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

[Muddle head]

Nooo, it's the other way round!

[Nandu]

When i was small i neva stay at home at all. Always used to roam at street(lol).To be honest, I started reading books during my college days till then i was not interested since i had not come across any good books. My College mate prashanth suggested me to read this book. He gave me " Tell me your dreams" by sidney sheldon.Even after reading 3 to 4 books i lost momentum. Now i m very passionate abt books and am very cautious not to lose momentum.

[Muddle head]

Anand, glad to hear about u here! Wat other books have u read??

[Prerak]

from the beginning, i had a knack for english! i used to debate, speak, speech, recitate, skit, write and read. but officially i started to read when i came in 8th and my dad was strictly against allowing me to read novels cuz he himself was a reader and said that if i started at this age, i would get an addiction to it! i was stubborn, i demanded for a novel on my b'day and he HAD to buy me R. L. Stine's Thrillogy of Fear Games! (that explains my love for horror)
but the most curious thing is...i started to write before i started to read. i wrote a 30 paged story in 7 hours (rubbish handwriting, but i couldnt stop myself) and that's when my passion for reading and writing started!
my dad was right....i am addicted!!! Ha!

[Atif]

I've started at the age of 21 with harry potter series. Though the book was harry potter and the goblet of fire. After that i've been addicted and almost completed 150 novels in 3yrs.......

[Muddle head]

That's great Atif, u r like a late blossom :-) Wat genres interest u most now-a-days? Do have a look at our book reads poll and poll and nominate books that interest u!

[Nandu]

@aditya: Books i finished
1. five point someone
2. change ur brain change ur body (audiobook)
3. The monk who sold his ferrari
4. Men are from mars and women are from venus
5. Psychic development for beginners
6. two states
7. one night at call center
8. 3 mistakes of my life
9. The god delusion by richard dawkins(currently reading)
Earlier days I had read many books unfinished.. hehe..

[Muddle head]

good collection for a beginner! go about the group, look at the feb 2010 books thread and join one of the book reads if interested!

[[deleted user]]

Being a son of bibliophile parents, I'd started reading Noddy, The Faraway Tree and Tinkle comics when I was six. The first book I read that wasn't written by Enid Blyton or illustrated by Anant Pai was when I was all of eleven- it was a dusty, 50 year-old copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which still remains one of my all-time favourites.

[Ahtims]

My son has devoured Noddy and Amar Chitra Kathas. Some of his ACKs are well thumbed and almost in tatters.
Now I am introducing him to higher reading. We are reading together the original Grimm's Fairy tales with all those quaint English words and conversations.

[Hriday]

Aditya wrote: "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 abo..."
Of course!!! Flying bumblebees, 12 league boots, and ogres! That book is one of my earliest memories! Am I glad there are others who have read it!

btw has anyone read 12 seasons? Its a book of Russian childrens stories! It is I think by Raduga Publishers

[Muddle head]

Dude, am so glad, do u still have a copy? It's one rare thing, maybe the stories aren't so great, but i grew up reading and re-reading them and have some impact on me! It's a telugu edition that i read! Would love to read them in english now!

[Hriday]

Aditya wrote: "Dude, am so glad, do u still have a copy? It's one rare thing, maybe the stories aren't so great, but i grew up reading and re-reading them and have some impact on me! It's a telugu edition that i ..."

Yes I think so! They are at my home in Trivandrum. Would be glad to lend it to you.I will be going home in a few days. Do remind me after Jan 10th

There was a brief period when we thought our normally benevolent grandmother had sold it in the raddi when we were away from home in a cleaning up spree. We absolutely hated for that! But luckily they were found in some 'place that is usually not found' We kids had been blaming the old lady for no reason!

Btw has anyone read "Bedtime Stories" Yeah thats the title of the book. It is a pretty fat enclyopedia kind of book

[Akanksha]

@Hriday Bedtime stories by Enid Blyton?

[Hriday]

Akanksha wrote: "@Hriday Bedtime stories by Enid Blyton?"
No Akansha! they were motley stories...i remember a few norse stories featuring Loki, Thor etc..also stories featuring dragons and elves!

