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

[Ajay]

It started off with Tinkle and Tintin. Then it progressed to the 'Hardy Boys' and the 'Nancy Drew' series. My first vivid memories of reading were when I read 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte. It was touching.

[Eshan]

I was 16, in 10th class wen I saw Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban in the library of my new school. With the innocence of a boy who'd never seen the inside of a library befory, I asked, rather tentatively lest i be ridiculed, if I could take it home. Since then, library became my favourate place in school and the librarian mam my best adult friend. Interestingly, those who shared the fiction corner in that basement still remain my best friends after all these years.
I had to cover up the books using my old study guides so my parents had no clue. Thanks to that arrangment, my parents and I got along just fine:-P

[Divya]

my first book was 'father's letter to daughter' by nehru which ws a gift on my 10th b'day,though i used to read story books even before that.

[A.]

I was 6. I read so much but I think it might have been Grimm's' Brothers fairytales. Little Mermaid , Snow White

[Sweta]

Robinson Crusoe when I was 10... love that book :)

[Neha]

I was 3, couldnt read.. but made my Dad read aloud the Chacha Chaudhary comics to me :)
Does that count?

[Kunal]

Even before I started reading, my first impressions of literature are from when I was six or seven with dadu reading out the staple Feluda story (for I couldn't read Bengali) from the annual 'Sananda' edition in our old house in Calcutta.

Then, when i started going solo, i initially went for the usual suspects: the abridged Mark Twains and the illustrated Jonathan Swifts and the like. Then there was a big phase of two or three years where I devoured all kinds of Hindi and English comics and publications, from Chacha Chaudhary, Raman, Nagraj, Parmanu, Super Commando Dhruv, Tinkle, Wisdom, Nandan, Champak, Chandamama, Amar Chitra Katha, Suman Saurabh, et al. At twelve, I started borrowing Hardy Boys and The Famous Five mysteries from our school library and those were unforgettable times. I actually believed, in those days, that I was Joe.

I would call 'The Catcher in the Rye' at fifteen, to be my first tryst with serious fiction: a faded, yellowed, dog-eared book that I first saw out on a street at one of the many dusty, roadside, second-hand book vendors in Karol Bagh, Delhi. It was wedged under behemoths- equally faded and yellowed, like 'War and Peace' and 'Crime and Punishment', and I only picked it up because it looked the thinnest. Ever since, I have often wondered as to what would have happened, had I just bought the 'Cricket Samraat' that day.

[Rohan]

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, at age 10

[Ajay]

Started off with good ol' Amar Chitra Katha.
Just re read the same books like a gazillion times..
Maybe the first book I read if the above doesnt qualify at age 11 was Famous five... something to do with a lighthouse.

[Muddle head]

Ajay wrote: "Maybe the first book I read if the above doesnt qualify at age 11 was Famous five... something to do with a lighthouse. ..."

Five go to demon's rocks!

[Ajay]

Must be.. I remember the red lighthouse on the front cover of the book and the kids and the dog. Yup that was my first book.

[Jagadeesh KV]

My first book was famous five treasure island at the age of 24 :) seriously...
though i got introduced to sherlock holmes at high school, i never went beyond that.

[Vinoth]

if i leave out the Enid Blyton's , Stanley Gardner's and sundry, the first real novel i read was Rage of Angels by Sidney Sheldon @ the age of 14.

[Sheetal]

i started reading at age 10...I can remember very well the first book i read was "The three brownies" by Enid Blyton..although it is a children's book I do count it as the beginning of my quest of reading!

[Hajarath Prasad]

i used to read newspapers,magazines and stuff since i am 4 years old..but my parents successfully restrained me from becoming a bookworm till i am 12....then i found out a small private library in a friend's house which was abandoned by the family after the demise of their father..i somehow noticed that library and used to read russian literature(translated) in it but never told to the family..one day my friend's mom saw me reading books there..she told me to take books i liked to my home...the first books i read was THE MOTHER...then graduated to (or demoted) to THE GODFATHER...

[[deleted user]]

I read at 4ish....
"Bob the Builder"
"Let's Learn the Alphabet!"
"Animal Sounds"

etc...You get the idea. :D

[Kunal]

love 'bob the builder', can never outgrow it....

[[deleted user]]

:D YUP! I even like Dora the Explorer and also Clifford!

