[Traveller]

I started reading early... I learned to read with Roald Dahl's 'Fantastic Mr Fox'. I can still remember lines from it now, i loved that book. I read more Roald Dahl after that, and a series of adventure books I found at school by a guy called Willard Price. They were about a couple of boys who went to different continents collecting animals for zoos. They look a bit dated now, but i learnt a lot from them!
There was a whole series, like African Adventure, South Sea Adventure etc, and they had loads of factual stuff about countries and animals in them, and I used to re-read them loads.

I also read 'Jaws' quite a bit , as i loved the film - I got a few looks from my teachers when they saw me reading it. I had a lot of those 'Fighting Fantasy' books too, which were my first intoduction to fantasy - when I eventually read the Hobbit, i could finally see what it was they were all based on.
We had lots of Stephen King books in my house, so I read all of those - I remember reading 'Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption' years before they made it into a film. Clive Barker's 'Weaveworld' and 'Imajica' seemed pretty different from anything else at the time; I read a lot of his stuff too.

I remember first reading Lord of the Rings - I read that every couple of years or so now. Ender's Game is the most memorable sci-fi book; that really got me into sci-fi, as i always found authors like Asimov a bit heavy going. But I think a love of reading started with Roald Dahl, with the first book I could read all the way through on my own. What I still find odd is that while many things slip my mind, when it comes to the books I've read, even if it was 30 years ago, I can remember the plot, characters, good lines, the lot.

(Sometimes if someone I know has borrowed a book from me, and I ask them if they liked a specific bit, they say 'oh, I don't remember that bit..' or 'I read that last year, I don't remember,' which i always find a little weird. Maybe that's why some people have trouble with MbotF...)

This post has been edited by Traveller: 24 February 2009 - 10:36 AM

[TeddyGraham]

I started reading at a young age as I'm half deaf and cant really hear the tv, I started with THe LIttles cant remember the authors name, and moved up to goosebumps, then spooksville by christopher pike. As I got older I got into the old Hardy boys books, and Animorphs, although when animorphs became more mainstream I stopped reading it, they came it some pretty gay animorph toys and a show that turned me off the series. For Fantasy I read the hobbit, the moved into dragonlance, and david eddings. I actually picked up memories of ice while waiting for the next goodkind book to come out, then I forgot about goodkind....

[T'lan Coltaine]

hmmmmmm lets see that really a hard 1. The book that got me into loving books was probably Raymond.E.Feists magician. i read it when i was like no idea uhmmm 7-8? i then moved on to tons of other fantasys that soon my mum told me to stop reading cause i read to much =O oppoiste of most mums lol. but the book that set me back the most was the harry potter series after i read the first book i was like seriously i just couldnt like that book =/.

[waydoug]

Salt-Man Z, on Feb 20 2009, 06:25 PM, said:

waydoug, on Feb 20 2009, 03:04 PM, said:

The very first Fantasy book that turned me on to my love of all things Fantasy, that continues to this day was "The Druid's tune" but I can't remember who it was written by.

That would be O. R. Melling.

Thank you.

[Fist Gamet]

As a kid it was Dr Seuss and Roald Dahl. Then I recall Magician's Nephew and Narnia quite vividly and this drew me inexorably to fantasy. In primary school (so long ago...oh so long...) I had a fantastic teacher called Mr Downey who read The Hobbit to us in class and I was hooked.

In more recent years, Howard, Jordan and Feist re-inspired me into me adult years. Ah, sweet nostalgia / amnesia.

[alestar]

I remember reading a series (no idea the name of the books or author...help...) set in the England, a group of young kids adventuring in the moors near where they live.

I must have read 4 or 5 books in this series (circa late 70's - early 80's) and really enjoyed them. Unfortunately, 30 years has since passed and my brain has stored this info in some dust-coated box somewhere in my head...

If anyone has a clue what I am talking about, please enlighten me, I would like to pick them up for my kids.

This post has been edited by alestar: 26 February 2009 - 06:06 PM

[Sixty]

Back when I was younger, hmm...

Captain Underpants.

Definitely.


The flipping thing is awesome.

This post has been edited by Sixty: 27 February 2009 - 07:07 AM

[The Drum]

Gave up reading for a long time until I read LEGEND by DAVID GEMMELL.

[GanoesSavesTheWorld]

Wow! Some great books in this thread.

What got me into reading: Henry Huggins! Anyone else read those? My mom got those for me early in elementary school, that's where my love of reading was born.

