How were you hooked?

[Leo The Lion]

I was sitting here wondering, actually trying my best to remember, what got me hooked on reading; what were the first few book(s) that got me interested in stories, and kept me reading to present day?
I've actually had quite the knack for reading since I was a wee lad; reading 'How To Be A Grouch' by the Sesame Street Workshop, and the Goosebump books. If you were a late starter, as far as literary appreciation, what was the book that took you by storm, led you into another world, and encouraged you to breath fiction.

Let it roll.

[MorpheusSandman]

I've liked reading since I was a kid. I remember before I could even read there was a robot book that I memorized and would "read it" to my grandma even though I didn't know the words. In 3rd grade I actually won first prize for reading the most books of anyone in my school in a semester (300+ I think it was). During my teens my reading was inconsistent. It wasn't until I found Alan Moore's Watchmen and Neil Gaiman's Sandman series recently that my love for reading was reignited stronger than it's ever been. It also occurred to me that literature was the last major art-form I'd yet to be obsessed with, so it was time to start.

[Morad]

I've always had some novels taken from my uncle's shelf. Most of them were classics. Starting the first chapters was always of no use because I didn't know that most stories begin with ordinary paragraphs and even chapters, so I used to skip some in order to gain entertainment and ended up finishing no one of the whole collection.

Fairy Tales took my attention because I was too young. Bit by bit, I started to love reading everything until I came to study literature intensively in school and that has made the difference.

I remember I liked Black Beauty, Gulliver's Travels, Heidi, and of course Robinson Crusoe !

[DeadAsDreams]

I've always read alot, but I think the book that got me hooked was Lord of The Rings in 3rd grade. I quite honestly read it at least 20 times that year.

[Leo The Lion]

Morpheus Sandman! I remember going into the first grade being the only child who could actually 'read'. My grandmother also quite frequently tells me that when I was tiny, she would put books in my 'play-pen' and I would neither tear them up nor color inside of them (unlike many of my cousins and siblings).

Morad, fairy tales ripped me apart, and gave me a sense of romanticism that I've never completely lost.

[Etienne]

I was reading more than the average, but what got me really hooked up is Tolstoy's War and Peace.

[MorpheusSandman]

I remember going into the first grade being the only child who could actually 'read'. I think I learned to read when I was 4... I know it was before I was 5, because that was kindergarten I know I could read by then.


I've always read alot...DeadAsDreams, hey, check your PMs...

[JBI]

I didn't really start serious reading until coming across Eugene Onegin by accident at age 15. Ever since then I can't read anything mediocre without cringing. I always liked to read, though I had a very narrow field until Onegin. Until then, I guess, I didn't know reading could be like that.

Afterwards, of course, I was forced to make up for lost time, and, as a rather painful result, I force myself at 300 pages a day.

Of course, I have no clue where the crazy idea of majoring in English manifested itself in my brain (I think in my last year of high school), but the roads have been uphill ever since.

[mortalterror]

Welcome back, JBI.

[clumsy angelle]

I have learned my love for reading in high school. The first novel that I read was Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Wooden Lady. However, I think the Harry Potter series is what hooked me into reading. Anyway, I've always had this great interest for reading short stories when I was in grade school. I liked going to our school library and read short stories like "The Little Mermaid," "Cinderella," and everything. Books are my companions through rough and boring times and I love them:)

[armenian]

Notes From Underground, i didnt know these things could be put into words.

now 'existential' literature is about all i exclusively read, i like the unspoken truth of it. it doesnt feel like empty reading/

[ClaesGefvenberg]

I was sitting here wondering, actually trying my best to remember, what got me hooked on reading; what were the first few book(s) that got me interested in stories, and kept me reading to present day?Great subject, Leo :thumbs_up

I have to confess, though, that I cannot answer the question in ernest, but I do know that I was hooked as soon as I was able to connect a couple of letters into a word. I have been hooked ever since.

/Claes

[Erichtho]

I don't think there has been a crucial reading experience in my life that turned me into a bibliophile. As a child I loved to listen to fairy tales, legends, fables and such stories and later I read them on my own. I cannot remember reading the typical children classics like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Astrid Lindgren's books and so on...
My first contact with serious literature was around age 11, and after that I slowly started to read more and more, and also books of more literary nature.

[John Goodman]

Cornelia Funke's books, Harry Potter, Narnia series, all when I was much younger.

And of course, Roald Dahl.

