At what age did u start reading? and what was your first book?

[Muddle head]

I just wanted to see what age we started reading books as a hobby/habit.
Want to know the scenario here. I started at 13 yrs with the book The Secret Mountain
I was hooked on to enid blyton for a couple of years then before i moved on to Mark Twain and Charles Dickens

[Kavya]

I was probably 14 years when I read "Alice in the Wonderland", but before that I used to read a lot of Children Books-Short comics and all that...

[Muddle head]

wat was ur next step after alice in wonderland??

[Ahtims]

I started at the tender age of 5, or so my dad claims. It seems that my cousin;s grade one English reader was lying around and I just started reading aloud about two kids called Tom and Jane. Then my parents started plying me with books and thus my wonderful journey started. My conscious memory is of reading a book called the Cock in the Manor by some Russian author. When I was young, there was much Russian aid received by India, including dirt cheap Russian fiction. Then I started on Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew(somehow didnot like Nancy Drew) and progressed to Agatha Christy at around 11 or 12. My Dad presented to me 'Secret Adversary' at around the same time. But I found it difficult to follow and switched over to Miss Marple. Later, Secret adversary became one of my favourite books.

[Balkha]

My earliet memory is of reading Cinderalla, Red Riding Hood and all the other fairy tale books at 6 or 7 which were a gift from my Dad's friend. No one in my family is much of a reader but I loved it since that age. I remember throwing a tantrum in a store to buy this book called "The Faraway Tree"..this was the first book that I bought. Then I moved on to Famous Five, Nancy Drew..then Agatha Christie, Perry Mason..I pretty much would read anything and everything I could lay my hands on.

[Muddle head]

Before i forget, has anyone come across the book titled Ukranian folk lores or Ukranian folk stories published by Pustak Mahal? I just remembered that this was the first book i read, when i was about 11 years old and was living in a village and a library on wheels (bus) of Pustak Mahal visited our village. Then i bought this book, it's a translated version in telugu. I enjoyed this book a lot, read it numerous times in those 2 years until i reached 13 and moved out to a larger city. I will be indebted to anyone who could point me to an english translation of that book..

[Muddle head]

:-) Can understand, bought a lot of books from Pustak Mahal on the science series and the universe series etc...they totally captured my attention at that age...

[Rajat]

I started when i was 8 or 9 and started with Enid Blyton.

My first book which really catapulted me into serious reading was 'The Godfather' which i read when i was 14. Since then, there's no looking back :)

[Achala]

At 8 years..something by Enid Blyton.

[Sai]

I started reading from 17 or 16 so..mainly books, before that i used pass the time by reading short stories... and my first book is Mother by Maxim Gorky....and then Alchemist...

[[deleted user]]

i got a prize in 1st standard for dancing...a book of fairytales etc.. i still have it!!! that is my earliest memory... thereafter came alice in wonderland, noddy, enid blyton, nancy drew etc...!!

enid blyton, inspite of the stereotyping in her books, remains one of my fav children's author!! famous five, malory towers and st clares have been my very good friends while growing up :)

[Muddle head]

@Sai, "Mother" is ur first book?? I am yet to read that, but i heard its quite a heavy one on the emotions, wat's ur take?

[Muddle head]

Has anyone here tried re-reading Enid Blyton?? I recently read the first of famous five series Five go to the Treasure Island. Was surprised to see that it just had 80 pgs and i was done in abt an hour and a half...

[Sai]

Aditya wrote: "@Sai, "Mother" is ur first book?? I am yet to read that, but i heard its quite a heavy one on the emotions, wat's ur take?"
I think it is not that much of heavy one.....i can assure you that after completion of that book you would'nt think like that...Mother is always great....

[Ahtims]

I do read Enid Blyton even now. Especially now, that my 7 year old son has started reading secret seven, caravan series, etc. My favourite Enid Blyton is 'the secret island', which I must have read atleast 5-6 times in my childhood.

[[deleted user]]

I started reading when i was 9 year old and the first book i ever read was the secret garden by frances hodgson burnett.i don't know but it was something about this book that got me interested in reading.it's still one of my favourites and i 've read it atleast 5 times.

[Achala]

I flip through an Enid Blyton book occasionally (the last time I did it was when we were trying to name our dog - yes, you read that right!!) but I don't think I will enjoy reading it anymore. It's a bit like music that you listened to as a child - brings back fond memories, but that's about it!

[Gautham]

Iam 7 years old now I started reading at 4 chuffi the steamengine was my 1st book

[Ramakrishnan]

I think I was 10 or 12 when someone gifted me an Enid Blyton - it was one of the Five Findouters book; forgot the name :).... then i read a lot of Enid BLyton, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew... then AListair maclean, Forsyth, and so on...