I read The Hobbit soon after and it absolutely blew me away. I didn't get to LOTR until later, after I'd read some other series, like Lloyd Alexander, CS Lewis, Terry Brook's Shannara, Piers Anthony's Xanth.

I read Ender's Game in middle school and it blew me away again. Still my favorite novel of all time and I've read it more than any other. I didn't get heavy into scifi, but I got into some great series, like Asimov's Foundation, Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars (some great stories in that series), and of course most of Card's stuff.

I also read a lot of Louis L'amour, Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton (RIP), other similar stuff.

Another author I remember really liking when I was a kid was Kenneth Flint. He writes books based on Celtic legends, anyone else read him?

This post has been edited by GanoesSavesTheWorld: 27 February 2009 - 02:56 PM

[stone monkey]

alestar, on Feb 26 2009, 06:04 PM, said:

I remember reading a series (no idea the name of the books or author...help...) set in the England, a group of young kids adventuring in the moors near where they live.

I must have read 4 or 5 books in this series (circa late 70's - early 80's) and really enjoyed them. Unfortunately, 30 years has since passed and my brain has stored this info in some dust-coated box somewhere in my head...

If anyone has a clue what I am talking about, please enlighten me, I would like to pick them up for my kids.

That sounds a teensy bit like Alan Garner's Alderley Edge books but, as far as I'm aware, there are only two of them: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath. I read them as a kid myself in the late 70s and they're actually set not far up the road from me; which made them all the more fascinating for me at the time. He also wrote a novel called Elidor that's also set in the Greater Manchester area during the late 60s/early 70s; which was a great big nostalgia blast for me when I reread it again last year, as a lot of the places he describes in it are ones I remember very well from my childhood and also aren't there any more.

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 27 February 2009 - 10:11 PM

[Grief]

Enders Game, White Wolf, The Hobbit. They really got me into reading, and then I found Gardens of the Moon.

Oh, and of course:

[spoiler]The hungry caterpillar

[Ain't_It_Just_]

Harry Potter, I think.

[kairuf]

Same here

My brother finished the first Harry Potter and started the second and then got a job; and couldn't read to me so i picked it and haven't stopped reading yet.

[Stradivarius]

Mine would have to be the little grey men by BB. i think it was one of the first books i read on my own. classic book as good now as it was then! a must buy book if you have kids and want them to get into reading! Absolute magic in every way

[stone monkey]

Oh I remeber that! I must have read it a dozen times when I was a kid. Did you read the sequel (whose name escapes me at this precise moment) it was a bit mental

Spoiler

they built an owl drawn glider to fly across the Irish Sea

[Mezla PigDog]

stone monkey, on Feb 27 2009, 05:10 PM, said:

That sounds a teensy bit like Alan Garner's Alderley Edge books but, as far as I'm aware, there are only two of them: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath. I read them as a kid myself in the late 70s and they're actually set not far up the road from me; which made them all the more fascinating for me at the time. He also wrote a novel called Elidor that's also set in the Greater Manchester area during the late 60s/early 70s; which was a great big nostalgia blast for me when I reread it again last year, as a lot of the places he describes in it are ones I remember very well from my childhood and also aren't there any more.

Ahhhhh! Nostalgia. I had forgotten those books exist.

I also remember eagerly reading everything by Robin Jarvis. Some of his stuff used to really scare me but I still loved the Deptford Mice and the Whitby Witches trilogies. It was all published at a good age for me, I suppose I was a "tween". A girl at school from a very religious family wasn't allowed to associate with me after I lent her The Whitby Witches book that had what her parents referred to as "a demonic hound" on the front cover.

I don't really understand how JK Rowling gets plaudits for bringing back great childrens books. The books have always been there, she just somehow got the best publicity for not the best writing. Confusing!

[Balster uko]

Narnia and the Hobbit were huge books for me that lead me on to the Shannara books and the Belgariad but what really got me reading was playing basic D and D. Rpgs are such a good way into literature and imagination, I really feel it's inevitable that you will increase your input of books. Magician had the biggest influence on my reading after that.

[Stradivarius]

stone monkey, on Mar 2 2009, 07:38 PM, said:

Oh I remeber that! I must have read it a dozen times when I was a kid. Did you read the sequel (whose name escapes me at this precise moment) it was a bit mental

Spoiler

they built an owl drawn glider to fly across the Irish Sea

Wasnt it down the bright stream?

[stone monkey]

Yes indeed it was. It's probably been well over 25 years since I read that.

[Stradivarius]

well worth going back to read the lgm again. trust me!