[integrity]

The Monster at the End of This Book

http://www.amazon.com/Monster-This-Book-Birds-Favorites/dp/0375805613

and Dr. Seuss, of course.

:D

Little Women was the first classic that I can remember reading, and it was a favorite for a long time.

[Joreads]

I always loved to read when I was little but what really got me in was Agatha Christie. Since then I read everything that I can. I even joined a book club which I am still a member of

[Bakiryu]

I don't remember what got me hooked. My father was a teacher so I learned to read and write at a very early age. I even got to read in front of my whole class for being the best reader in the first grade :lol:

[papayahed]

Judy Blume: Are you there god it's me margaret, Deenie, Fudge, Tales of a fourth grade nothing, Blubber, Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great ,
SE Hinton: The Outsiders, Rumblefish, That Was Then, This Is Now, and Tex

[Chester]

My interest in books started relatively late. I came to realize over time that all of what really matters is best expressed to me by literature.

[Annamariah]

I must have reading in my genes :D There has always been a lot of books in my life. When I was a small kid, my parents and grandparents read to me all the time. I learned to read two years before I went to school, and ever since I've read a lot. When I was still in comprehensive school there was a time when I read usually two books a day. (I would have read even more, mut my father said that I read too much and that two books per day was the limit.) I guess books were a sort of replacement for the friends I didn't find at school.

[MissCosette]

Dr. Seuss

[Melmoth]

At school by a bilingual edition of Hamlet... and at my leisure time... a book called Who loves Gilbert Grape? , which is not especially a great book but I suppose that it was just a catalizer to originate my interest in reading -by the way, the film is quite correct.

[Jueno]

When I read Lord of the rings in the 6th grade.

[Janine]

My love of books goes way back, also. I think it must have first originated with my father reading us Oscar Wilde Fairytales and before that he always would recite to us the poem: Wynken Blynken and Nod, which I still love....not sure I spelled those names right. He seemed to instill in all of us (I and my two sisters) this love for really fine and well written literature. He had a large set of books - each a classic author - which I inherited and cherish very much. I have probably only read 1/10 of all that is in those great books but this has always been my goal - to read as much of them as I can in my lifetime - the most worn edition is "Shakespeare's Collected Works." In fact, that one is falling appart, but I will never part with it. Second most worn is probaby "Oscar Wilde".

[Nossa]

I don't know what got me hooked on reading. I think I just really liked the study of Literature in university, and I felt drawn to books. I rarely read anything in school (not too proud of that), but now I'm a bookwarm and proud of it :D

[Leo The Lion]

When I was still in comprehensive school there was a time when I read usually two books a day. (I would have read even more, mut my father said that I read too much and that two books per day was the limit.) I guess books were a sort of replacement for the friends I didn't find at school.

Talk about dedication. Although, I wasn't aware that their was such a thing as reading too much.



At school by a bilingual edition of Hamlet... and at my leisure time... a book called Who loves Gilbert Grape? , which is not especially a great book but I suppose that it was just a catalizer to originate my interest in reading -by the way, the film is quite correct.

Wow, that is one of my favorite movies. And I had no idea that it was actually a book, but I'll have to find it!

[Erichtho]

My love of books goes way back, also. I think it must have first originated with my father reading us Oscar Wilde Fairytales [...]

Oh, they are so beautifully written, real gems! :thumbs_up The only bad thing that deserves to be mentioned is that the morality has too much space in those stories.

[cipherdecoy]

I wasn't a voracious reader when I was younger but I did enjoy reading books by Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl. Then I was quite into genre fiction until I read Jane Eyre when I was 13 and discovered the world of literature :alien:

[Melmoth]

Wow, that is one of my favorite movies. And I had no idea that it was actually a book, but I'll have to find it!

Yes, Leo, the film is really moving too... by the way, sorry but the actual name of the book/film is What's Eating Gilbert Grape, I was misled by the Spanish translation... :bawling:

And the book is by Peter Hedges...

[Annamariah]

Talk about dedication. Although, I wasn't aware that their was such a thing as reading too much.

Well yeah, I guess most parents are just trying to make their kids read more, not less... :D But I think my father had a point there, though at the time I didn't agree with him. It can't be very healthy to sit all day long with your nose buried in a book.

[Lioness_Heart]

When my mum used to read me bedtime stories, I'd always ask for the longest ones, so sometimes she skipped a few pages here and there... Once I got suspicious, I started reading ahead to see what I was missing... and I've never stopped reading since.

