what book made you a reader.

che · 20-10-2002 3:17pm #1

I was going to ask which book was peoples favorite of all time. but , i couldnt figure it out myself so tell me, what was the book that really made you go 'sh!t, this reading stuff kinda rocks'.
mine has to be Frank Herberts 'Dune'. I read it when i was about 15 and it was the first book that really got my imagination running riot. mmmmmm the freman, the Atredies, Spice, Baron Harkonan. such a great book.
so let me know what book was your 'dune'.

Kai · 20-10-2002 3:24pm

Mine probably would have been the hobbit, by J.R.R Tolkien. I was pretty young maybe 12 or 13 and loved how detailed the book was, also it led up to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I Preffered LOTR but the Hobbit was the one that got me interested in reading first.

SweetBirdOfTruth · 20-10-2002 6:54pm

Silas Marner.

bonkey · 20-10-2002 8:45pm

Hard to say.

As a kid, my dad got me into reading by giving me a Hardy Boys book each Saturday. Within a few months, I'd have it finished by the Saturday night.

Possibly, though, it was before that....before I even started reading. On summer holidays, my dad used to read myself and my sis a chapter or two from one of Carroll's Alice books at bedtime.

I guess I was a reader long before I read anything memorable....

jc

DadaKopf · 20-10-2002 9:16pm

I think the book that mainly got me started was Good Omens but I really started reading in earnest when I discovered Albert Camus.

thedrowner · 20-10-2002 9:21pm

that would be lucy leek doing her own washing!
my very first childrens book and since then ive read on average about 1-2 books a week. my favourite book would probably be pride and prejudice, all time classic or maybe the anne of green gables series (by L.M.Montgomery), with rilla of ingleside being my favorite

CodeMonkey · 20-10-2002 9:27pm

I always hated reading when I was younger but I remembered enjoying The Outsider immensely when I was in 1st year. That still didn't get me reading books for fun. A couple of weeks before school starts when I was around 14, I picked up Catcher in the Rye from the piles of book my parents already bought for school and started reading it. I couldn't put it down and finished it in 2 nights. I've been a reader ever since.

yellum · 20-10-2002 10:45pm

When I started Secondary we had a fairly good library, there was a series of mystery books by Alfred Hitchcock called The Three Detectives I think. I read the first in the series in a weekend and was hooked from then on.

cartman · 20-10-2002 11:08pm

Ann and Barry

Thanx 4 The Fish · 21-10-2002 8:21am

Started reading the Shannara books when I was six and never looked back, have been a fantasy fan ever since.

LoBo · 21-10-2002 11:35am

probably Roald Dahl - can't remember exactly though

thedrowner · 21-10-2002 11:43am

does anyone remember those books that made you decide what storyline the characters were going to take by turning to different pages????

Kolodny · 21-10-2002 8:16pm

Originally posted by Frugu
Mine probably would have been the hobbit, by J.R.R Tolkien.

Same here. It was the first book I can remember being read to me as a kid and ended up being the first book I read myself when I was a bit older.

amp · 21-10-2002 8:27pm

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's - The Little Prince. Lots of surrealism and it made me cry and smile.

Thanx 4 The Fish · 22-10-2002 8:30am

Originally posted by thedrowner
does anyone remember those books that made you decide what storyline the characters were going to take by turning to different pages????

Those choose your own adventure books, hold your finger in the page, find out which was the best decision and take that way

Saruman · 22-10-2002 8:32am

Lord of the rings of course... ( read the Hobbit after it!!).
Now im hooked.. Im reading Wheel of time now

Thanx 4 The Fish · 23-10-2002 1:36pm

How are you finding the wheel of time Sar ??

Manach · 23-10-2002 9:47pm

About 15 I was. The 3rd book of the Illearth War by Stephen Donaldson. Literally found it one day, and opened the first page and was hooked from then on - these things should carry a health warning.

irishgeo · 24-10-2002 7:43pm

Adrian Mole I do hope there is another one.

Bard · 24-10-2002 8:40pm

My first proper introduction to reading as a kid was probably Enid Blyton... and the Famous Five.

(eep!) :eek:

Ah... her books were great when you were a kid though, weren't they?... Go on admit it.

...Ginger beer, adventures on Kirrin Island, A girl called George, Timmy the dog, pass the sandwiches, hidden treasure, Dick, Anne, camping, boating, hiking, hiding in barns, smugglers, sunken ships, crisps, 'fizzy pop', GOD JULIAN YOU ARE A F**KIN' BRICK!...

Thankfully my literary tastes have improved (vastly) since then...

MeEt TeH gAnG!?

Mercury_Tilt · 24-10-2002 9:14pm

This post has been deleted.

Dun · 26-10-2002 9:59pm

Originally posted by Thanx 4 The Fish
Those choose your own adventure books, hold your finger in the page, find out which was the best decision and take that way

Hehe - glad to hear I wasn't the only cheater

Dun · 26-10-2002 10:08pm

Originally posted by Bard
My first proper introduction to reading as a kid was probably Enid Blyton... and the Famous Five.
Ah... her books were great when you were a kid though, weren't they?... Go on admit it.
...Ginger beer, adventures on Kirrin Island, A girl called George, Timmy the dog, pass the sandwiches, hidden treasure, Dick, Anne, camping, boating, hiking, hiding in barns, smugglers, sunken ships, crisps, 'fizzy pop', GOD JULIAN YOU ARE A F**KIN' BRICK!...

Hehe - that was my introduction too. Those and the Hardy Boys, and the Alfred Hitchcock Three Investigators books. "JUPITER JONES, you come here at once!"

And at our school there was a pile of old Tom Swift books which I loved.

