Teen Fiction What Did You Read As A Teen

44leto · 29-03-2012 01:36PM #1

I went to the cinema last night, the box office smash “The hunger games” which took a massive 190 million dollars at its opening weekend. I knew nothing about the film, but I was expecting it to be good on the back of its success.

It was horrendous an implausible plot, unintelligent dialogue and 2 dimensional characters. I actually left the cinema to have a smoke and when I got back I thought Jaysus is this still on. It was one of those films you wished you had a remote so you could fast forward it.

But I learned a bit about it now. It is from a set of books in a new genre called “teen fiction” other examples are Harry Potter, Twilight, Then there was one, its endless and they sell in boat loads. If an author gets it right they are multi multi millionaires. So the film wasn’t aimed at me.

The books I read as a teen seemed of higher quality or sophistication, Tolkien, AC Clarke, Douglas Adams or what my father was reading.

So what books did you read as a teen and why do you think this new literature genre is so successful.

prinz · 29-03-2012 01:38PM

Biggles. :pac:

mikemac1 · 29-03-2012 01:39PM

Enid Blython

Famous Five, Secret Seven

I fancied Ann, such a girly girl

That was from the TV show adaptation

......and lashings and lashings of ginger ale

Reading about gollywogs turned me into a flaming racist
It's a good thing they edit those books to comply with new PC standards nowadays :rolleyes:

Dravokivich · 29-03-2012 01:40PM

I was still only reading picture books when I was a teenager. :pac:

Turtyturd · 29-03-2012 01:40PM

Battle Royale: It's about this group of kids who are forced to fight each other to the death until only one is left....much better than the rubbish today.

dilallio · 29-03-2012 01:41PM

mikemac1 wrote: »

Enid Blython

Famous Five, Secret Seven

I fancied Ann, such a girly girl That was from the TV show adaptation

......and lashings and lashings of ginger ale

Reading about gollywogs turned into a flaming racist
It's a good thing these edit those books to comply with new PC standards nowadays :rolleyes:

and tongue (from a tin of course)

phasers · 29-03-2012 01:42PM

This thread will break down into one of two things:

1. Kids these days suck yada yada yada

b. Look how smart I am I can read long boring books

Personally I read a load of awful ****e and I still do.

The King of Moo · 29-03-2012 01:46PM

Point Horror Books!

They were quite trashy and formulaic, but great fun, especially during the summer.
Generally they were just like slasher films, with pretty high-school teens being killed off by a (sometimes seemingly supernatural) killer.
There was always a nice good-looking guy the lead girl liked who'd get accused of the murders, and there'd always be an obnoxious jock who seemed like the obvious candidate, but then it'd turn out to be that character who was only mentioned a few times and didn't appear much.

There was also a Point Sci-Fi offshoot. I read a few but they were a mixed bag. I do remember one that struck me though: it was a funny and surprisingly philosophical and scientifically-literate book about a group heading off in a spaceship to find Eternity, with Schrodinger's Cat and a camel among the group.

There were also some great Irish fantasy/adventure novels based on Irish mythology.
Michael Scott wrote quite a few good ones. His De Danann Tales series stood out in particular: Windlord, Earthlord and Firelord, though he never got round to finishing the series with Sealord :mad:.

There was another series of a few books that were similar, written by a guy called Cormac MacRaois, which included Battle Below Giltspur, Dance of the Midnight Fire and, I think, another book.
Like The De Danann Tales, it was about modern kids getting transported to the land of na Tuatha De Danann and getting wrapped up in adventures with the ancient Celtic gods and Formorians and other monsters.

Oh, I just remembered the series of books about foxes by Tom McCaughren, former RTÉ News security correspondent.
They were like a more mature, gritty Animals of Farthing Wood, though I think I read most of them before I hit puberty.
You could probably say that about all the above books actually. I was a quite precocious reader and by the age of 15 I was probably exclusively getting books from the adult section of the library.

44leto · 29-03-2012 01:46PM

phasers wrote: »

This thread will break down into one of two things:

1. Kids these days suck yada yada yada

b. Look how smart I am I can read long boring books

Personally I read a load of awful ****e and I still do.

