other then that, The Diary of Anne Frank was the next "proper" book I read.

I remember, the first time I read that, I think I was too young to fully appreciate its true implications; the fact that this was her real diary. It's only since then, reading it again, that I've really appreciated it. Just thinking about it now makes me feel really sad and shivery.

[Etienne]

While I was a reader for a long time, the book that really lighted the passion was Tolstoy's War and Peace.

[beatlegirl8705]

My first proper book was Charlotte's Web!

[Trillian]

My first "chapter book" was James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, at the age of four. My aunt has a snapshot of me sitting under a tree, just enthralled, with the book open in my lap, and my favorite cat sleeping next to me. Meeemorieees, light the corner of my miiiiind...:rolleyes: