What was the first book that got you into reading?

[Natalie]

I'd say whatever book was the first one my parents read to me after I was born is probably the correct answer :) I honestly don't know; I have been a bookworm since before I could read the words myself. One of my favorites to read with my mom on a rainy Saturday morning when I was about three though, was Runaway Marie Louise. But if it had words, I was interested.

[Natalie]

John wrote: "Nienna wrote: "It was the Dragonlance books by Weis and Hickman that got me. I was already a reader but those were the first books I felt that spark of passion for."

Yup! If I had to choose just o..."

As much as it pains me to say, I am guilty of having watched but never read The Neverending Story series. Please tell me the books are just as good or better than the movies!! I will have to add that to my reading mountain :)

[Joshua]

magician by Raymond e feist, after that I read every book he released and just started reading everything on my dads bookshelf.
(but now that I think on it more it might have been belgarath by David and Lee eddings then magician)

[Rob]

having polio as a young boy I spent more time in wheelchair rhan walking so read a lot

[Carolyn F.]

I really started reading about 4th grade - Island of the Blue Dolphins is the first that I can remember. I read very heavily in high school and on.

[Gateacre]

Confessional - probably like a lot of boys my age it was the Target series of 'Doctor Who' novelisations that got me into reading. I spent hours looking at the covers and re-read each one countless times. Terrace Dicks was like a modern Dickens!

[Jaco]

I started very late (18yo) with The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

[Jaco]

The first book I loved was Wyvern by A.A. Attanasio..

[Deedee]

Bambi was my first book that started me reading. A couple of years later I read The Witches of Karres, and that was when I decided that I liked Science Fiction. I remember reading Star Surgeon and Dune. Then I fell in love with Leo Tolstoy and read everything of his I could get ahold of. The world Tolstoy described was as strange and alien to my normal life as Arrakis was to my normal life, so it fits. :0)

I was a child in the 1960s. I wish that the extensive SF/F YA novels available today were available then.

[Chip]

Various Scholastic Book Fair selections and Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books introduced me to Sci-Fi/Fantasy.

[C.J.]

All the Roald Dahl books.

[Ron]

Chip wrote: "Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators"

Those were what really hooked me, they were readily available in the elementary library. I remember most of the scholastic books back then seemed to be choose your own adventure type books. I didn't really get a taste for reading Sci-Fi/Fantasy until high school.

Also, being in honors classes starting in jr high, we had an assigned book every month and every 2 weeks starting in high school, which limited my free time to read. But those selections nearly ruined me, as I rarely enjoyed them...

[Edwin]

I am not sure I can exactly remember the first book that got me into reading, but the first book that got me into reading SciFi I do, as it completely blew me away: Dune.

[C.J.]

Heir to the Empire (Star Wars)!

[Andy]

Had to thinks hard about this one. Jommeke, a Flemish comic series got me into reading at the age 7. And after that I read half the children books of our library so I'm not sure. I did love Thea Beckmans novels, reread some of them later and they're still great.

[Booklist54321]

Trying to remember, I can recall some books really made me more interested in reading at various phases of growing up.

Youngest
The Little Engine that Could

Adolescence
The Narnia Series
by C.S. Lewis

Pre-teen
The Original Shannara Trilogy
by Terry Brooks

Teen
The Wheel of Time series
by Robert Jordan
and recently Brandon Sanderson

[C.J.]

I like how you broke down each stage like that.

[J.]

This has been a fun thread. I have forgotten about many of the books mentioned here. Paul, thanks for bringing up the Redwall. I love Brian Jacques.

[Jenelle]

I started teaching myself to read around age 4... reading was just something I always loved. However, the first real memory of "reading" a book (other than a children's book) by myself, was when my Dad was reading "A Wrinkle in Time" out loud to me, and I simply COULD NOT WAIT to find out how it ended, so I snuck it off his shelf in the afternoon and finished it. (I think that actually kind of hurt his feelings, but mostly because he thought I wouldn't want to listen to him read it anymore, but I assured him that that was not the case, I just HAD to know how the story ended). I think that was my first real, "just can't put this story down" experiences.

And the rest is history.

[Elizabeth]

I have no recollection of life before books! My earliest loves were pants with nothing in them, green eggs and ham, and chicken little.

[Jenelle]

Elizabeth wrote: "I have no recollection of life before books! My earliest loves were pants with nothing in them, green eggs and ham, and chicken little."

"I do not fear those pale green pants, with nobody inside them. I said and said and said those words, I said them, but I lied them." !!! Favorite children's story EVER! :)

[Christopher]

Yeah, those pants kind of unnerved me as a child as well. There was something very creepy about them. Even now, as an adult, if I turned a corner and saw a pair of solitary pants walking toward me, I'd probably scream like a little girl and run.

As far as the first book question, that's difficult. My parents read to me quite a lot, but the first books that made a strong impression on me were probably Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising series. I read those with a flashlight, under the covers, when I should've been asleep. Scared the pants off me at that age, which brings us right back to Dr. Seuss...

[Elizabeth]

Jenelle wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "I have no recollection of life before books! My earliest loves were pants with nothing in them, green eggs and ham, and chicken little."

"I do not fear those pale green pants, wi..."

I wasn't sure anyone else remembered that story! Green Eggs and Ham and Cat in the Hat are oft mentioned but I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone else mention Pants with Nothing in Them. I loved that story so much.

[Randy]

Chris wrote: "I also don't remember a time I did not read. Perhaps the two that I remember the most were The Dark Is Rising and Futuretrack 5, the latter I spent the next 20 years trying to remember the title of..."

I LOVED the Dark Is Rising when I was growing up! Someone told me about Over Sea, Under Stone in 7th grade. A few years ago I bought the entire series and some day really need to re-read it (especially since they are so short compared to stuff nowadays).

[Paul]

I can't remember any time I wasn't in to reading. According to my mother, I was reading at around three and a half years old, and before that I loved to be read to.

My favorite stories from the earliest days I can remember were Yertle the Turtle and Harold and the Purple Crayon. Neither would have been my first book, though.

[Natalie]

Paul wrote: "I can't remember any time I wasn't in to reading. According to my mother, I was reading at around three and a half years old, and before that I loved to be read to.

My favorite stories from the e..."

Harold And The Purple Crayon!! Great series!!

[Whitney]

I think the first Science Fiction book I read that got me into the genre was I think this is the cover of the one we read after I finished this my teacher informed me that it was a series and so I began on those.

My first Fantasy that I can remember reading is in this edition. I was actually not informed by the teacher that it was a series and didn't get around to reading anymore of these books until way later.

before this I read alot of the "club" books. and the spin offs.

My teacher tried to give me Harry Potter but nah I wasn't feeling that weird Kid lol.

[Hank]

I read many books before Witch World , but that is the first book I purchased myself and started me on the path.

[Elizabeth]

I don't actually remember a specific book that started me on this wonderful book filled road. But I do remember reading The Baby-Sittters Club and Goosebump books when I was young. They certainly were not the first, but they stick out in my mind. But this thread has added many more books to my "to-read" list! :D