What Was "THE BOOK" That Made You A Reader?

[Carolyn]

Did you also read Enid Blyton when kid?

[David]

I read the first Harry Potter book and then couldn't stop reading. Then I went on a stretch where I didn't read much (oh, those sad teenage years) but then I read short stories by Billy Wells and started reading again, even though the short stories weren't that great.

[Lorraine]

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. My copy is 38 years old now. I wanted to be Petra, but I fear I was more like Pauline!

[Jake]

"The Black Stallion" series could be obtained one book at the time from the "Bookmobile" that visited our local school in the summer months, every three weeks. I was only six or seven, but the reading my mother had done through the prior years, in Bible stories and Sunday comics, finally ignited. I've been in love with books ever since.

[Cate (The Professional Fangirl)]

For me, it's the Nancy Drew Mysteries. Specifically, #9 The Sign of the Twisted Candles.

[David]

Cate (The Professional Fangirl) wrote: "For me, it's the Nancy Drew Mysteries. Specifically, #9 The Sign of the Twisted Candles."

Yes! Lol I'm a guy, so none of my friends understood why I read those books (or read at all), but that didn't stop me ;)

[Cate (The Professional Fangirl)]

^ Hahaha, I didn't have many friends who read also... guys or girls. I got my first copy from my mom. She read those too when she was little. Now, I'm collecting all Grosset & Dunlap editions.

[David]

Yep same here. Mom read them and then gave me a few. I remember going to this two-story Barnes and Nobles building to buy the books whenever we went to the aquarium. After a few years, I'd collected many the first 30 by buying a few at at time.

To be honest, there's only two times where I remember intentionally buying a book at a physical store. As in, I kept going back to that exact store to buy the books. Those two times were for Nancy Drew and for the Harry Potter series.

[Roy]

Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren. Yep, that's where it all begun. I guess I must have been 8 or 9.

[Darcy]

The book that probably got me into reading was Midnight by Cherith Baldry. After I read that book I gobbled down each Erin Hinter book from third grade to sixth gradish. I absolutely loved their books and still do. Midnight

[Patty]

I have always loved reading, but the book I feel made me a "reader" is The Yearling. I remember the faded green cover, slightly yellowed pages, and learned a story can make a person feel.

[Karen M]

I'm sure it was a Golden Book and it was probably Dumbo or Bambi. My Mother was an avid reader and she would take me to see the Disney movies and then buy me the books. I actually still had those two books to pass on to my two nephews when they little.

[Tabitha]

Karen M wrote: "I'm sure it was a Golden Book and it was probably Dumbo or Bambi. My Mother was an avid reader and she would take me to see the Disney movies and then buy me the books. I actually still had those t..."

Love those Golden Books. God bless the loved ones who read to us!

[Cate (The Professional Fangirl)]

Aw, those Golden Books. I got a boxed set every birthday until I was 6-7 years old.

[Hope]

My current love of YA comes directly from 50 shades of grey. And then I read Hunger Games, Divergent, and Vampire Academy and it was a downward spiral from there into a serious book addiction worse than any flirtations I had with books before

[Diane]

Like others have said, college really sucked the desire to read out of me. I worked full time and went to school full time so who had time to read for enjoyment. Years later I read random books here and there (always a horror fan and my husband got me hooked on the Wheel of Time series) but I really didn't have the addiction I have today. I think after my kids were in school and a bit independent I started reading again. A student recommended Hunger Games to me and I loved it and read the whole series in a week. Then somebody recommended Goodreads to a friend on Facebook so I checked it out and that was it I have been in full addiction mode since. I binge read the Outlander series and just could not get enough after that. The buy with one click option for kindle has fueled my like crazy. Now my TBR is so huge I don't think I could ever finish it with out being independently wealthy and I have enough unread e- books already to keep me going for a year.

[John]

Treasure Island (same as Meredith in message 16). I was very young, maybe 6 or 7 (this was some 60 years ago). I learned to read very early at school, but this book was special because my parents bought it at the A&P supermarket when they bought groceries one week - it was part of a set of condensed version classics, with a different one offered every week. The reason it is The Book is because I started reading it in the back seat of the car on the way home from the store and continued all day and into the evening - and my parents were shocked to discover at bedtime that I had read the entire book in that one day!

I continue to read voraciously and usually finish one or two books a week.

[Karin]

When I was in the primary grades I got a book a month of the Maggie Muggins series and LOVED them, but I was already a reader. Once I could read, I just did because I loved it, not because of any book. I read almost all of the Nancy Drew books, but found them later in the primary grades in the school library, I think.

[Victor]

Lori wrote: "Charlie wrote: "Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. My dad gave it to me to read when I was a Jr. in high school."

That book is a thorn in my side! I've tried to read it on three s..."

I read it in high school as well. Perhaps you have to read it young, like Karl Marx or Tom Paine. Any kind of single-minded purism will rankle mature adults.

