Which is the first book you remember reading?

[Catherine.L]

Which is the first book you remember reading?
and how has it influenced your life?

[ennison]

Books were read to me but the first I read by myself was Biggles Learns to Fly. Well it made me a reader.

[Helga]

Yeah, my dad read a whole lot of 'grown-up' books to me but the first one I remember reading on my own and I read it 19 times in a row (I remember cause I had to return it to the library every time and take it out again) was Black Beauty. I loved that book, but I haven't read it since or in over 20 years, maybe it's time to read it to my son.

[Lokasenna]

I don't remember the first book I read. But then, I don't remember a time when I wasn't a keen reader.

[Catherine.L]

The first book I read was "Notes from Underground". I was 17 years old back then.
I couldn't understand much but I remember that I had uneasy sleep for a week trying to understand what Dostoevsky was trying to say.
I still wonder...

[mona amon]

I only remember reading the 'readers' that we started off with. I don't remember which proper storybook I read first.

Catherine, did you not read any children's books?

[Catherine.L]

This is a good question! No, I don't remember me having read any children book which is a shame...
My parents didn't like books...They thought (and still think) that reading is a waste of time and money.
But one day somebody brought to my mother as a birthday present Dostoevsky's book!!! She got so angry! She didn't like it at all!
And she said to me: "Do you want it or should I throw it away?"
Of course I kept the book and I am glad I did that!

Since then, I coudn't stop reading :)

[mona amon]

Astounding! :) It is difficult for me to imagine growing up without books, but recently Hubby's 75 year old uncle confessed that he'd read only one book in his life other than the Bible - Eric, or, Little by Little (I'd never heard of it). To go from complete inexperience to liking Dostoevsky is remarkable!

I think the first book I read may have been Little Black Sambo. I thought it was charming but many, many years later I re-encountered in a website for banned books. :shocked:

[Jackson Richardson]

The first book I bought and read was Enid Blyton's The Rockingdown Mystery. I re-read it recently for interest, but she churned out hundreds of books on the same formula.

[sandy14]

The first book I remember reading (by myself) was Prince Caspian - part of C S Lewis' Narnia Saga at age 9.

I got it as an Xmas present from an Aunt.

I enjoyed it, and started devouring books after that.

[YesNo]

I read all of the Hardy Boys series of mysteries in the rural library, but they couldn't have been the first books. We did have a book of Mother Goose rhymes and some Disney picture books that my mother read to me. They were probably the ones I first read by myself. There were also the Dick and Jane books from school. As I recall there weren't many books available and the library was 20 miles away from the farm where I grew up.

[sandy14]

I read all of the Hardy Boys series of mysteries in the rural library, but they couldn't have been the first books. We did have a book of Mother Goose rhymes and some Disney picture books that my mother read to me. They were probably the ones I first read by myself. There were also the Dick and Jane books from school. As I recall there weren't many books available and the library was 20 miles away from the farm where I grew up.

I remember reading a whole load of the Hardy Boys when I was an adolescent. They don't seem to be as around as much as they were in the 80's. Have they fallen out of fashion, or are they more popular elsewhere. (I'm in England).

[YesNo]

I don't see them anymore except in antique shops. There were also Nancy Drew mystery stories which had a similar format. I remember reading some of them as well. The library had a small corner for books like that. I went back to see that old building some years ago. It had been converted into a museum since it was one of the historic buildings Carnegie money funded in the early 20th century. I was amazed at how small it was. The current library in the town is larger.

My children read Harry Potter at about the same age I was reading those mystery novels.

I remember C S Lewis's, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". One of my classmates was reading it, but I didn't read it until I was an adult and out of school. Or at least I don't remember reading it at that time.

[Diggory Venn]

"The Wind in the Willows" and "Treasure Island" I remember reading aged about eight, nine, or ten. Also a few Dr Who novels - "The Horror of Fang Rock" by Terrance Dicks being the most memorable, (this was the Tom Baker era that I grew up in ;-)). I seem to remember that "The War of the Worlds" left an impression upon me as well...

[qimissung]

The first book I remember reading was a Dick and Jane book in school. I still remember Sally on the front porch eating a carrot like a bunny.

That was in first grade. By second grade I was reading more challenging books. I remember reading a book called "The Triumph of Janice Babson," about a little girl who got leukemia and died. What was memorable about her was that she want to donate her organs even before she fell ill and died. I believe she was able to donate her eyes to someone. She was very young at the time, maybe around my age.

[WICKES]

They were mostly by English-British writers: Roald Dahl's 'BFG', Enid Blyton's 'Secret Seven', Treasure Island and 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe'. The happiest memories of my life are not reading, but being read to. I also remember having a little cassette recording of Conan Doyle's 'The Lost World', which entranced me. As for poetry, the first time I became aware that language itself could be beautiful, aside from plot and character, was watching Kenneth Branagh's Henry V, still, imo, the best film version of a Shakespeare play. I watched it because I was a history buff and was fascinated by the grim, brutal realism. But gradually the beauty and rhythm of the language gripped me and without intending to I found I could recite great chunks of the play. Then there was Eliot's Waste Land. I don't remember how I stumbled across that, but I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever read. I understood virtually nothing of course, but I didn't care.

[prendrelemick]

I loved being read to, do they still do that in schools? The last 10 mins of the school day was spent being read a chapter of a classic book, Ivanhoe, Charlotte's Web, The Silver sword, Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, even Lear's Book of Nonsense.

The first book I remember reading and owning by myself was Winnie the Pooh. I read it till it fell apart.

[Raleigh Becket]

"James and the Giant Peach" I was in fifth grade. We were on a school trip to the local library and the librarian made up a game where she gave each kid a piece of paper with an author and a book title and we had to find the book and try reading a few pages of it.

Well, I found my book and started reading and couldn't stop. I got extremely upset when we had to leave and I didn't have a library card to check it out with. So I made my dad take me that weekend to apply for a card and see if the book was there. Since then, I haven't stopped reading.