I did state that the film or the book was not aimed at me. Its just my teen fiction seemed less teenage mills and boons. That is what I think the new teen genre has in common.

But I am a sophisticated reader and I love long boring books

Professey Chin · 29-03-2012 01:48PM

Point Horror and Goosebumps for me o/
Then I found out the library had loads of the novels based around Alien, Red Dwarf and stuff like that. Gave me happehs!

Shryke · 29-03-2012 01:49PM

Tolkien, Douglas Adams, Phillip K. Dick, George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Iain Banks and a load of other fantasy and sci-fi authors. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller about 10 times, most of the classics from Dumas to Orwell, and a pile of others.
I never read "teen" fiction, as in crap marketed to 14 year olds, not as far as I can remember. Those dedicated teen sections they have in book shops now look terrible.I can't tell one title from the next and the covers are all identical anyway.

Blikes · 29-03-2012 01:49PM

Darren shan books as a teen.

Might dig them out and read again

Seachmall · 29-03-2012 01:49PM

The only books "read for enjoyment" I remember reading were Artemis Fowl, Darren Shan, Alex Rider and the like. As well as books on magic and gambling.

Really just read computer books and marketing/sales books now (and occasionally a basic philosophy book which I barely understand, which probably comes through in my pretentious posts

). That's not to say I don't enjoy them, but I don't think they're what the topic is about.

I haven't finished a book, any book, in years. I actually started a short one last night just to get back into reading after reading a blog post about enjoying reading.

Edit - Actually, I finished 2 books last Summer. Yay for me!

ElleEm · 29-03-2012 01:50PM

I read a lot of chick lit, Marion Keyes, Virginia Andrews, etc. I also read a LOT of John Grisham books.
I wouldn't read anything like that now, but they definitely got me into reading in a big way.

prinz · 29-03-2012 01:50PM

I read everything and anything I could lay my hands on from The Hardy Boys to Jeffrey Archer.

Rhyme · 29-03-2012 01:52PM

Ani-fucking-morphs baby.

Tolkien, Adams, Feist, Eddings etc.

ElleEm · 29-03-2012 01:53PM

The King of Moo wrote: »

Point Horror Books!

They were quite trashy and formulaic, but great fun, especially during the summer.
Generally they were just like slasher films, with pretty high-school teens being killed off by a (sometimes seemingly supernatural) killer.
There was always a nice good-looking guy the lead girl liked who'd get accused of the murders, and there always be an obnoxious jock who seemed like the obvious candidate, but then it'd turn out to be that character who was only mentioned a few times and didn't appear much.

There was also a Point Sci-Fi offshoot. I read a few but they were a mixed bag. I do remember one that struck me though: it was a funny and surprisingly philosophical and scientifically-literate book about a group heading off in a spaceship to find Eternity, with Schrodinger's Cat and a camel among the group.

There were also some great Irish fantasy/adventure novels based on Irish mythology.
Michael Scott wrote quite a few good ones. His De Danann Tales series stood out in particular: Windlord, Earthlord and Firelord, though he never got round to finishing the series with Sealord :mad:.

There was another series of a few books that were similar, written by a guy called Cormac MacRaois, which included Battle Below Giltspur, Dance of the Midnight Fire and, I think, another book.
Like The De Danann Tales, it was about modern kids getting transported to the land of na Tuatha De Danann and getting wrapped up in adventures with the ancient Celtic gods and Formorians and other monsters.

Oh, I just remembered the series of books about foxes by Tom McCaughren, former RTÉ News security correspondent.
They were like a more mature, gritty Animals of Farthing Wood, though I think I read most of them before I hit puberty.

I LOVED these books, White Fang and Run with the Wind and all. Aw, memories!

Immaculate Pasta · 29-03-2012 01:54PM

You're all a bunch of bookworms.

Nuts/Zoo magazine :cool:

Pighead · 29-03-2012 01:54PM

Publicly: The Hardy Boys and Roald Dahl books.
Privately: The twins at St Clares and the Malory Towers series.

