# The first book you read



## CPMurphy (Jan 8, 2017)

Can you remember that first book you read just for the enjoyment of reading?
I left School at 15, having learned very little. and I mean very little, I was lucky I could spell my own name. I decided to teach myself and went and bought a book. if I remember correctly it was called The Little Silver Sword. It was a story about a boy during WW2. Although I must have read it over a hundred times as I thought myself to read, I can recall very little of it now. 

The WW2 theme must have stuck with me as I then took to reading the books of Sven Hassel, and Leo Kessler. Both helped to develop my love for reading.

How many others can remember the first book they read and the reason for reading it?


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## Bloggsworth (Jan 8, 2017)

Seriously? That was over 65 years ago - Probably a Biggles book.


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## H.Brown (Jan 8, 2017)

One of the first books that I can remember reading for myself would have to have been Enid Blyton's Noddy books when I was about four or five.


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## Winston (Jan 8, 2017)

_Janet and Mark_.  I forget the author.  Brilliant dialouge.

"Come see, Janet!  Come see!"

The classics stick with ya.


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## Blade (Jan 8, 2017)

Bloggsworth said:


> Seriously? That was over 65 years ago - Probably a Biggles book.



Yea really.:-k

I don't know if it was the first but I was very attached to a red, hardcover edition of A.A Milnes 
_The Christopher Robin Reader._:cheers:


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## midnightpoet (Jan 8, 2017)

It's not my first one, but my older brother had a complete collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs's novels in the early fifties (as far as I know, he still had them when he died a few years ago), and I got hooked on Tarzan.  Adventure!  Danger!  All that good stuff.  The movie Tarzans were quite ludicrous.  Around the same time I became a cub scout and started reading _Boy's Life_.  At least back then they had some cracking good stories made for young boys like me.  He also had a big red copy of Sherlock Holmes adventures (introduction by Christopher Morley) and I read every one.


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## Bard_Daniel (Jan 8, 2017)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea back when I was just a wee lad around 10 years old-- I think.

Great topic by the way. : D


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## CPMurphy (Jan 8, 2017)

Johnny Weissmuller played Tarzan. but wasn't it brilliant entertainment back then. I heard recently he made a small fortune by been one of the first people to have royalties added to his contract and made more money from those than he made from the movies. not sure how true that is though


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## bdcharles (Jan 9, 2017)

The first books I really remember getting hooked on were Willard Price's "Adventure" series - _Volcano Adventure_, _South Sea Adventure_,  stuff like that, written between 1949 and 1980. Hal and Roger Hunt, two  young chaps from Long Island, going off on various jollies with their  father to rescue animals from challenging situations while avoiding or  otherwise dealing with a who's-who of scheming ne'er do wells. They were  really quite epic in their way; I completely bought into the characters  and I felt like I went all over the world with them, but on reading  excerpts from them now, it seems there's a good whack of colonialism in  there alongside the conservation message. Product of one's environment,  no doubt.

Gosh, it's all so long ago. Makes me a bit sad for some reason. I've been alive forever.


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## escorial (Jan 9, 2017)

i've thought but can't say for sure if it was the first..i'm trying to figure out which book i actually went out and bought rather than remember which books i had to read at school..there are a few books but i'm dismissing annuals and kids stuff and trying to think of the first serious literature i attempted...i can remember reading dickens but i got that out of the library...just can't remeber the first serious reading i bought..dam


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## Ell337 (Jan 9, 2017)

Winston said:


> _Janet and Mark_.  I forget the author.  Brilliant dialouge.
> 
> "Come see, Janet!  Come see!"
> 
> The classics stick with ya.



LOL and here I thought it was Dick and Jane.
_
Here is Dick.
Here is Jane.
See Dick run.
See Jane run.
_


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## Ell337 (Jan 9, 2017)

I still read all my childhood favourites every now and then just for the sheer enjoyment of it. And because no-one writes quite like that any more. 



Bloggsworth said:


> Seriously? That was over 65 years ago - Probably a Biggles book.



Loved Biggles although I discovered him as an adult. 



H.Brown said:


> One of the first books that I can remember reading for myself would have to have been Enid Blyton's Noddy books when I was about four or five.



I had the ENTIRE set. 



Blade said:


> Yea really.:-k
> 
> I don't know if it was the first but I was very attached to a red, hardcover edition of A.A Milnes
> _The Christopher Robin Reader._:cheers:



Those books are PROFOUND!! 



midnightpoet said:


> It's not my first one, but my older brother had a complete collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs's novels in the early fifties (as far as I know, he still had them when he died a few years ago), and I got hooked on Tarzan.  Adventure!  Danger!  All that good stuff.  The movie Tarzans were quite ludicrous.  Around the same time I became a cub scout and started reading _Boy's Life_.  At least back then they had some cracking good stories made for young boys like me.  He also had a big red copy of Sherlock Holmes adventures (introduction by Christopher Morley) and I read every one.



Tarzan is wonderful. I grew up on the movies and then graduated to the books. Also loved the Mars books. Recently re-acquired a full set. One of the wonders of the digital age is having space for all your favourites. 



danielstj said:


> 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea back when I was just a wee lad around 10 years old-- I think.
> 
> Great topic by the way. : D



I was totally into sci-fi classics - used to borrow them from my Dad's bookcase. I wasn't allowed to read Dracula so I sneaked out into my tree house one night and read it by torchlight ... aged 9. This might be why I can't watch horror movies to this day because I scared the pants off myself. I was so relieved when my parents came to find me I didn't care how much trouble I was in. LOL



bdcharles said:


> The first books I really remember getting hooked on were Willard Price's "Adventure" series - _Volcano Adventure_, _South Sea Adventure_,  stuff like that, written between 1949 and 1980. Hal and Roger Hunt, two  young chaps from Long Island, going off on various jollies with their  father to rescue animals from challenging situations while avoiding or  otherwise dealing with a who's-who of scheming ne'er do wells. They were  really quite epic in their way; I completely bought into the characters  and I felt like I went all over the world with them, but on reading  excerpts from them now, it seems there's a good whack of colonialism in  there alongside the conservation message. Product of one's environment,  no doubt.
> 
> Gosh, it's all so long ago. Makes me a bit sad for some reason. I've been alive forever.



Wonderful books. Also the  Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Although I have to admit the books for boys were a bit more adventurous and fun.


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## sas (Jan 9, 2017)

I hate to tell this because it sounds so damn snooty, but I've a reason for my madness.

Facts:

I grew up in Detroit, blue collar; parents education 5th & 8th grade; no books in house except my text books; stuck sitting one summer on front porch bored at 15; went to library; got biggest book to take home as a long walk; book: The Complete Works of Shakespeare, by author I've forgotten; read entire thing...by end I could understand it. I was amazed by my feat. So, kept reading.


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## Terry D (Jan 9, 2017)

It's very difficult to say. The first novel I remember reading, at around age 6 was Brighty of the Grand Canyon, but, by then I was already very into collections of mythological tales. Not long after that I was reading Poe, Verne, Bradbury, Stoker, etc.etc.etc.


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## The Fantastical (Jan 9, 2017)

I can't actually remember what the first "proper" book I read on my own was... My mum tells me it was Black Beauty. Which makes sense, it has horses in it.


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## Ultraroel (Jan 12, 2017)

I read many many many books for enjoyment at school, but kept racing through them. The first books that I loved and kept reading and rereading was :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_Through_the_Night

but in Dutch, as I didn't speak English that well back then..
I actually went back to my parents the 1st of January and got my old, worn copy of the book and took it to Bulgaria for good old sake.


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## Ptolemy (Jan 12, 2017)

Bud not Buddy. God I hated that book. 

It wasn't the story that ticked me off it was that we had to constantly read it for 3 years straight. So much Red Pop and Cab Calloway drags on you.


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## bookmasta (Jan 13, 2017)

Ptolemy said:


> Bud not Buddy. God I hated that book.
> 
> It wasn't the story that ticked me off it was that we had to constantly read it for 3 years straight. So much Red Pop and Cab Calloway drags on you.



#FifthGrade.


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## thesnowman147 (Jan 29, 2017)

The first books that I enjoyed reading were the "Hank the Cowdog" books as a kid. It was either that or "Magic Treehouse", but I don't remember which I discovered first.


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## aj47 (Jan 29, 2017)

My first read-to-myself series was Carolyn Haywood's "Eddie" books and then the "Betsy" books.  I didn't find out about Ramona and Beezus and Beverly Cleary till I was older.


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## Phil Istine (Jan 29, 2017)

CPMurphy said:


> Can you remember that first book you read just for the enjoyment of reading?
> I left School at 15, having learned very little. and I mean very little, I was lucky I could spell my own name. I decided to teach myself and went and bought a book. if I remember correctly it was called The Little Silver Sword. It was a story about a boy during WW2. Although I must have read it over a hundred times as I thought myself to read, I can recall very little of it now.
> 
> The WW2 theme must have stuck with me as I then took to reading the books of Sven Hassel, and Leo Kessler. Both helped to develop my love for reading.
> ...



I did read a lot of comics at first and those old Janet and John books.  However, The Silver Sword (I don't recall Little in the title) was one of my early books once I'd learned to read reasonably well (not sure about it being the first).  My recollections of the book are also sketchy, but I do remember that I enjoyed it.


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## Pennywise Purple (Feb 22, 2017)

First book I ever read if I recall, was Clive Barker's 'Mister B. Gone' (in regards to)
It was my first book to make a real impact on my life growing up.

Ofc it wasn't my first novel ever... Those were goosebumps...

I had so many of those books. R.L. Stine was my jam back when.


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## GaryM (Apr 1, 2017)

Trying to think back that far.  

As Escorial mentioned, trying to sort out between what had to be read in school vs what I wanted to read or first purchased.  I would have to say it was _Instant Replay, The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer.  I was maybe 12 or 13 and y_es, I still have the book.  I have been a Green Bay Packer football fan since I was a little kid.


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## Pages (Apr 14, 2017)

Oh my. Well, I remember reading the Clifford The Big Red Dog series before I began school, so around 6ish. Maybe 5. I can still feel the grit of dirt through my thin dress as I sat on the floor and opened the ratty copy. "Wheedle on the Needle" by Serendipity Press is also incredibly vivid in my mind. I loved the artwork - so much more colourful than Clifford! Even the word 'serendipity' swirled in my mind pleasantly, and I would repeat it over and over in my head. And oh my goodness did I love to read the "Little Mister" and "Little Miss" series as well, every copy we had was well loved. Each time I finished a book I would go back to the beginning and stare at the pictures, loving how each book had different artwork and different fonts.

When I was around 7 I got my very own library card. It was made of thick manila tag with a white sticker on the front, and I used it constantly. Nothing stands out until about grade 5 when I was 10 when I read Paul Zindel's "Pardon Me, You're Stepping On My Eyeball" and Susan Cooper's "Dark is Rising". And then....Stephen King's "Christine". That one changed my world. King wrote differently than any author I'd read at the time, and I was hooked.


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## Baby Firefly (May 9, 2017)

Pennywise Purple said:


> First book I ever read if I recall, was Clive Barker's 'Mister B. Gone' (in regards to)
> It was my first book to make a real impact on my life growing up.
> 
> Ofc it wasn't my first novel ever... Those were goosebumps...
> ...



AAAH! I LOVE Mister B. Gone. That was my favorite book for a while. My fourteen(ish) year old self identified with the main character more than I'd care to admit, lol. As much as I liked the Goosebumps books, I was always more fond of the Fear Street books.


As for me, the first "real book" (not counting children's books) I remember reading was 'A Night To Remember.' I was five or six, obsessed with the sinking of the Titanic, and begged my mom to buy it for me. While in the bookstore, she told me that if I could read a random page to her, she'd get it for me. I ended up leaving the store with the book. My mom always took an "if you understand it, I'm fine with you reading/watching it" sort of approach (with "...and as long as you understand that this is fiction, not meant to be copied/acted out, and so on" tacked onto works of fiction).


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## LadyF (May 19, 2017)

I was 3 years old when I read the Greek Mythology - still very fascinated with it - my first book is a story about a Greek Goddess - very much in love!


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## lmarie (Jul 22, 2017)

I think it was 'Can I get there by Candlelight" by Jean Slaughter Doty. Not sure if it was exactly my first. It was about a girl who found a passageway back in time by riding her pony with a really old side saddle she found in an abandoned barn. Funny thing is that now I like to write in the same genre so I guess I havent changed all that much since then.


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## Jamboree (Jul 23, 2017)

According to my parents the first book I ever loved was 'The tiger who came to tea'. I can't say I ever read it since I was probably too young at the time but I used to know the words off my heart start to finish for a long time and I had memorised the story so much when I was younger. 

I was read a lot to when I was younger but some of the first books I would have read entirely by myself would probably have been Horrid Henry. Loved that series and got every single one. Or Captain Underpants another series my younger self adored.


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## JustRob (Jul 23, 2017)

That's going back to the early 1950's and being taken to the children's section of the local library by my mother. The choice didn't seem to be extensive, mainly fantasies about little girls with ponies (well certainly fantasies for an average kid in the suburbs of London then), but I fondly remember the factual books about electricity with their full colour illustrations of electric motors and other apparently magical devices, fantasies within far easier reach than ponies. They set the style of my entire future life. I don't understand the concept of reading being enjoyable in its own right to be truthful. 

Maybe though there was the occasion when I was ill and confined to bed and the only thing to hand to read in the house was a book of poetry including a poem from A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman. My sister thought that they ought to find me something more suited to my age and interests to read, but by then I had already learned "When I was one and twenty" off by heart for want of something to do and marvelled at the rhythmic style and sentiments behind it, so maybe that's what is being asked about here. Despite that experience I never did read any more poetry but that poem still resounds in the romantic corners of my mind to this day. Even looking at my angel across the dining table this very day I think "Oh, 'tis true, 'tis true." Had she not stayed with me all these years ... but I was one of the fortunate ones, thank heavens ... or maybe thanks to some good advice about keeping one's wits that I learned at an unusually early age.


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## olive12 (Aug 1, 2017)

Five Minutes Peace by Jill Murphy - I LOVED this.


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## kaufenpreis (Sep 2, 2017)

First book I remember reading .. Tiptoes the Mischievous Kitten by Noel Barr​


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## Dayshayde (Sep 2, 2017)

First book i read was my abc book when i was three then when i was five I read the boxcar children book one and some of the other boxcar children.


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## Articulate Lady (Sep 10, 2017)

I think it was definitely probably something by Dr. Seuss. "A Cat in the Hat or Green Eggs and Ham" Then I got involved with the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys not too long after that. Wonderful memories there.

Great thread by the way : )


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## bazz cargo (Sep 12, 2017)

For the Janet and John fans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLXLL6LCGn0

I think my first adult book read was by Douglas Reeman.


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## AnastasiaA (Oct 3, 2017)

The first book I vividly remember reading for fun was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when I was about 7 or 8 I believe. I must have re-read the whole Narnia series about 20 times since then, and even though they're for kids, and come across quite dated now, I still absolutely love them.'

I am a bit of an obsessive person - if I love something I'll devour it over and over again until I'm sick of it!


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## J Anfinson (Oct 5, 2017)

Earliest book I remember is See Spot Run.


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## MPhillip (Oct 8, 2017)

bazz cargo said:


> For the Janet and John fans.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLXLL6LCGn0
> 
> I think my first adult book read was by Douglas Reeman.



Thanks for the link.  That is hilarious!


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