Authors/Books you read as an adolescent..

AskMyChocolate

...that still mean something to you.

I remember reading Alastair McClean's books (McLean?) as a thirteen year old.

They had a great impact. I could never understand, whether, I was getting older or his books were getting worse.

Re-read some of them there recently. It was neither. He just got a ghost-writer to write most of them. Lazy bastard.

At least, that's my take on it.

For any adolescents even thinking of reading any of his books (if adolescents still read), I would recommend:

"HMS Ulysses"

"South by Java Head"

and my own personal favourite,

"The Last Frontier"

A lot of the the rest of them are ghost-written shyte.

Choco.

Went off on a tangent there.

So AHers, what authors/books formed your childhood/adolescence?

Hasmunch

For adolescents i would recommend reading playboy... (or just stream porn instead)

BOF666

R.L. Stine, and the Goosebumps books! (think I was about ten at the time)

Edit: Just realised that they don't really mean anything to me now... The titles still make me feel a bit nostalgic though!

MadsL

George Orwell. Read Animal Farm in my last year at Primary. Totally hooked.

I know, strange.

Also John Wyndham; Day of the Triffids, Cocky, The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids, Trouble with Lichen - read them all at 12,13-ish.

Chuck Stone

I read these.

randylonghorn

Ha, McLean was pretty good, and Dick Francis.

Read LOTR at 14, and loved it. Films don't do it justice. Anne McCaffrey's Pernese series was another favourite.

stiffler123

All of S.E. Hintons books and LOTR.

The Scratcher

I read the Barrytown trilogy in primary school. That was the same year the word ride entered into my everyday vocabulary. Teachers weren't too impressed.

Badly Drunk Boy

Kurt Vonnegut, genius.

Flann O'Brien, beyond genius.

mawk

iain banks. wasp factory, business, espidair st etc

tom clancy

and too much raymond feist

PhlegmyMoses

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Kurt Vonnegut, genius.

Flann O'Brien, beyond genius.

Fair play if you were reading and enjoying Flann O'Brien as an adolescent. Read all of his stuff for college and enjoyed it but couldn't imagine a 14-year-old me grasping the concepts of the Third Policeman.

up for anything

James A Michener

Leon Uris

Taylor Caldwell

Irving Stone

Vicxas

David Gemmels books, i absolutely loved them. Still do to this day.

Would also recommend Terry Pratchett books to anyone interested in a good laugh.

Mike87

The falcons malteser. I dont know how many times I read that book as a kid. And before adolescence I was quite fond of the secret seven... I actually plan on buying that collection to re-read it.

I couldn't even begin to remember the number of books I read as a kid
I do know from 12-13 I was going through a horror phase, then I discovered wheel of time and was hooked on fantasy for years
i loved macbeth as a kid, i had a kids' book with excerpts from a load of shakespeare, was great

zef

The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole
Less than zero- Brett Easton Ellis (that was really racy for 1985!)
Books by Robert Cormier incl "The chocolate Wars'
Oscar Wilde - Happy Prince , Selfish Giant, etc
"Goodnight Mister Tom'- a book about wartime London, so sad.

And those godawful Judy Blume books.

Teyla Emmagan

Mostly fantasy and horror for the whole of my teens. David Eddings, Stephen Donaldson, Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, Stephen King, Lovecraft, MR James, Ramsay Campbell, all of that. Books were more expensive back then so I read everything 4 times.

I never read 'young adult' stuff. Went straight from Alan Garner/Laura Ingalls Wilder to my Dad's Wilbur Smith books (they had dirty bits in them).

emzolita

aw Goosebumps (reader beware, you're in for a scare) :P and Babysitters Club. Then I got a bit more mature, was mad about The portrait of Dorian Gray for ages.

summerskin

anything by Paul Raymond...

GAAman

To Kill a Mockingbird, we read this for the junior cert and I had the thing read at least ten times by the time the class as a whole got to chapter 3. Still my favourite book of all time.

I was also given a book of some Edgar Allen Poe stories around the same time which I loved as well, The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart, The House of Usher and The Golden Scarab.

BUBBLE WRAP

Tara and Ben.

http://c0.dmlimg.com/1fc1c1c2db5852e08ffc380475e26336a6fff55b625dcda1ebb17bf4136e6743.jpg

Bad Panda

The lingerie section of my mam's Littlewoods catalogue.

God bless the internet!

hidinginthebush

Vicxas wrote: »

David Gemmels books, i absolutely loved them. Still do to this day.