[Ahtims]

same here

[Avisek]

I guess, it started off with Enid Blyton's Noddy when I was in class 5...My first proper novel which developed this fascination of reading novels was Pather Panchali by Bibhutabhusan Bandyopadhyay...I still shiver remembering Durga's death and Apu's helplessness !!

[Parikhit]

I used to adore all the Enid Blyton stories. Beginning with 'Bimbo and Topsy', Magic Faraway Tree, Naughty Amelia Jane graduated to Famous Five. I still read them :P

[Ahtims]

its my comfort read. I have read the island story (where Jack, Mike, Peggy and Nora run off to the secret island) at least a dozen times. I also love Rat a tat mystery and others involving Snubby. Also, the boarding school series...
feel like reading Enid Blyton. Am I regressing?

[Nivas]

i started to read novels, very lately, at at age fifteen..before that i read whatever i got interested like..news paper articles, interviews, Chandmama stories, panchtantra stories..like that....

[Parikhit]

Smitha wrote: "its my comfort read. I have read the island story (where Jack, Mike, Peggy and Nora run off to the secret island) at least a dozen times. I also love Rat a tat mystery and others involving Snubby. ..."

Not at all Col. I feel like reading Enid Blyton all over again. Yesterday at Just Books I was an odd sight at the Enid Blyton section with children half my height eyeing me curiously :)

Reading Famous Five in the backyard garden at home was one of the best time ever. I'll pick up Enid Blyton again. What the hell :)

[Muddle head]

Sometimes I read Enid Blyton to my wife before sleep. A good way to round off the day without letting any of the day's highs and lows effect ur sleep!

[Parikhit]

R. Sun Moon wrote: "Sometimes I read Enid Blyton to my wife before sleep. A good way to round off the day without letting any of the day's highs and lows effect ur sleep!"

That's so sweet :)

[Ahtims]

yes, I would ask my husband to do the same, but I am sure he will read out from his boring tomes to put me to sleep ASAP and be done with it

[Parikhit]

Smitha wrote: "yes, I would ask my husband to do the same, but I am sure he will read out from his boring tomes to put me to sleep ASAP and be done with it"

Ha ha. Hope he doesn't read this :D

[Sanskriti]

Even before I'd learnt to read, I was surrounded by books. I still have some books from over 2 decades ago with my scribbles all over them. I started reading on my own when I was 5. I began with comics and fairy tales, eventually moving on to Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew.

[Avisek]

Whenever Enid Blyton comes to mind, I see myself on my bed with any of her story book hidden inside my text book and my mom would inevitably snoop around and catch me..ahh ! Those were the days, man !!

[Kunal]

yeah, Enid Blyton was like that great looking girl on campus....you never thought anything better existed and that would be your whole universe for those two or three years....i have been a big fan of 'The Famous Five' and 'The Secret Seven' series... and then alongside these, 'The Hardy Boys' and 'Nancy Drew' too....in fact I have the vintage hardback editions of the first three Hardy Boys stories....old, timeless favorites that still make for great airport reading.

[Mounica]

I had a habit of reading a lot and lot from my childhood,I dnt remember the perfect age but it must be around 8 r 9.I used to read comic and story books a lot and lot in my childhood and novels were from 12 years.The first novel was about some tree which I won for some elocution and sadly :-(( i lost it too

[Avisek]

Yeah..Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys were all over our school library !! And then, we were in Class 11 and we were allowed to access the adults section...And and after the first library period in school, every guy had a book in his hand that had a super steamy cover..and thus we were introduced to the world of Mills & Boons !!! Hahaha

[Kunal]

have never read M&B.....

has no-one else grown up on Raj Comics? Super Commando Dhruv, Nagraj, etc.

Anupam Sinha (Raj Comics) to me was the ultimate master of kitsch and our answer to Marvel and its superheroes.

My childhood favorites also included the 'Commando' comics. Anyone else has read them?

[Parikhit]

Kunal wrote: "have never read M&B.....

has no-one else grown up on Raj Comics? Super Commando Dhruv, Nagraj, etc.

Anupam Sinha (Raj Comics) to me was the ultimate master of kitsch and our answer to Marvel and ..."

