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

[Ramiah]

I started at around 5, reading Tamil novels. Parents had a library card for me in rural TN. By 6 I was reading historical novels; and distinctly remember trying to read Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth" early morning before second standard at school (I failed to proceed much into that book).

[Caroline]

I began to read at the age of four or five. I'll always remember my parents helping me to spell out 'Peter Pan', once we were on holidays in Southern France.

[Ashwini]

I think 5 or 6 And I don't exactly remember which book but it was either cinderella or pinocchio :)

[Neeru]

i started reading novel starting of my college. My friend gift me 'i had too a love story' after that i read 'twilight saga'. I like it reading for fun is new thing for me then i moved to fantasy novel and now romance novels are my favorite.

[Sugan]

started at 21, When I joined my first job. This was my first book - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

[Sanchita]

At the age of 8, on a summer vacation, I was down with measles. It was at that time I started reading. The first book I read was Robinson Crusoe.

[Vandana]

I started reading books at the age of ten...but in between lost interest in reading..as I got diverted to sports activities... it was a long 7 years gap.in 11th standard I happened to see a book of Judy blume's" Just as long as we are together" in my friend's book shelf...i went through the reviews and the cover of the book attracted me to it..when I told her about it..she was happy to lend it to me..and finally..she gifted me the same book... I think I must have read the same book ten times since then...after that I became more hungry for her books that I never missed a chance to attend any exhibitions in my town..and has grabbed most of them...thus started my journey of reading :-)

[Gordon]

I picked up my first book at the age of 11-12 I suppose, don't quite remember exactly. It was a book from the Secret Seven series by Enid Blyton whose title too I don't remember now. It wasn't a great book as such but that book sure did inspire me to continue reading more. :)

[Rebecca]

I started reading when I was 6 yrs mostly comics. I do not know when I graduated to famous five and secret seven then to Nancy drew and finally Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. During my professional course I had to stay away from reading due to the pressures of study. Then came marriage a child and a job. But I felt I was missing something all the time until I laid my hands on 2 books my sister in law bought home The Kite runner by Khalid Hosseini and The Mistress by Anita Nair. Since then I haven't stopped. I have a kindle now and am addicted to it.

[Ahtims]

Rebecca, my reading almost parallels yours, except that I continued even during professional studies (to remain sane :-) ) .

[Chintan]

I started at 18 ... i mean the international books which are released world wide
before that i was reading domestic language books ( gujarati )

First book : three mistakes of my life By Chetan bhagat

than i am still into fiction by sheldon , stephen king
and many more not much known authors

[Satyaki]

Ah, very nice question! I do not remember the very early books, mostly farms, animals and a few words on each page am guessing. Followed by that was the Tin Tin mania, though I couldn't exactly read all the texts. The first proper book which made a strong impression on me was theThe Enchanted Wood at maybe 5-7 years . I still remember characters like the Moonface, Saucepan man and the Silky Fairy. Ah, childhood would never have been the same without the magical worlds hidden inside Enid Blyton's Books.

[Ahtims]

Yes, EB influenced my childhood a lot...
though my son hasn't followed my pathway

[Nandakishore]

I started reading Malayalam (my native tongue) books before I even started school, I think. The books with lot of pictures and big print.

My reading in English started with Walt Disney comics, maybe around five. Donald Duck was my hero.

[Uday]

Technically, the first book I read was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! Yea I know, weird right!:D

But I do attribute my penchant for the written word to our English curriculum in high school! It started with The Trojan War in sixth class ending with the wonderful The Hound of Baskerville in our tenth class.

[Sonia]

Wow! Enid blyton is like everywhere

Anyone remember the trio pack of - enchanted wood, magic faraway tree and the folk of the faraway tree?? That was my fav set of Enid blyton and I think u read ALL!!!

But anyway, Enid blyton wasn't what I started with. Does anyone remember those really small books on mister lazy, mister tall, mister short and a ton others???

I read them all and I don't know where I can find them now. I think we probably have given them all away to charity. But my god, the books were so cute and so fun!

Someone out there remember these??

[Ahtims]

I don't :(

[Srividya]

@Sonia - I do remember both reading them (enchanted wood, magic faraway tree and the folk of the faraway tree) and enjoying them.

Also remember reading a set of fairy tales that used to be called as The Pink Book or the Red Book and such. They were a wonderful collection of tales meant for really small kids.. it was fun reading them :)

[Sonia]

I don't think I read that - Pink Book, Red Book. But I had loved the enchanted wood and the rest of the trio!

Interesting trivia - the kids in the book were originally jo, Bessie and fanny. But in recent years, they changed the third character from fanny to frannie, for obvious reasons!