Would also recommend Terry Pratchett books to anyone interested in a good laugh.

Was going to say David Gemell alright, still great to read to this day.

AskMyChocolate

Chuck Stone wrote: »

I read these.

TOP-Notch!

Obelix!

He-He!

AskMyChocolate

randylonghorn wrote: »

Ha, McLean was pretty good, and Dick Francis.

Read LOTR at 14, and loved it. Films don't do it justice. Anne McCaffrey's Pernese series was another favourite.

Yeah, but some of Dick Francis's books/writing just got better, which you couldn't say for McLean!

While Dead Cert, and Whip Hand are undeniable classics, there was nothing wrong with "Hot Money".

Choco

AskMyChocolate

randylonghorn wrote: »

Ha, McLean was pretty good, and Dick Francis.

Read LOTR at 14, and loved it. Films don't do it justice. Anne McCaffrey's Pernese series was another favourite.

How much did you want to be Sid Halley?

Chuck Stone

AskMyChocolate wrote: »

TOP-Notch!

Obelix!

He-He!

I loved those books. They always had a big banquet at the end and food looked fantastic with Obleix eating massive chunks of wild boar.

anncoates

In early adolescence (up to age of 15):

As much of the Richard Allen "Skinhead' series as I could find.

Rumblefish by SE Hinton

The Machine Gunners and Fathom Five by Robert Westall.

Walkabout by James Vance Marshall

The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier.

Most of my Mum's potboilers (Harold Robbins, Dean Koontz, Molly Parkin) that were comprehensively scoured for sex scenes,.

Corvo

anncoates wrote: »

In early adolescence (up to age of 15)

As much of the Richard Allen "Skinhead' series as I could find.

Rumblefish by SE Hinton

The Machine Gunners and Fathom Five by Robert Westall.

Walkabout by James Vance Marshall

The Silver Sword by Ian Serriler.

Most of my Mum's potboilers (Harold Robbins, Dean Koontz, Molly Parkin) that were comprehensively scoured for sex scenes,.

Loved that book. Still remember it vaguely after all these years!

candy-gal1

Judy Blume, any of her stuff, Forever included.

Adrian Mole series.

Point Horror stuff, I loved The Diary, was one of my favourites

anncoates

Griffin1988 wrote: »

Loved that book. Still remember it vaguely after all these years!

Me too!

Will definitely track it down for my own kids when they're old enough.

Butterface

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
LOTR
The Adrian Mole series

When I was in primary school I really enjoyed the Marita Conlon-McKenna Children of the Famine trilogy. It was the first time I started to think about Ireland's history. Would love to read them again.

FloatingVoter

Adrian Mole books.
Portrait of the Artist (it was a school text but I loved it - due another read).
Anything Pratchett (still a fan).
Stephen King (ditto)
Non fiction relating to WW2.
I did Asterix and Tintin when I was younger but still have a soft spot.

chakotha

Used to read the LOTR every Autumn for about 5 years. Stephen Donaldson's Covenant chonicles.

Most of Frederick Forsyth, Robert Ludlum, Wilbur Smith, Jeffrey Archer, Sidney Sheldon, Stephen King.

Giselle

My first real love was "The Velveteen Rabbit" and I remember being hooked on 'Horrible Histories' .

When I was about 12 I went through a Virginia Andrews phase (really depressing horrible books, but really easy quick reads), and from then on I read whatever was lying around.

I read a lot as a kid and I remember after a relative came to stay I read about eight Jeffrey Archer books in a row and followed it up with many, many Clive Cussler adventures and Stephen King horrors like 'Salems Lot, that didn't scare me as much as I wanted them to.

Red Hand

Giselle wrote: »

I read a lot as a kid and I remember after a relative came to stay I read about eight Jeffrey Archer books in a row...

They make super loo paper as well.:pac: Multi use.:P

I read the encyclopedia as a child. World Book. That was my education, really. Unfortunately, the one we had was bought at the year of my birth so everything was out of date in the early to mid nineties. It was about '97 before I realised that there was no East Germany.:D

Other than reading and rereading the above, an aunt gave me a load of these pulp fiction novels from the 50s, that had been sold on from libraries. Most were detective/private eye stories. Nobody swore in them.:)

As an adolescent, I think it was just Irish authors and nearly all short stories. Frank O Connor and Padraic o Conaire. And the out of date World Book.

Edit: How could I forget Dinosaurs! I had every issue, all hundred and something of them.