I used to read Diamond Comics. There was Chacha Chaudhury, Lambu and Motu, Shrimatiji :)

But Tinkle was what I loved. The Tinkle Digest was absolutely unattainable and was given to me only when I was good. Lol :) Loved Suppandi, Shikari Shambhu, Tantri the mantri :D

[Kunal]

oh, 'Tinkle' was absolutely legendary.....loved it.....those three strips were out of this world...I remember that the digests were too expensive back then though...those days when pocket money never used to be quite enough

and hey parikhit am a big fan of Chacha Chow as well....where gunshots used to explicably carry the tagline of "Dhaanye" or "Rat-a-kat-kat" (depending on whether you were using a pistol or a semi-automatic) and jumps were "Hu-huba" (when Sabu did it) or just, as staccato as "Chalaang" (when the jump was performed by his famously vegetarian dog, Raaket)

but for all his OTTness, the Chacha Chowdhury comics weren't kitsch but more a lesson in morality and wisdom.....in fact, Diamond Comics were my favorites (i also liked 'Raman' from cartoonist Pran's staple) but Raj Comics were the more guilty pleasures with the gore and the convoluted plots......

[Ahtims]

Tinkle digest is now Rs. 85 per copy. My son is an ardent fan of Tinkle and whenever we go to a bookshop, he sort of selects piles of tinkles, after too much haggling finally I reduce it to an affordable 3-4 numbered stack.

[Parikhit]

85! I remember paying 25 for them last. Wow.

[Mansee]

tinkle....brings back a lot of memories....buying them...reading them...and mom getting them binded......so re- reading them.......nostalgic!

[Amey]

Ah! I was hooked on to stories through the most beautiful way and that was my grand mother! Thats the only normal thing in my life so far- a grand-mom who told stories!! Hee hee... She gifted me a fortnightly subscription of comic books that had Phantom, Mandrake, Tinkle coming in every fortnight! I was six then! That was the start... followed by "The Famous Five" in summer vaccations and the then it was the "James Hadley Chase" books. "Don't judge the book by its cover", my granddad told me (literally meaning it!) as he gave me a Chase novel with a skimpily clad woman provocatively posing. I was 14 then!!! :D

[Ahtims]

good to have grand parents like that

[Amey]

Smitha wrote: "good to have grand parents like that"

Oh yeah! Absolute bliss like some things you can only learn on the job there are some things that you have to have grand parents for!! Have been blessed in that department! :)

[Amey]

Mansee wrote: "tinkle....brings back a lot of memories....buying them...reading them...and mom getting them binded......so re- reading them.......nostalgic!"

ah yes! My first introduction to "binding" happened when all the tinkles disappeared for a couple of days and came back as these multiple thick books! Still have them... not in great shape though! :)

[Dhanaa]

i guess i started with picture books and stuff way way back...but the first proper book i read was a pop-out version of peterpan when i was 8..

[Ahtims]

I dont like bound books - those are too difficult to drag around and the end words always disappear in the bind. My uncle had the habit of binding all ACKs, Tarzan, Phantom, Chandamama, Mandrake etc. He must have spent a fortune on binding alone.
But I used to have a good time at my maternal grandparents house - reading and rereading all those volumes.

[Vinoth]

yeah bounded books does have that problem.But i don't think it irritated me as much as missing pages did. but then i did not swear. now i swear (like hell!!) when i find some pages missing in the novels i read.

[Avisek]

Same here !! I once started a 'dilapidated' book and after being hooked to it, found the last 30 pages missing. I guess, that was the first time I sweared. After that, I check before picking up any novel, whether new or used, that the ending page is there.

[Ahtims]

its happened to me too, especially with second hand books

[Saikat]

The first novel I read must be "Pother Panchali" by Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay at the age of 10...("Ponther Panchali" was also made in silver screen by Satyajit Ray which won him a Oscar)..
Though I hv read plenty of stories before that...bt cant remember any novel.
I started with english literature much later in life..was 18 when I read CB's 5 point someone.Thats my 1st english novel.