[Victor]

I don't remember my first books, they were always so ubiquitous in our house. I do vividly remember The Neverending Story. That was the first one that felt like my book, a book I read and liked and reread, that plenty of people hadn't heard of (or, because the movie was popular, hadn't realized was a book). That made reading personal to me.

[Karin]

Victor wrote: "Lori wrote: "Charlie wrote: "Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. My dad gave it to me to read when I was a Jr. in high school."

That book is a thorn in my side! I've tried to read ..."

I was rankled by Atlas Shrugged at age 21. Perhaps I should have read it at 16, although I'm not sure how mature I was at 21. However, I was in university and a rather deep thinker, so 16 might have been perfect.

[Donnalee]

I was a reader from the time I could read. Books transported me even as a child. I remember reading Nancy Drew and Little House on the Prairie Books and joining the library book reading club for the summer. There really was not one book that struck me as exceptionally special when I was younger. It was joining my local book clubs a few years ago that really rocked my world. I started to read books I'd never heard about. Instead of only political thrillers like I loved, I began to read fictional novels and autobiographies and some were quite good. That is what transformed my reading.

[Linda]

The book series I remember reading as a child were the Trixie Beldon novels. I loved those books and so wanted Trixie to be my best friend. i(I don't know if I spelled her last name correctly.)

[Whitney]

Hands down Kristy's Great Idea by Ann M. Martin ... I begged to order the next new off the Scholastic Book Order every month after that first Babysitter's Club... Weirdly I moved on to RL Stine's Fear Street after that...

[Chris]

For me the book was Winds of War . I thought I would cry when it ended. I wanted to read on forever

[Samantha]

I used to read the Hank the Cowdogs book and I loved them! Those short little books sparked my passion to read and I've been doing so ever since. Some others that made me want to keep reading were the Percy Jackson series and Harr Potter.

[Leena]

The Lord of the Rings... I read it so many times I learned the lines by heart. :)

[Pamela]

Does anyone remember the summer reading contests libraries had (and I believe several still have them)? My sister and I always competed with each other to see who could read the most books ... My kids aren't competitive at all but I started them early at the library and then every month we would take them to Borders (sniff!) and they could buy a book to keep. Its how my son and I got hooked on Harry Potter!

[GracieKat]

I can't actually say. My parents were huge readers so I read from a very young age. I think it was Stephen King then Lovecraft that hooked me on horror though.

[Iris]

Definitely War and Peace. I read it when I was 9 and it changed everything. I came across an old and tattered edition at the city library and I couldn't help myself, I had to borrow it. I loved it all, even the part in french I could barely understand, and I cried my heart out when Andrej died...but when I read the last line and I closed the book, my vision of literature had entirely changed, I ditched the books they wanted me to read at school and actually became my own kind of reader.

[Lynne]

I'm French so Alexandre Dumas and The three musketeers, I just loved the historical setting, the daredevil going-ons and that mix of adventure and literature. I read an abridged version as a kid, then the whole series as a teenager. In fact, just writing this makes me want to pick it up again

[Carol]

Nancy Drew--absolutely! I had to read each and every one.

[Carol]

Charlie wrote: "Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. My dad gave it to me to read when I was a Jr. in high school."

Interesting in high school it was Fountainhead also by Ayn Rand!!

[lyn_notLine]

Holes by Louis Sachar

[Grace]

Lovely Bones.

[Kristi]

Ellen Tibbits by Beverly Cleary.

[Lindsay]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

[Racheal]

It's a tie for me: Skinnybones by Barbara Park & The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.

[Kristi]

Carol wrote: "Nancy Drew--absolutely! I had to read each and every one."
I loved all the Nancy Drew books!

[Rishit]

The BFG and Charlie's Chocolate Factory by Ronald Dahl when I was in grade 1. :)

[Cas]

The mark of Athena. It was the third book but that was the book which made me love to read

[Adriana]

The Ghost of Lizard Light and The Lighthouse Mysteries when I was a little girl!

[Iris]

Anna Karenina, took it at the library when I was 9, it changed the world of books for me (despite the part in old French that I didn't quite understand completely)

[Sherri]

Little Women, when I was about 10yo. Also the Nancy Drew books.

[Lorraine]

Think I was born reading. Probably The Adventures of a. wishing chair- Enid blyton

[Sara]

Hmm I can't remember! I've always been cuckoo about reading.
Some early reads were:
The Babysitters Club
Sweet Valley Twins
Winnie the Pooh series
Chronicles of Narnia series
Franklin series

I think one of the earliest series for me, though, were the little miss/mr ____ series. E.g. Little miss sunshine :)

[Phil]

Was "The babysitters club" the book version of "Adventures in babysitting"? Loved that film :)

[Ruby]

Sadly, the twilight series.... read them at least 3 times

[Michael]

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Enough said.

[Tabitha]

Ruby wrote: "Sadly, the twilight series.... read them at least 3 times"

Aw, not sadly! Let haters hate; I loved the first two books :) <3