[Divya Lavanya]

I don't remember reading any fairy tales kind of books, even in my childhood.. But I used to get my english text books by heart.. I remember every lesson even now.. English non details were my first novels.. Charles Dickens "great expectations" was the first abridged novel I read.. I still remember the pictures in my text book, of pip, miss havisham, estella.. After that the "Adventures of huckeberry finn ", "Gullivers travels".. Oh I almost forgot "Trojan War".. It was a amazing story.. Hiding in the horse.. I still look for prose version of trojan war, but couldn't find.. I used to get angry with the teacher if she didn't convey the emotion of a scene.. I loved the stories of macbeth, as you like it.. I still remember a story about giving donkey as a gift by Gerald Durell.. It was so funny.. I remember the first book which fascinated me and caught my imagination was Hound of baskervilles, which was also a non detail in 10th standard.. I bought text books only the previous day and started reading it.. I couldn't keep it down till I completed it.. The term "Slightly abridged" on my text book worried me as I didn't want to miss any part of the story.. So I borrowed a full version from my friend and loved it.. Also I had a huge crush on Harry potter though I started reading them after watching the first movie.. Until my graduation, Harry potter series were my only novels.. Occationally sherlock holmes..

[[deleted user]]

I wish I had better english teachers in school.
For me my lowest scores used to be in english just because we had teachers who wanted to just get the syllabus done with. And hence never concentrated on getting us to fall in love with some great classics or actually understand poetry.
Till today reading classics or poetry still comes with that fright that im going to mix it all up in my orals :P

[Shalaka]

first book. hmm at the age of 7 yrs. mom got me enid blyton books and the first was "noddy goes to seaside". adventorous and beautiful. the colorful characters made me fell in love with the world of books and i am loving it

[R.V]

At age 9... Magic Far away tree (Enid Blyton).. it still remains the best book i have ever read in my life....

[Rashmi]

Age 5 and the series of 4 books called tatty ted and friends. Read it on 27th of FEb the day my grandma gave it to me (was my birthday)... stopped reading when I was 13, dont remember y, started again a year ago... :(

[Tulika]

Wow most of the people started with Enid Blyton!!

Well, me too.... I started with 'The Famous Five' when I was eight or nine(don't remember exactly).... Before that I read those moral stories ;)

[Jyoti]

I could not read God of Small Things. But that might be because I was too inexperienced a reader at that time. Right now, I'm reading Anna Karenina. It's way too lengthy, and at times very boring.

[Jyoti]

sorry, wrong comment got pasted. Actually, i'm having difficulty in posting. So I copy each comment before posting, to make it easier for me after a failure in posting. Seems like the comment written for this thread was not copied, and the one for previous comment got posted.

[Jyoti]

Anyway, I started reading before I started school. I learnt by watching my sister read. The first books I read were all comics.

[Srinath]

I was a precocious reader.Started with enid Blyton when I was 6 years old.Started off with Brer Rabbit,Mr Twiddle,Mr Meddle series.My reading habits was inculcated by my mother who is still an avid reader.I have a book collection of more than 1000 books now but my enib blytons(i must have atleast 70) occupy a special place in the bookcase.

[Abhijith]

Started reading when i was 5 with Enid Blyton like everyone else.


My first book was The Secret Seven.

[Harsha]

I started at five, with malayalam children's magazines and all.. Then I read children's versions of mythological scripts like Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavatham etc, cos I was always fascinated by those stories..My mom used to bring me lots of malayalam books from her school library (she is a teacher). I started reading English books when I was in third std... In our school we had compulsory library hours every week from class 3 onwards and our librarian would pick books suitable for us kids and give us..and the first book she picked for me was Snow White and Rose Red... And then I read many fairytales, and many Indian folktales..and later I graduated to abridged versions of classics like Gulliver's travels, Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre etc (the librarian had stopped picking for us and let us choose our own books by this time). I am deeply indebted to our school librarian for introducing me to English literature... and ofcourse Mom, who induced the reading habit into me at such an early age...

[dely]

Harsha wrote: "I started at five, with malayalam children's magazines and all.. Then I read children's versions of mythological scripts like Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavatham etc, cos I was always fascinated by those stories..."

:O

Bhagavatham is the Bhagavata Purana?
This on? Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God: (Srimad Bhagavata Purana Book X)
I have it in my wishlist.

[Harsha]

Yes, Srimad Bhagavata it is.. I read the abridged version for kids when I was small... Book X of Srimad Bhagavata deals with the Krishna incarnation...

[dely]

Harsha wrote: "Yes, Srimad Bhagavata it is.. I read the abridged version for kids when I was small... Book X of Srimad Bhagavata deals with the Krishna incarnation..."