One day I was rereading some books and realised I was too old for them. From there it was Stephen King for ages. Now I read anything that's not obvious cráp.

pauldeehan · 28-10-2002 7:46pm

I was always a reader from a very young age, I'm mildly short sighted as a result of reading after bed time when I was a kid. I would read Hardy Boys (until I realised it was the same plot over and over) and those Enid Blyton books. The first book I really, really enjoyed was Paddy Clarke Ha Ha when I was about 10. Now I mostly read Stephen King.

Earthhorse · 01-11-2002 7:59pm

I'd have to say Clive Barker's "The Thief of Always".

Before reading this I didn't believe anyone was capable of writing well in the English language anymore. This despite reading a lot since I was a boy.

McGinty · 01-11-2002 10:03pm

I cannot remember which precise book enticed me to be a reader, although I think it was Alice in Wonderland, I have always read from about the age of 8 years old. In school when I read out aloud I sounded like I was an illiterate, however at home I was reading encyclopedia's, magazines, books from the library, jumble sales, even my parents books. Anything that I could lay my hands on.

I am still like that today, l love books, I think though my all time favourites are Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter books, pure magic.

Funky · 02-11-2002 12:09am

the hobbit when i was about 6 , i've read way too much since...

thedrowner · 03-11-2002 3:01pm

yeah mc ginty, i love the harry potter books. i know fans, and avid haters, but i just found them completely enthralling (bar the first one after i read the next 3) i only got into them for reading them to kids i babysat for!!!!
i cant believe no 5 was put back a year dammit!

Psychedelic · 05-11-2002 12:42pm

Stuff like Famous Five,Hardy Boys,Roald Dahl when i was a kid. Loved reading since then. Didn't read much through early teens. Got really back into reading then around 18 reading stuff like "The Doors of Perception" by Huxley, "The Catcher In The Rye","Alice In Wonderland" and "Through The Looking Glass" then a lot of philosophy books(Nietzsche,Plato).

johnnynolegs · 06-11-2002 2:02pm

everything got me into reading but the first book that i read properly was the lord of the rings when it was read to us in school and then i read it myself after that and have now managed to read it a startling 18 times silly silly silly boy

xern · 12-11-2002 8:41pm

Well the novel i did for my leaving cert (all those years ago!!!)
JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.
before that i would have never have been a reader, so over the last 8 years i've read loads of books, from LOTR, the wheel of time, the godfather to name a fue, i'm reading NEMESIS by Bill napier at the moment, it's a good book I'd recommend it!

XERN

DapperGent · 13-11-2002 1:17am

The earliest books I can remember loving were the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Voyage of the Dawntreader and all the rest of them.

Absolute joy reading them and led on nicely to the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.

Then of course an unhealthy adolescent love of all fantasy causing perhaps my greatest shame - a complete collection of Raymond E. Feist's and David Edding's "works".

johnnynolegs · 13-11-2002 2:16pm

y is that shameful..........

Waylander · 21-11-2002 5:22pm

Dappergent you are man after my own heart. I read those Chronicles of Narnia ( including The Lion, the Witch and The wardrobe ) after seeing an animated version on the telly at Christmas one year. Never looked back. They lead me down the same road as well. Tolkien - Eddings - All things Fantasy, especially David Gemmell.

tman · 22-11-2002 10:42am

The earliest books I can remember loving were the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Voyage of the Dawntreader and all the rest of them.

same as myself

DapperGent · 23-11-2002 8:51pm

Originally posted by johnnynolegs
y is that shameful..........

Because apart from Magician by Feist they're all really really bad books.

Eddings is a gibbon who seems to be getting away with writing the same book 20 times over and Feist figured he didn't need to bother any more because idiots like me kept buying his books even when they were rubbish.

Chowmein · 23-11-2002 9:12pm

Must have been the Hobbit first that realy got me into reading, went on to the discworld series from there (i still put down books im in the middle of to read the new ones

)

sceptre · 25-11-2002 4:44am

Originally posted by Mercury_Tilt
Im hardly going to admit it was a series of books about some girls in a boarding school now am I.

Haha, you read your sister's Mallory Towers books didn't you:D Or worse, those Chalet school books where they had a different language each day (oops, I've said too much)

Er, Peter Rabbit or Noddy and His Car. My mammy got me into reading before she sent me off to school. I've always read quite a bit - ran through all the famous 5 books before I hit 1st class but never liked the Secret Seven or many of the other Enid Blyton books (though I liked "The (insert exciting location) of Adventure" books - only six of those though.

Parents were actually quite good (generous dammit - they weren't that well-off) about getting books for their little brat - they'd provided me with all the Read it Yourself books they could lay their hands on before packing me off to ABCland

The odd thing is that I discovered a lot of kiddy books relatively late - never read Roald Dahl's BFG, James & the Giant Peach etc until I'd worked through his regular short stories (which are rather good - go and get them). These days I read a lot less (sometimes only one a week) - far less time I suppose.

sceptre · 25-11-2002 5:03am

Originally posted by DapperGent
Eddings is a gibbon who seems to be getting away with writing the same book 20 times over

Have to agree with you. Read the Belgariad and Malloreon books a good few years back. Not bad I suppose but still bad Tolkien ripoffs (though to be fair at least I never noticed Eddings making up silly songs)

KdjaCL · 25-11-2002 5:35am

Great Expectations.
Silver Sword
Chronicles of Narnia.
Flowers in the Attic

Umm one of those.
Tho Flowers in teh Attic was a good un could be the 1st book i read when iw as about 11/12

kdjaC

blackadder · 25-11-2002 3:52pm

douglas adams' hitchhikers guide books... wanted to be a writer ever since

what book made you a reader.

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