13-09-2003 15:20									#1
	What sort of stuff did you read as a kid? Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

(I think I did this one a couple of years ago, but participant turnover has been enough so it's not that much of a repeat.)

Like many on this board I was an early reader - started simple words when I was two, reading childrens books by three, and was reading "adult" books by the time I was 6-7 (A Night to Remember was big in the first grade, The Seven Science Fiction Novels of HG Wells' was a fave in the second grade, as was Jaws (but only the shark attack scenes - you think I cared a whit about Chief Brody's relationship with his wife? )). Though I liked the Wells, I preferred the movies better and, for some reason, dropped the entire genre of science fiction from my "to read" list.

In the second and third grades I went through a HUGE disaster obsession, reading anything and everything I could about the Morro Castle, the Coconut Grove fire in 1946, train wrecks and plane crashes. I then went through a bizarre phase for a year or so where I read all the Black Beauty books and everything that I could find by Beverly Cleary and ( ) Judy Blume. Luckily I reverted back to form by the fifth grade when I read The Exorcist and became obsessed with all things paranormal and extra-sensory and whatever - Van Daniken, Bridie Murphy, Ouija board expose's, and UFO sightings were personal favorites during that period. But after about 15-20 books, and not ONE CLEAR PHOTOGRAPH, I began to realize that it was 99.999% bunk.

I also loved a lot of non-fiction books, especially such tasty junk as The Book of Lists, and The Peoples Almanac. (All of which still retain a proud space on my bookshelf. )

My experience with Wells pretty much left a bad (read: boring) taste in my mouth for science fiction novels, one that I didn't get over for at least 7 years. The above-mentioned paranormal stage led me to Stephen King's (he was the HOT NEW THING back then) earlier work - Salem's Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, etc. King was actually instrumental in me getting back into science fiction, as I tried to read Strokers Dracula, found it as boring as Wells, then had the light go off in my head. After realizing that Wells' brand of science fiction was probably better (more exciting) in its day (I knew that Wells was a "Victorian age" writer, but I didn't really understand what the hell that meant until I was 11 or so - it meant that he wrote books that my great-grandmother could've read), I was going to give science fiction another chance. I then picked up Dune and never looked back.

	13-09-2003 15:28									#2
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Donīt remember exactly what I read at a certain age, but overall I read pretty much everything I could find. When I was too old for fairytales, I started reading scifi and crime stories/books. I had history stuff quite early (got into ancient history via reading Odyssey and stuff ). Enjoyed both historical stories and scientific history books as a kid. Never read much comics, never read fantasy before LOTR (and I wasnīt a kid anymore when I read it).

	13-09-2003 15:36									#3
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I always enjoyed "The Dark Is Rising" series by Susan Cooper. Top rate literature, even if it is technically a children's book.

	13-09-2003 15:36									#4
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Never liked fantasy, even as a kid. Tried LOTR and the Hobbit in the fifth grade, but couldn't stand it - a world in which there are no rules (which essentially is how I percieve a society based on magic), in which desires can be granted by the mere chanting of phrases is a boring world indeed.

	13-09-2003 15:39									#5
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Can't quite remember now, though I started reading science books when I was a kid (yeah, geek in making ). Also Arabian Nights and similar works.

	13-09-2003 15:40									#6
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Oh, and I had tons of books about airplanes, ships, cars, spaceflight, etc, and all those other tech-toys we like

	13-09-2003 15:43									#7
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Tenekedoupolis, aisopos tales and the adventures of a little lion.

	13-09-2003 15:43									#8
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quote: Originally posted by Drake Tungsten I always enjoyed "The Dark Is Rising" series by Susan Cooper. Top rate literature, even if it is technically a children's book.

That's OK. We're talking about stuff we read as children, you know?

	13-09-2003 16:14									#9
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Oh... memories.

I was about 6 when we moved to Israel and this is about the same time when I started reading the serious books.
We brought with us from Russia about 30-50 sci-fi and adventures books. Well, we brought a lot more but many were stolen in the Moscow Airport. Ah, well.
Most of those were 30-50-100 years old classics... Some, now that I remember them, were communist propaganda in scifi and adventure disguise.

Heh. One of my favorites was the one when the Earth was on the verge of Communist revolution and there was a spaceship launched to Venus and about half of the people on it were the typical capitalist pigs, fat, thinking about money and personal profit etc, and the other half were just good, smart, hard-working scientists. They landed on Venus, and the group split and IIRC most of the book compared how the the two groups tried to survive and well, it's obvious who did better.

Eventually the commies fixed the rocket and leaving the rest behind blasted off to Earth where the communist revolution was now succesfully over.

I'm lucky I didnt turn out a crazy-commie after all these books.

Thanks to all these books my Russian is considerably better than many of my friends who came to Israel at the same age I came.