Apparently, Enid blyton was criticised for stereotyping communities and generally being racist.

[Srividya]

Oh I did not know about the name change.. hahaha I guess it must have hurt certain sentiments... :)

And was she really? I haven't read any of her books lately and I doubt that a child would ever think of such things, except may be to enjoy the books.. Hmm interesting.. Never thought of it like that.

[Sandip]

I read my first novel at age nine- Famous Five Fall into Adventure by Enid Blyton. I was reading Raj Comics before that- anyone from here used to do that? ;)

My Enid Blyton favourite however remains 'The Secret of Killimooin" :)

[Ahtims]

@ srividya, I was talking about the Mr.Tall, Mr. Short books.
yes, as a child we wouldn't have noticed. I read EBAY even now - and her racism and condescending attitude to females stands out.

[Srividya]

@Smitha - I have been planning to get back to those books for a long time. Both you and Sonia have made me curious now. And since you both are talking about the same thing, it must be true. Would have to read and understand. Hmm sad really, considering how much we enjoyed the books for that very content as a child, only to have those notions torn apart by such underlying sentiments.

[Sonia]

So apparently, there's a book called The Little Black Doll, by Enid Blyton, which is about a dark-colored doll who is universally hated, because of her color.

And even in the Famous Five, there is a general haughtiness among the boys, and a belief that girls are inferior.

@srividya you should totally get your hands on the mister mister books. they're awesome. Its actually called Mr. Men and Little Miss - just looked it up.

[Srividya]

@Sonia - I have not read that one by Enid Blyton, will definitely try and read it. Also will read those mister mister books.. sounds like fun :) Thanks for the recommendation :)

Ya there is a certain haughtiness in Famous Five but as a child you only think that boys are in general haughty, so she is not depicting anything wrong. Hmm it sure sounds different from an adult's perspective.

[Ahtims]

I think it has got more to do with the recent heightened awareness of racial, gender and minority rights. During her time it would be the norms.

[Sonia]

Yeah. My personal opinion is that this is just all too much nonsense. The books are fab, we all read them and now some bored people have decided to pick flaws after having read and re-read them.

Not worth dwelling on!

[Srividya]

@Smitha and Sonia - I agree with both of you. It could be a mix of both. The books were fabulous and ideally should be taken for what their stories were all about rather than analysing them at such length and detail. Anyway, will still pick them up and enjoy them and lets see if I am nitpicky enough to pick up these so-called flaws in these books at this age :)

[Ahtims]

neatly summed up. :-)

[Rebecca]

Smitha wrote: "Yes, EB influenced my childhood a lot...
though my son hasn't followed my pathway"

My son who is 7 years does not read. Any suggestions on books with plenty of pictures to get him to read?

[Ahtims]

My son reads a lot, but he is into the macabre genre and books like Wimpy Kid and Big nate.
At 7, my son used to like Amar Chitra Kathas a lot. In fact we have the whole (almost whole) collection.
You can try reading loud to him at bedtime. I used to do this a lot till he was 9 or so. He finished the complete Harry Potter series at the age of 9, coz I started reading Book 1 and he was too eager to wait for the daily allotment.

[Uday]

I actually never read fiction as kid but I used to devour newspapers like crazy! This began as early as when I was in third grade. My first book, Harry Potter, happened very later indeed. I guess I was 12 or 13 that time.

It's great that you read to your son, Smitha. I guess its every bookworm's dream to turn their offspring into one as well :D

[[deleted user]]

Started when I was 14 or so with Sheldon (Doomsday Conspiracy was the one I read first) books my mum was a fan of. Didn't interest me much, back then, stopped soon after.

Started again with Lord of the Rings when I was 25 or so, and now reading books has become a huge a part of my life.

[[deleted user]]

I started at age 12 with jane austen novels I guess..reading fictions and spirituality has been quite a part of my life ..I enjoys reading Paulo Coelho now days ..

[Pooja]

For me, the journey commenced since my 5th grade, when my mom handed me a copy of a children's comic *Champak*. With this, I imbibed copies and copies of many more comics namely *Tinkle*, *Chandamama*, *Amar Chitra Katha* , mentally thanking Uncle Pai for his ingenuous ways of writing and sharing with kids (He had his way to feed mythology and still not make us cringe at it.). Alongside, my school library roused my appetite for Arabian Nights and stories by Ruskin Bond,gliding its course into British Classics. That was when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Detective Classic (need I even say it) struck me a bolt of thunder! Ever since, there has been no looking back. Paulho Coelho,Gulzar,Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri,Amy Tan, Chimamanda Adichei, Dan Brown, Jeffrey Archer, Nicholas Sparks.. and some of the most recent ones being E.L James,Khaled Hosseini and Amish Tripathi...have all infused my life, thinking and perspective with volumes of unspeakable,inexplicable,indubitable and illimitable emotions, with every book/novel/comic offering some delectable insight on a strange terrain of life at another point in geography/demography/history; waltzing through a slew of character graphs, their nuances, their circumstances, their virtues & vices. My proclivity for political sciences and sociology is now eerily,wildly and languidly taking its form.. and I just wish this journey never ceases. That reminds me of *Such a long journey* by Rohinton Mistry , by the way! :)

