What did you read as a child ?

[Amethyst]

I devoured all reading matter I could get my hands on, age-appropriate or not, understood by me or not.

This included magazines, advice columns in newspapers (I didn't care for current events, and still don't), instruction manuals, a household medical reference from the 1940's, my much older siblings' school books (especially science books and stories), Webster's Dictionary, a set of the Book of Knowledge dating from my father's childhood circa 1920 (talk about non-PC!), everything in the children's section of the tiny local library, and my mother's Year's Best SF Anthologies. One time, Mom brought home a big cardboard box full of Astounding Science Fiction magazines from the 40's and 50's and I devoured them all...no wonder I was less than impressed by the lunar landing.

Also, my mother brought home bound volumes of magazines from the 1880's so there I was, reading serials written for Victorian kids. Definitely an outlier influence.

Then there was the time I got into one of my mother's drugstore novels, a spy story I believe, and asked her what it meant when the man and woman got into bed and "their bodies melted together." I was about 8 and a half. She said I'd understand when I was older and took the book away. I never did find out how it ended.

Almost forgot - Jean Shepherd! "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash," "Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories," and "The Ferrari in the Bedroom." Used to listen to Shep on my little tin radio late at night.

[Purron]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbbamI Of course I always enjoyed....Tiger Beat.

OMG...Tiger Beat!! Yep, gotta admit to that guilty pleasure too

[WhoDaresWins]

Like many others here, I was a Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden fan. Also the Bobsey Twins. When I was a little older anything by Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, the Brontes, Dickens, Tolstoy, Balzac, O. Henry. We got National Geographic magazine and Mankind magazine, both of which I enjoyed immensely.

[Moemg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhoDaresWins Like many others here, I was a Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden fan. Also the Bobsey Twins. When I was a little older anything by Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, the Brontes, Dickens, Tolstoy, Balzac, O. Henry. We got National Geographic magazine and Mankind magazine, both of which I enjoyed immensely.

I forgot about the Bobsey Twins . I also read Cherry Ames student nurse series and Vicky Barr flight attendant . When I was real young I loved The Doctor Dan books (They came with band aids for your dolls ).

[Zoocat]

I read the Nancy Drew series too. But the books I really LOVED were the Black Stallion series books. I devoured them and re-read them too.

[Bestwifeever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg This is another twist on Cuppa Joe's thread on "What did you read to your children " What did you read as a child ? I loved all the Nancy Drew mysteries and I also read a series called Trixie Belden which were some of my favorite books .

Moe, we must be sisters! Trixie Belden was my favorite when I was 11. I bought a couple of them off eBay a few years ago just to have them (the Whitman publishing cheapo hardbacks).

I also loved the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace.

My mother had a children's literature textbook that was like an encyclopedia, tissue thin pages with very small print, that had everything from Greek myths to East of the Sun to Mother Goose. I loved that book.

[bssc]

The encylopedia, Shakespeare and lots and lots of science fiction and history.

[unclemick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coach I was a big science fiction fan as a boy -- especially Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, and Ray Bradbury. Coach

Ditto.

heh heh heh -

[Walt34]

I read most of that which I could understand, beginning with the Sunday comics, progressing to Superman and Batman comics.

Later there was an "All About...." series of books, about electricity, ships, dogs, weather, about 15 or 20 in all. Those I enjoyed a lot.

Dad had an old series of books from the 1930's - "Tom... Something", can't remember the last name. But he got into many adventures and had to manually adjust the ignition timing on his cars, boats, and airplanes. No automatic spark advance in the time period of the books. The pages were yellow, brittle, and delicate in the 1950's, but were excellent reading.

[Moemg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever Moe, we must be sisters! Trixie Belden was my favorite when I was 11. I bought a couple of them off eBay a few years ago just to have them (the Whitman publishing cheapo hardbacks). .

That 's a great idea . It would be fun to reread one of those books now and see if I could remember why they were so fascinating !

[donheff]

I loved Ray Bradbury (Something Wicked This Way Comes). I was such a Hardy Boys fan-boy that I can remember when a new one came out I faked sick to stay home and read it.