[Muddle head]

Hey Gautham, welcome to the group, glad to have you here. U r so lucky to start reading at such a young age!!

OT, Smitha, is he your son??

[Praj]

Undoubtedly, Famous Five at the age of 7..i fell in love with George(Georgina)...

[Ahtims]

Aditya wrote: "Hey Gautham, welcome to the group, glad to have you here. U r so lucky to start reading at such a young age!!

OT, Smitha, is he your son??"

Yes, he is. One and only....
He had a few days holidays and somehow learnt our internet password, and as I am always logged in to goodreads, started playing word games there. So I had to make a seperate id for him, so that he will leave my id alone.

[Gautham]

Aditya wrote: "Hey Gautham, welcome to the group, glad to have you here. U r so lucky to start reading at such a young age!!

OT, Smitha, is he your son??"

thankyou

[Muddle head]

ha ha...good Gautham!!

[Sucharita]

I started reading story books when I was around 7...however at the beginning it was essentially Bengali....started with Tuntuni's stories... & many others, (Children's literature in Bengali is quite fantastic). In English,I began with Tales from Toy land by E.B. followed by Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by L.C.I was 8. My brother had given them to me as Durga Puja presents.....And then I was absolutely hooked ... Five find outers,Famous fives and of course the Barney series-MY FAVOURITE

[Swetha]

I dont even remember the exact age i started reading but my first official book that i read was one of the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton probably around the time i was 10.Before that a lot of Amar Chitra Katha,Gokulam,Tinkle etc(it was so much fun :D)

[Muddle head]

Swetha wrote: "I dont even remember the exact age i started reading but my first official book that i read was one of the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton probably around the time i was 10.Before that a lot of Am..."

Fun it was definitely! I still remember the day when i was secretly reading enid blyton embedded into my huge English Main Course Book and my Mom caught me at it and punished me by bringing four more enid blytons from her school library for the weekend :-)

[Ahtims]

very enjoyable punishment:-)

[Mansee]

My Mom was a voracious reader and I think reading was something imbibed by her....I really dont know when I started reading (maybe around 5-6) but I do know that at an age of 10, we- a group of 4 friends who had a decent collection of books by then (by Books I also include the Tinkles and Amar chitra kathas)started with this "Twilight Library" wherein we pooled our books, created a list and put all the books in a trunk and our place of conducting "business" was the terrace of our flat. Since our library was open in the evenings, a friends brother suggested to name it "Twilight". Like any other business, the money we made was further used in buying new books for the library which was a delight for us at that age...Buying books with our own earnings! After a year or so, my father was transfered to another city so our small little "enterprise" was stopped ...but the memories last a lifetime :)

[Meenakshi]

I guess I started reading at the age of 5 but my first book was a hindi storybook.My first english novel was Nancy Drew and I read it when I was 10. The very next novel after that was David Copperfield followed by other classics then came Shakespeare and by the time I was 13, I was crazy about reading. I read the whole day, I read the whole night; infact my parents used to scold me for reading so much.

[Akanksha]

Aditya wrote: "Swetha wrote: "I dont even remember the exact age i started reading but my first official book that i read was one of the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton probably around the time i was 10.Before t..."

Lucky You!! My parents used to confiscate all my books whenever they found me reading novels on the pretext of studying. And my parent's favourite punishment was no library for a week or a month according to the gravity of the crime. But that never stopped me from reading....i used to read all day and all night...i remember once mom got so fed up of it that she told me she'll tear my books if she found me reading....i took up to reading in the bathroom....

[Ahtims]

I agree with you both. Even my parents used to scold me when I was small. They too were book lovers, but they were worried because I had a bad habit of lying down in bed and reading for hours together and reading while having food. They wanted me to go outdoor and play atleast for sometime, but I wouldnot oblige. Even now I continue with my habit of reading at meals

[Balkha]

OMG..i went through something similar when I was in school. 1- I was not allowed to read during the school term so as not to adversely affect my studies and 2- I was shouted at so many times because i used to read while eating, which i still do :-). I used to sneak books at my friend's house and read there and also in the bathroom. Makes me smile to think the stuff i did to read ..

[Meenakshi]

@Smitha and Balkha wow!! its like deja vu.. I feel that it all has happened with me too; actually it has. My parents used to scold me for reading so much, I too read while eating and in the bathroom, and they(my parents) too wanted me to play outdoors.

