# The first fictional book you remember reading & loving on your own. What do you think of it now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 5, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413 "2013-02-05T19:27:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/61 "2013-02-06T20:31:51Z")
The first one I can honestly remember, as standing out from all the books I read, was _Tom Sawyer._ I remember a scene in which it describes Tom’s discomfort on a hot Sunday morning sitting in church. One line read _“It was a relief when the benediction was pronounced and the service was over.”_ I ended up learning to follow my own church’s liturgy because I looked for the ending, the benediction, and would turn pages saying to myself _“Okay, we have this and this and this and then it’s over.”_ The first fantasy I read was the _Hobbit_, closely followed by the Ring trilogy. A book called _The Great Pyramid Mystery_ stands out, and the first sci-fi I can remember and name was a book titled _The Happy Planet_. This was in the sixth grade, for most of these titles. I still have a copy of _The Happy Planet_, and reread it a couple of years ago, (I’m 58 now) It was aimed at kids the age I was then, and to me it holds up surprisingly well. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/62 "2013-02-06T20:47:00Z")
I read so many books as a kid I can’t even tell you which ones came first. I remember getting a set of the _Chronicles of Narnia_ books from my aunt and loving those. I still have and still re-read that set, and I intend to get my nieces a set of their own when they’re old enough. _Phantom Tollbooth_ was another favorite, I recently downloaded it to my Kindle. Still love it too. I remember really being into the _Little House_ books as a kid, but I don’t care for them so much now. Not sure why. ---
**Author:** ![KermitTheFrig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KermitTheFrig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KermitTheFrig)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/63 "2013-02-06T21:28:16Z")
Encyclopedia Brown, Homer Price, Henry Huggins, Pippi Longstocking, Hardy Boys. No clue which came first. All were available in our school library, from Scholastic Books or both. I haven’t read any of them since. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/64 "2013-02-06T22:34:22Z")
I think the first novel I read on my own would be a kid’s book called _Clues in the Woods_. It was about three kids, two boys and a girl, who try to solve a mystery about who’s stealing their grandparents’ garbage. Anyway, that’s how it starts. It turns out that there’s a family camping out in the woods pretending to be Indians. The parents are ‘teaching’ their own two kids how Indians lived. How that involved stealing garbage I don’t remember, but I doubt the book would be published today. The big finale was the whole bunch of them eating fish baked in mud. Strictly meh to me now, but even then I remember feeling a little resentful that kids’ books always seemed to be set on a farm. Kids’ books back then were never set in the city, unless it was about some transplanted farm kid yearning to go back home. It got so tedious that I mostly read MAD magazines when I was young. ---
**Author:** ![MsBatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@MsBatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsBatt)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/65 "2013-02-07T02:36:42Z")
Mine was either “Voyage to the Mushroom Planet” or “David and the Phoenix”, sometime during first grade. I recently re-read “David and the Phoenix” and it’s held up well. I’d read “Voyage to the Mushroom Planet” again if I could find it. ---
**Author:** ![ShallowEnd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@ShallowEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShallowEnd)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/66 "2013-02-07T07:39:29Z")
> [@Mixolydian](#): > > _The Big Joke Game_ was one of my favorites too…I believe I mentioned it on the boards at one time or another. I haven’t read it since I was about 11 - I’d be curious how it holds up. Will have to check out _Here Lies the Body_…can I assume that $144.22 for a paperback copy, that it’s out of print as well? 😉 I still like The Big Joke Game, but I still like board games, & I’m shallow. I hope you’re teasing about Here Lies the Body, I used that link cause it had a picture of the cover. You can get a paperback for a penny & $4 shipping. I still don’t have all the Trick books, but it’s good to have goals. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/67 "2013-02-07T21:09:09Z")