[ratface]

Dad subscribed to reader's digest condensed books and I read every single one. There would be four or five classics in each bound book, Anne Franke, The Call of the Wild, Sherlock Holmes was a favorite.

[Payin-the-Toll]

Like others, I devoured everything. Learned to read in 1st grade the 'Dick & Jane' way (great teacher and I was an apt pupil). But I really honed my skills at home. Mom was a nurse and worked nights, and would work the crossword puzzle from the paper until we went to school so she could go to bed. I'd read the rest of the paper and she'd help me with any words I didn't know (still read the paper everyday, and always have). Parents got conned for a set of Colliers Encyclopedias which included a 10-volume set of 'Junior Classics'--read every one of them cover to cover but hated the English History & Poems-ugh. Library was great--can't remember if it was air-conditioned or not, but it was an old brick Carnegie library, always cool in the summer and a great place to meet girls. They had a mystery section with about 25 Perry Mason books--read all of them--it was so great to be able to visualize the characters since the TV series was popular at that time. Mysteries and thrillers are still my favorite reading, and I still choose movie/TV stars for the characters (Bruce Willis for the tough cop, Julia Roberts for the girl done wrong, etc.).

[samclem]

I read a lot. We had the Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia (Vons supermarket was having a promotion--one volume every few weeks at a special price if you bought enough groceries), and I enjoyed that. Our family would take long vacations in a rented motor home or a trailer and reading while we drove was great. Readers Digest magazine, some of the condensed books, Call of the Wild when I was about 11, later lots of Asimov (SF and his excellent factual science essays), Heinlein, Alistair McLain, all the James Bond books. I, too remember the depressing end of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and I remember being especially bummed about the end of 1984. And Flowers for Algernon . . .

[DangerMouse]

I loved all the Enid Blyton books. I faithfully read the Secret Seven and Famous Five, they had such wonderful adventures and I felt so envious of their lives.

I loved to read, it was probably the thing I did most and even to this day I love reading.

[charlie]

Wizard of Oz, all of Jack London, all of Terhune, anything Si-Fi
or Fantasy I could find, all of Edgar Rice Burroughs, National Geographic,
Scientific American, all of Mark Twain, all of Zane Grey, Last of Mohicans
and all the books by the same author (can't recall his name right now),
Moby Dick, all of Louis L'more, etc., etc. I have been a voracious and
omnivorus reader all my life.

Cheers,

Charlie

[Bestwifeever]

Also devoured books by Elizabeth Enright, Mary Stewart, Madeleine L'Engle, Walter Farley.

Almost all of the books I read (except for the 59-cent Trixie Beldens) came from the public library--yay for libraries!

[Gumby]

I cannot remember exactly when I learned to read, but it was well before I ever went to school. At one time, when I was 4 years old, I was living with my grandmother in a small town in Ohio. The library was under the courthouse, across the street from my grandmother's dry goods store. I would often go over there to read the books and I really wanted a library card so I could take the books out. However, the rule was that you must be in school to get a card. I was crushed. But then my grandmother came over and essentially "co-signed" for my library card. The first book I ever checked out was about spiders.

I would read anything and everything. We didn't have any children's books at my house, so I often read my dad's books. He favored science fiction (Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke especially) and westerns (mostly Louis Lamour). I was also particularly fond of the Funk & Wagnall's encyclopedia set that my brother and I obtained on a dumpster diving expedition. It was from the 1930's (I think) but still interesting.

[Dreamer]

First books I can remember were Raggedy Ann and Andy. I also read the Bobsey Twins, Nancy Drew,Trixie Belden and The Boxcar Children. Dick and Jane were the reading books at school.

[Brat]

I too read the Black Stallion series, Annie Frank, but also the Greek classics in an anthology for youth. I still have a battered copy of Paradise Lost that I read as a teen (fyi, I am in my late 60s). The book is not suitable for re-sale because of condition but the plates would be suitable for framing for those who are into that stuff.