[Kunal]

unfortunately, Ray did not win an oscar for Pather Panchali. the movie is brilliant though, quite possibly one of the best Indian films. here's a very old review of mine:-

"PATHER PANCHALI- THE INSUBORDINATION OF THE HUMAN SOUL

Exotic (Adjective)- 1. Strangely Beautiful

THE GENRE

Ray developed a language of his own through the Apu trilogy- a slow, lush, languid, lyrical language reminiscent of enchanting poetry in the most maudlin and mundane circumstances. He didn't ostracize poverty nor did he glamorize it, He didn't exploit it but merely romanticized it. He found romance and beauty in the most hideous of circumstances. It was like a pain that was so severe that the agony became sweet, a sore so deep that its anguish felt sensuous. Like death- so terrifying that it's freeing, exonerating. It's the kind of erotic pain one feels in the muscles after a hard day's work. You want to laugh at the pain almost with contempt and with a condescending, patronizing attitude, never realizing that it is your own pain that you're laughing at. But you want to wallow in it all the same because you think that it'll make you more profound and hence you're thankful for it having been bestowed upon you

THE TREATMENT

Ray gave an explanation to the people who have a problem with the pacing of the film by saying that the slow rambling rhythm of the film was a clue to the subject matter itself, as villages in rural Bengal do, in fact, ramble. Pather Panchali has numerous colloquial anecdotes in chaste Bengali but despite the localized context, the message of the film is universal because pain and suffering knows no boundaries- they transcend and pervade our hearts, overcoming mythical barriers of race, religion, nationality, language, time, place and other such superfluous demographic constraints. Pather Panchali is ultimately a comment on the indomitable insubordination of the human soul

THE POETRY

Ray is rather unforgiving in his vision. He chooses stark landscapes sans an iota of conventional beauty and surrounds his world with equally pathetic and ugly faces but he finds a beauty amongst them that is so pristine and divine. He literally hears the beating of a heart in the throbbing of a wound. The small moments- a torn bed sheet (torn, mind you and thereby being an article that if placed in any other film, would conventionally arouse feelings of sadness but not in Pather Panchali for here that very article becomes a magnificent artifact) through which Apu's eyes can be seen for the first time when we see him as a child. It assumes an artistic expression of its own. The kaleidoscope becomes a voyeuristic instrument, enabling a glimpse into the world of fantasy albeit one that is decidedly and inexplicably, out of their reach. The simple act of following a sweetmeat seller and the hope of eventually extracting some savories from him or from the house he's selling them to, becomes a 'chase sequence', the tragic mood uplifted by the lilting Sitar music by Ravi Shankar. We feel victorious when Durga is given sweets by her young friend right under the disapproving gaze of her bitter mother.

THE TRAGEDY

'Song of the little road' is a joyous journey through a road of unbearable suffering. Tragedies are many- the death of the aunt being the first moment, Apu's first encounter with death. Whether he fully comprehends the situation or not is debatable but the indelible impression of this one incident on his nubile mind, is not. Then, the second tragedy- the death of Durga, Apu's sister and his best friend is even more heartbreaking than the earlier tragedy simply because of the higher shock value it has. Durga is in many ways the protagonist of this film. Apu is merely a bystander who observes rather than experiences most situations in this film. It is Durga- playful and protective, child and woman, innocent and naughty- so captivating is Uma Dasgupta's performance that the viewer falls in love with the character and therefore cannot quite accept her death in the film. Why she was here just a few moments ago- playing carelessly in the rain with Apu and then, suddenly, nature seems to have defeated her but isn't there a lesson in that? The lesson being that it took death to conquer her undying spirit, for she wouldn't have succumbed to her circumstances while alive. It's as if she was saying- "You may take my life away but you'll never conquer my spirit". Her presence wraps the film like a halo and she is enshrined forever in the viewer's hearts. Another exemplary sequence is the one where Durga and Apu run out of their house to watch the trains go by. The haunting look in Apu's utterly captivated eyes touch the viewer. Steam Engines, like the kaleidoscope, are again a symbol of movement and fantasy and yearning for an outside world and these symbols of change and freedom become even more evident when seen within the startling paradoxical context of their waking existence of stillness in their never changing lives that they partake everyday like bonded labor. The difference between Yesterday and Today is barely discernible in their village where life follows the hum drum of a set pattern. So set that it's almost a sacred ritual.

THE INSIGHTS

Relentless in its pursuit of reality, Pather Panchali is a neo real masterpiece. I have been fortunate enough to have visited the actual location where Pather Panchali had been shot. The landscape is still the same, still as barren, the sons and daughters of the villages still look like Apu and Durga, Ray's voice still seems to resonate through the hollow tree barks and Ravi Shankar's soulful Sitar strings still peek from behind the antediluvian cobblestones. Because just like an old painting, the colors may have dried and got slightly discolored, but Ray's impeccable genius is still visible through the frayed canvas."