[Arun]

Couldn't remember wen I started... But probably about my 6th or 7th grade I think from some I received a book of Canon Doyle's The Blue Carbuncle then some Tinkle digest book... Later by the age 17 or 18 may be Started my first novel and I don't know ever I will read abnovel like that it is Ponniyin Selvan.. So far I've read Some books but none matches with this..

[Rahul]

I read my first book when I was 17, that too because I was stuck in a place without television and mobile. Now, I can hardly go a day witgout reading something, anything. My first book was Da Vinci code,because that was the only thing I could find. I liked the book though I had to keep referring the dictionary, My vocabulary was poor at that time.
Though the first book that totally captivated me was The Alchemist by Paulo coelho. I have to read the book again sometime soon to make sure that I still love it

[Ishita]

I started my first book when i was 10..secret seven enid blyton :)

[Sonia]

i have been reading books ever since i remember, i do not remember the first book/s, but i still have a red book with collection of all the fairy tales and it has been there in my shelves ever since childhood(in possession of my daughter now)..i remember my dad had subscribed for a number of children magazines for me and i used to finish them within a week of their arrival...

[[deleted user]]

At 8 or 9 years.
i read Harry Potter :)

[Priyanka]

At age 9. My first book was A Magic Sparrow

[Anirudh]

I've been reading from age 6 onward, but my first real adventure into English books was in 2008 with The Eye of the World by Robery Jordan.

[Rajan]

I started reading as my hobby when i was around 12 yrs. I have always found myself eager to find a book, sit in a place and gobble it down.
The first book by international writer that i read was The Vinci Code. that was on my 13th year.
before that, I used to read books from my dad's collection, but before i could read enough, the book would disappear from the shelf. That would add to my thirst for reading books. I can remember that i have read most of the religious books.
My Parents have no objection with me reading books, but they worry that i would be spending much of my money in books.
I come from a place where there are not enough bookstores, so even if i made a list of books i needed, the proprietor would take almost a month to get all the books for me.
Well, starting the journey was quite tough and back-throbbing, but i am happy that i was provided enough strength to overcome all those pains and end up here in this fine place delhi, which is quenching my thirst for reading books, bit by bit, which as much as i know, will never get enough.

[Alex]

Well,I started very late !! When I was going through a dark phase in my life, my sister recommended me this book titled Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson by the way, I didn't tell the age na ? 20 !! yep 20 it is !! ;) :D

[Vignesh]

14, Robinson Crusoe,

[Indrani]

I do not remember exactly when I started. I think I was 5 or 6 when my dad used to buy me Amar Chitra Katha comics. Very soon then we got two bengali magazines - Suktara and Chandmama. I was enrolled in a neighborhood library around when I was 8. From then it was about a book a week. Also as many magazines and comics I could borrow from friends. Also parents and relatives bought us books too. I started reading English a lot later, I think around when I was 14-15 and started seriously when I was 18.

Loved the topic. Brought back such warm memories. :)

[Jyoti]

I think I was 6 or 7 years old when I started reading. Don't quite remember which book, but most probably it was some Diamond comic. I used to love reading Chacha Chaudhary etc. There used to be a small stall near our home that used to rent comics. Every week my sister and I went to this stall and looked for a new comic to read. Sifting through the piles of comics at that stall was as much fun as reading those comics.
From them, I progressed to books of Russian tales that my father bought for me from some shop. Then books of Noddy that my elder sister used to get from her school library. These primarily consisted of my early reading.

[Anushka]

I was 6 or 7 when I started reading comics....and I started reading novels when I was in 6th standard...My first book was nirmala by premchand :)

[Gayathry]

I don't remember the exact age when i started reading . I
started reading classics from the school library and the hobby took root
after I read Secret seven series by EndBlyton .Since then books but have been my best friend......

[Rishabh]

I usually started reading when I was 4 . But it was simple picture books then when I grew a little i stated reading comics. I remember my first comic being NagRaj series . My first fiction was probably 5 Points Someone when I was 12 .