[Meenakshi]

Sai wrote: "I started reading from 17 or 16 so..mainly books, before that i used pass the time by reading short stories... and my first book is Mother by Maxim Gorky....and then Alchemist..."
The Alchemist; thats one of my favourite books :)

[♥Aicha~high~on~books♥]

My first book was a Famous Five too by Enid Blyton at 9 10 yrs of age :))

and wen u guys talk about being scolded.. i hv had my days where hiding books inside my course books, towels was the norm, and now a days i hv to quickly switch windows to avoid those dreaded lectures...
and Harry Potter books spelt doom fr me...to my parents absolute(and very well intimated) horror i din leave my bed fr whole days... ;) ;)

[Akanksha]

@Richa Same here. Harry potter books and my parents were(are) sworn enemies. Every time i sat with a hp book to reread my mother used to go berserk!

[♥Aicha~high~on~books♥]

Akanksha wrote: "@Richa Same here. Harry potter books and my parents were(are) sworn enemies. Every time i sat with a hp book to reread my mother used to go berserk!"


and i m soooo glad they dont know wat the Inheritence series is ... or else...
cant wait fr the next one... :))

[Akanksha]

You like the inheritance series too? Man, i loved Brisingr and i'm dying to read the next one.

[Pranjal]

Aditya wrote: "I just wanted to see what age we started reading books as a hobby/habit.
Want to know the scenario here. I started at 13 yrs with the book The Secret Mountain [bookcover:The Secret Mountain|73571..."

I think at 10 I moved from reading Amar Chitra Katha / Tinkle to Famous Five ( Five have a Wonderful Time )

[Pranjal]

Aditya wrote: "Has anyone here tried re-reading Enid Blyton?? I recently read the first of famous five series Five go to the Treasure Island. Was surprised to see that it just had 80 pgs and i was done in abt an ..."
Yes , I do have some of the Famous Five books still with me , purchased way back in 1984 . I read the Famous Five books so much during school , that even now I remember the stories in full detail. Infact the Famous Five books helped me in getting my first job . My interviewer also liked them a lot . :)

[Pranjal]

Sucharita wrote: "I started reading story books when I was around 7...however at the beginning it was essentially Bengali....started with Tuntuni's stories... & many others, (Children's literature in Bengali is q..."

Yeah the Barney series was great - The Ragamuffin mystery , The Rat-a-tat mystery ...

[Pranjal]

Smitha wrote: "I do read Enid Blyton even now. Especially now, that my 7 year old son has started reading secret seven, caravan series, etc. My favourite Enid Blyton is 'the secret island', which I must have read..."

Smitha wrote: "I started at the tender age of 5, or so my dad claims. It seems that my cousin;s grade one English reader was lying around and I just started reading aloud about two kids called Tom and Jane. Then ..."

I have read Secret Island many many times . And all during either lunch or dinner . Jack , Peggy ,Nora were some of the characters I think.

[Balkha]

Wow..so weird that there are so many of us whose parents didn't let them read. Growing up I thought I was the only one whose parents had a problem with it. I had a friend whose parents would have loved if she read books instead of whiling her time away..we actually considered switching our parents:-)

[Ahtims]

Parents dont like extremes - this is what I have deduced. If we had not read, they would have forced us to:-)

[Ashish]

i started reading for fun mostly at the age of 8 or 9 yrs,maybe i understood very little of what i read.started with likes of archies and chacha choudhary.

[Akanksha]

Yeah i know my parents told me not to read but they're always after my brother(who btw is allergic to books) to read and not waste his time playing video games and watching movies. So not fair ;-(
@Ashish I looove Archies!!!

[Varun]

The first novel i read was the classy five point some one by chetan bhagath, the best book i wuld say even now!
i was 19 wen i read it and till then i never knew ppl use the four letter word wen writing stories (ignorant me!) and these days i am damn passionate abt books..! god alone can explain why! :p

[Muddle head]

Mansee wrote: "My Mom was a voracious reader and I think reading was something imbibed by her....I really dont know when I started reading (maybe around 5-6) but I do know that at an age of 10, we- a group of 4 f..."

Sounds so much fun. I had one friend in my school days whom i used to look upon for reading! He gave me a couple of Alistair Mc Lean's in my 10th during farewell. That was the time i graduated from Enid Blyton and by that time my friend was already reading LOTR and an year later the Fountainhead.

My mom is after my reading NOW of all times!! She keeps tabs on my goodreads updates and promptly gives me a call as and when my 'book reading rate' crosses a 'reasonable threshold'! I wudn't say more, shez here on this group ;-) Love you amma! :-P

[Ahtims]

your mother wants you to read more or the other way round?
currently my mother has come to stay with me for a couple of weeks and she is after me for my reading habits, lazing around in bed, the way I should raise my son etc. etc. that I feel I have regressed two decades. But its quite nice to be with my parents. How I wish time stood still.