---

But the most important thing was the 10 tomes of half-serious half-children encyclopedia that one of my mother's co-workers had given to her. We had no money to spend on encyclopedia then, and the co-workers son had just finished school and went to the army, so he didnt it anymore. Anyway, she gave it to us and I spent most of my free time from the age of 7 till 10 reading and re-reading every one of the ~10 tomes. And in retrospect it was hugely important in the shaping of my personality later in life.

	13-09-2003 16:24									#10
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Yeah I remember I bought for a very good price a book entitled Soviet Tales, as a grown up, to see what's about.

It described a very poor neighborhood in Paris and the inhuman and degrading beyond words exploitation of the people from the capitalist pigs.

It was written so vividly, very talented writing and excellent translation, I was ready to pick up a scythe and go chop some heads off

	13-09-2003 17:03									#11
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The first thing that comes to mind is the "Rat Man" Freudian case. I can't remember more than the basics today and I'm not sure how much I understood, but I distinctively remember having read it at age about 11-12. I also got started on "Little Hans" which was about a kid with an extreme phobia for horses. Also, I read a lot of Reader's Digest.

	13-09-2003 19:44									#12
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All Roald Dahl's stuff was great and made a big impression on me . How to introduce a 5 year old to surrealism...

	13-09-2003 19:49									#13
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I didn't start to read that early. In my book the only thing that reading could be used for was to read "Donald Duck & Co" or the subtitles on the TV, and my mom could do that for me! So I kind of refused to learn for a few years. After that I started to read like crazy, mostly Biggles. Then I moved on to sci fi and Tolkien as I got a few years older.

	13-09-2003 19:52									#14
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As a young boy, "The Hardy Boys" series.

	13-09-2003 20:17									#15
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cosmos

	13-09-2003 20:38									#16
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The first books I remember reading when I was young were Enid Blyton. Afterwards I graduated to C.S. Lewis and Roald Dahl. I was also a big fan of books containing Irish legends such as Fionn and the Fianna. The first adult author I read as a child was Tolkein (I read Lord of The Rings when I was 9 - the version with pictures ). I started reading Stephen King at 10, and got hooked on Sci-Fi when I read David Brin's Startide Rising a year later.

	13-09-2003 21:00									#17
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I read The Adventures of Huck Finn in kindergarten. Samuel Clemson had quite an effect on my vocabulary, leading to a very teary scene with my parents when I commented on how well 'blackies' play basketball. You can imagine the scene where they explained to my little mind about the time period Mark Twain had lived.

	13-09-2003 21:27									#18
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".... and now" your mother explained "we call 'em niggers instead!"

	13-09-2003 21:30									#19
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I can't believe you said that.

	13-09-2003 22:27									#20
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Douglas Adams when I was 10

	14-09-2003 04:55									#21
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Hmm...

I read russian translations of Sherlock Holmes, The Mystery Island, The 3 musketeers, Don Kixote, and many more late 19th century classics before I was 10 IIRC.

I have managed to forget some by now though (being 19)

	14-09-2003 05:54									#22
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I liked Brian Jacques' series of Redwall books.

	14-09-2003 07:09									#23
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quote: As a young boy, "The Hardy Boys" series.

I really liked Tom Swift too.

Other than that I mostly devoured whatever books I could find. Great for a general education, but bad for focus.

	14-09-2003 07:18									#24
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History books for kids were big, as well as books on animals and suh. i did not really start reading fiction till in the US, about 10 years old. I started with suspence and thrillers.

	14-09-2003 09:24									#25
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anything I could get my hands on

	14-09-2003 11:30									#26
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I remember as a young kid reading this mystery series.

Was it the hardy boy? I cannot remember exactly. It was fairly popular.

I read a lot of action pulp books as well. Stuff like deathlands.

And of course Stephen King. I'm a big fan of his books.

	14-09-2003 12:17									#27
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When I was five, I read the Russian translation of Dumas' The Three Musketeers. I followed that up with reading all the fiction I could find in the house which included a lot of Jules Vernes.

When I was nine or ten, I dug up a 1940s book about palaeontology and was hooked. Everything from very light dino stuff to very heavy tomes on anthropology, geology, and other subjects were devoured by me. I moved from material in Russian to that in Latvian and finally, upon moving to Canada when I was 11, to a lot of stuff in English.

In Canada, I read the Oz novels and then eventually discovered Asimov and Clarke. Lots of other sci-fi followed.

	14-09-2003 12:57									#28
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"Was it the hardy boy? I cannot remember exactly. It was fairly popular."

You're probably thinking of nancy drew.

	14-09-2003 13:17									#29
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It depends on age, but I do recall discovering my parents' World Book Encyclopedia set very early on.

	14-09-2003 13:40									#30
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quote: Originally posted by monolith94 "Was it the hardy boy? I cannot remember exactly. It was fairly popular." You're probably thinking of nancy drew.

I didn't read Nancy Drew. That would be gay