The King of Moo · 29-03-2012 01:55PM

ElleEm wrote: »

I LOVED these books, White Fang and Run with the Wind and all. Aw, memories!

They were great, especially as I was big into nature, especially wild animals, as a kid, and had foxes living nearby.
The books were also quite dark at times: lots of death and starvation, but introduced in such a way that kids could deal with it without it being too sugarcoated.

mikemac1 · 29-03-2012 01:56PM

Marita Conlon McKenna

Under the Hawthorn Tree was about children in the famine trying to get across Ireland in desperate circumstances
RTÉ made a TV adaptation, it was awful. Book is brilliant though

The Blue Horse was about an itinerant girl who was gifted at art

She's a great Irish writer

Also the TinTin books. They were cartoon format and the stories were great
Snowy, such a legend of a dog

westendgirlie · 29-03-2012 01:57PM

Jackie Collins

Jimoslimos · 29-03-2012 02:00PM

Lots of good books mentioned I had completely forgotten about.

Does anyone here remember some books about a scanger called Donny, bit cheesy but enjoyable nonetheless?

44leto · 29-03-2012 02:00PM

I read a lot of fantasy and SciFi, I grew out of the fantasy but not the SciFi but that seems a dead genre now, Ian M Banks eases my craving for that now, the only author that still writes good scifi.

The Dune series was my favourite teen read. I listen to talking books while walking and I am actually revisiting them in audio and loving them. As a teen I was fascinated by the concepts of those novels, but as an adult I realise the books are all about the intricacies of power.

Beruthiel · 29-03-2012 02:00PM

mikemac1 wrote: »

Enid Blython

Famous Five, Secret Seven

I fancied Ann, such a girly girl That was from the TV show adaptation

......and lashings and lashings of ginger ale

I wanted to be George, she was such a tomboy!

I read all of Enid Blyton.
I also read Alfred Hitchcocks, The Three Investigators.
The Hardy Boys.
Nancy Drew.
Stephen King came after that.

Jimoslimos · 29-03-2012 02:02PM

Just remembered, The Silver Sword - 2nd world war tale from a group of separated childrens perspective.

44leto · 29-03-2012 02:04PM

mikemac1 wrote: »

Marita Conlon McKenna

Under the Hawthorn Tree was about children in the famine trying to get across Ireland in desperate circumstances
RTÉ made a TV adaptation, it was awful. Book is brilliant though

The Blue Horse was about an itinerant girl who was gifted at art

She's a great Irish writer

Also the TinTin books. They were cartoon format and the stories were great
Snowy, such a legend of a dog

Snap, my 4 year old nephew is into them ATM. But I am going to buy him an Asterisk I always thought they were better.

candy-gal1 · 29-03-2012 02:07PM

Point Horror, the step up from Goosebumps as a kid

Jacqueline wilson

Judy Blume - i think everyone has read that "famous" book Forever

:D

Squeeonline · 29-03-2012 02:12PM

As a pre-teen I was reading a lot of goosebumps and crap like that.

I really like the "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pulman. Still my favourite books.

I also read the "Hot Zone" (about ebola virus) and "The Madness of Adam and Eve" which was about evolution and schizophrenia.

44leto · 29-03-2012 02:13PM

Just reading the different posts and in retrospect I did read rubbish teen fiction but they were called children's books.

Enid Blyton
The Hardy boys

Nancy Drew

but Shsshhh.

Buddinplant · 29-03-2012 02:14PM

I read everything, although Tolkien was a hard one to craic. Sisters read it and loved it, I couldnt get very far, so i was chuffed when the films came out.

The Babysitters Club (every book started with a chapter that explained the club, every time

)
Harry Potter
His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman.
To kill a mocking bird
The Secret Diary of Adrien Mole 13 3/4
Every Meave Binchy book out there. Think i cleaned out alot of charity shops one summer ( i was an odd child )
All the crime and thriller books i cold grab, and one or two mills and boon books

Teen Fiction What Did You Read As A Teen

Comments