Yes, I want to read it some day in order to know everything about Krishna (above all childhood). But, well, some day I want also to read something about the Samkhya and a lot of other interesting books like these and there are so many!

[Harsha]

@dely

Maybe you could try this one too..

I had really enjoyed this one. And you are right, there are so many, and it is almost impossible to read everything in one lifetime! Sadly,watching too many mythology TV shows have almost killed my reading in this genre...

[dely]

Thanks! I know Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada; well, it means that I have seen his books in the libraries (so there are italian editions) but I have never read some of his writings. I will do it!

[Laurna]

I started reading Books when I was 6 years old!
The first book I read (the abridged version) and then was introduced to the world of English literature by the "Famous Five" series of Enid Blyton!!:)

[Ravi]

Hmm too tough to remember which one I read first,
May be 4th or 5th Standard. It was either a Nancy Drew or one of the Hardy Boyz.

but I remember the feeling when I finished it. A sense of accomplishment, and inexplicable happiness. It was then I realized there are millions of stories, I can explore, ponder on and fall in love with.

Then Potter fever gripped me, and then Sydney Sheldon and Jeffery Archer, then Later it didnt matter which one I am reading, but I just read. I don't even remember now.

Unfortunately I grew up and commited the most pervasive follies of our time. I gave up reading books and concentrated on other books to get admission to one of the prestigious IITs, and become an Engineer. I became an engineer, but not from any IIT.

Now after 5 years, I am back again, and after reading a book, I felt the same as I felt the first time :)

[Shivani]

I started reading probably at the age of 8. My first series of books was Tintin.

[Ananya]

At 9 or 10, I suppose, still I'm not too sure. My first few books was abridged versions of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. Then I proceeded to an unabridged version of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, by that time I was 11 or 12. I also remember reading Nancy Drews and Famous Fives before that, just can't remember what I read first and what later.

[Bhanu Chandra]

hmm..quite a difficult question...
Around the age of 11 I guess..I started reading telugu monthlies like Balamitra..balabharathi etc.,Then got fascinated with russian folklore..din't remember the names exactly ..:(

During my high school final year..got addicted to Sherlock Holmes..from then journey started...still living on those foundations..

whenever i find such stories again ..I make sure to go thru it atleast once.. :)

My first and still the favorite english book as of now remains the one and only collection of Sherlock Holmes ..lets see whether any author can shake it up..

[Bhagirathy]

when i was 10. my house is full of books. i guess, my first book was on egyptians. It gave a clear step by step procedure of how they mummified dead bodies by the magic tree house. i'm still 15 and read a lot.

[Sathya]

My first book was from Firdous Kanga titled "Trying to Grow" a simple and a comical highlights of his growing up in a Jewish family.

I read it when I was just out of my college... I was never into reading before except for my school and college books...

I deeply lament the loss of that wonderful period due to my ignorance.

[[deleted user]]

Aside from what was inflicted on us in school, my earliest book was Tolkien's The Hobbit followed by THe Lord of the Rings series. I was around 11 or so...

[Saurabh]

Technically, my first book would be "The Hobbit".......my Sister tried to make me read that thing when I was 8 or something....but that was only for the first five or ten minutes after which I started yelling and throwing things at her......

But really???....the first books I read were the first five of the "Harry Potter" Series. We were in Thailand and the fifth book had just come out some days before my 11th birthday...and she gave them over(which was an enormous sacrifice if you ask her)as a gift......

[Ahtims]

your sister is a big reader? is she a member here?

[Saurabh]

Yes She is!!......and No she isn't......or at least I don't think she is!!!......I didn't check......

[[deleted user]]

I was still in the womb when I started reading.... ok, not really....

[Ahtims]

maybe you passively listened to your mom, dad or relatives reading out aloud (like Abhimanyu)

[[deleted user]]

Or maybe I was just remembering a previous life....

[Sarvesh]

oliver twist....mandatory rapid reading in school.
My teacher's are to be blamed for my current literary condition.

[Kushagra]

I guess I was 10 or 11, and the book was Five Have a Wonderful Time

[Harith]

I started reading at 7 ( Kids' version of Ramayana)
and English at 9, at least i think so( robinson crusoe abridged)

[Reena]

strtd reading abt 2 years bck..whn i ws in tybms..21..
saw smwhere in d mall chetan's 3 mistakes of my life....brot it...strtd readding....strtd njoying it...hmm so d journey strts frm den...