[DapperDrake]

I can remember the first book that got me hooked, sadly I don't remember its name but I do remember it was about frogs, a children's book of course. I remember fairly vividly the feelings I had when I discovered this new world, a world that was perfectly safe and warm, a world that I controlled - I could turn on the light once I'd gone to bed, open the book and read and there was this world at my command.
I guess I was about 8, the next book I remember was a simplified wind in the willows, with pictures, I remember I didn't like it so much because it contained menace, i.e. the weasels and to be honest I liked the frog book so much because it made me feel safe and I was less likely to have nightmares.
I guess the first proper book (rather than a picture book) I read by myself and on my own initiative was at the age of 10, it was the Adventurous four - this really kick started my love of reading because with in a year and a half I'd read about 50 books, including many Famous Five books, many Doctor Who books and the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings (which was a bit of a struggle).
My first classic novel (outside school) was the Old Curiosity Shop by Dickens, though I possibly read some of the Pickwick Papers before hand. I would of been early teens.

[beekers03]

I can't remember anything before this book about dogs which we read in kindergarden. I read black beauty in first grade and have never turned back. I consume books voraciously... I hung out almost exclusively in the library until college, reading everything with words. I read Phantom of the Opera in 7th grade and I have never loved a book more. :) Perhaps this is because MY name is christine ;)

[glory]

Ah, the classic question for me. As I'm merely a teenager,it gives me great regret that I cannot "think back to when i was young", but I can say that i have enjoyed many stories past along from my teachers to me. I am told I'm gifted(I'd say average), but I've always been reading, but not on a serious commitment-like note. Of course Dr. Suess and Sesame Street was plastered into my head, so naturally I read. It wasn't until the second grade that my teacher, Ms.Lawton, after coming back to school from her third case of chicken pox(yes, i was suspicious also) that she noticed I had a large grasp of literature for my age. She had the first Harry Potter book hidden behind her desk,and asked me to read it, knowing i enjoyed any challenge. After that, I pretty much hate missing to read a new book every week. I'm currently on Stephenie Meyer's new book "Breaking Dawn" the end of the Twilight Saga.

[Annamariah]

I can remember the first book that got me hooked, sadly I don't remember its name but I do remember it was about frogs, a children's book of course.

Could it have been Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel? At least I liked them very much when I was a kid :lol:

[browneyedbailey]

My mother and father both contibuted to my passion for reading. My mother started to read the Harry Potter. I began to read more and more independently. My father helped me by reading the Prydain Chronicles to me every night. I read more and more, 'till I can't stop. I love to read!!! XD

[Big Al]

I remember the books by which I learned to read: it was the "Little Critters" series by Mercer Meyer. After I became more adept, it was R.L Stein's "Goosebumps" series. I wonder what I would think if I ever went back and re-read any of those?

[Leo The Lion]

I remember the books by which I learned to read: it was the "Little Critters" series by Mercer Meyer. After I became more adept, it was R.L Stein's "Goosebumps" series. I wonder what I would think if I ever went back and re-read any of those?

Talk nostalgia. Little Critters was my 'stuff' as a child. I couldn't get enough of those, actually, I think I'll go pick some up at the library..I anticipate the stares.

[kratsayra]

you know, I can't remember exactly. Because I remember the first "chapter" books I read, around age 6 or 7 I guess, were Stuart Little and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Books. But even though I read them all, I didn't absolutely adore them. I just read them because they were there. I think I got them as presents or something.

And then somehow I went from those books to reading every second. Walking and reading, reading on the bus to school, reading on family vacations, it just never stopped . . . :D

[wilbur lim]

The first book I had ever read is 'Hank the Cowdog',alas,alack,I forgot who the author was,but overall,it makes me stimulated.
Reading books can teach you how to get hooked,and you will them have the ability to apply the productive knowledge.I dissect every sentence which I read,which is vital.

[Idril]

I actually read very little when I was younger. I remember my mom saying she was worried about me because I come from a very 'literate' family and I was the only one who didn't have their nose stuck in a book. I read the books that were assigned to me in school...I mean actually read them :rolleyes: and enjoyed them but it never occurred to me to read them on my own, for my own pleasure. It wasn't until I was out of school that I realize just how much I did enjoy reading and started picking up books for myself. I started out with Stephen King, Anne Rice and the like, very middle of the road, easy to digest stuff but it didn't take too long before I had moved on. I think Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh was the classic piece of literature I read and I was hooked.

[bazarov]

I started when I was 5, and from that to now I constantly read. I just hope I made some progress :D