The first 2 fiction books I ever remember reading were- - Escape to Witch Mountain - Some book about a scientist who was going to go to Venus and some kids came along. There were some creatures that were smalll and glowed and needed to stay together or they would die. Venus was pretty much a water world. Some bad serpent thing (named Ka?) had come to Venus to ‘defile it’ like he did to Earth a long time ago. I haven’t read either of them as an adult but I imagine I would think the first was ok but the second was junk. At the time I loved em both and what created my love of Science Fiction. {Would love to know the name of it something like Rendezvous with Venus? Google is no help on this} ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/68 "2013-02-07T21:51:49Z")
_The Mad Scientist’s Club_ by Bertrand R. Brinley. I read it when I was still in the single digits. The concept of kids accomplishing things that adults couldn’t really rocked my world at the time. Today? The writing isn’t that great, and the tech is somewhat dated, but it is remarkable how well a lot of what they were doing holds up. I still have visions of pranking a lakeside community with a remote-controlled sea monster. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/69 "2013-02-07T22:18:35Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > (There’s also another similar series, only the main character is an inventor, and his little sister has an upturned nose, freckles, and is named Daphne. Anyone recognize it?) Alvin Fernald. Written by Clifford B [Hicks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_B._Hicks). _Alvin’s Secret Code_ was the first one of those I read, sometime around sixth grade. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/70 "2013-02-07T22:32:22Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > I actually re-read “A Wrinkle in Time” recently (last couple of years). I first read it when it was relatively newly published and as I recall very hot in the market (that is to say my school), with copies eagerly awaited as they passed hand to hand. I think I was in 4th grade at the time, but it may have been later. > > Having just read it again in my fifties, I am certain I could not have read this book when I was 6 years old, that is to say in the second grade. Scholastic Books suggest this book for 11-13 year olds, Amazon 10 year olds with a 6th grade reading level (which seems to me very unlikely these days, since almost no one starts school at 4 anymore). I was in third or fourth grade when I got a copy of that from Scholastic. Loved it then, but when I tried rereading it a few years ago I had to force myself to finish it. The Scholastic book program was great - I bought a bunch of their books, ordered through the school. _The Forgotten Door_, _The Hound of the Baskervilles_, _A Wrinkle in Time_, and I know there were several others. Just four or five years ago my daughters were bringing Scholastic order forms home from school all the time… ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/71 "2013-02-07T22:39:34Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > The first novel I remember reading on my own and liking as a child was a thriller called The Blue Man by Kin Platt. **I would love to re-read it and try to see how it holds up, but it’s been out of print for a long time and a used copy is prohibitively expensive.** > [@Chronos](#): > > 1: When I was a little kid (well below the “recommended reading level”), my mom had a copy of _Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH_ that she was reading for herself, when it suddenly disappeared from the bathroom. It was a few weeks before she realized that I had taken it to read it myself. She’d never actually recommended it to me, but hey, it was there. > > 2: I devoured every _Danny Dunn_ book I could find from the library. I _think_ this would have been after NIMH, and I’m pretty sure that Mom didn’t start me on the series, but as I said, it may well have been a librarian who did. > > 3: At some point I was prowling through one of the back rooms of the house, and found _The Hobbit_ on a bookshelf back there (of course, _every_ room in the house has bookshelves in it). Nobody had ever recommended it to me, and it was in the midst of a bookshelf of hundreds of other books, and Mom herself hadn’t yet read it at that point, so I think I can safely say that I discovered it on my own, by any reasonable standard. > > **The first two, I haven’t re-read since I was a child (though I really ought to, and would dearly love to get ahold of the Danny Dunn books).** And for the third, I don’t think **Skald** needs to ask what I think of it. > [@MsBatt](#): > > Mine was either “Voyage to the Mushroom Planet” or “David and the Phoenix”, sometime during first grade. I recently re-read “David and the Phoenix” and it’s held up well. **I’d read “Voyage to the Mushroom Planet” again if I could find it.** ILL! I do it all the time - for me, the literary equivalent of “comfort food” is going back and rereading books I read when I was a kid. I’ve heard some libraries charge for the service, but ours doesn’t and I can order up to three at a time. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/72 "2013-02-08T20:34:40Z")
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret I think I must have been about 11-12. I did very well in school, but had a short attention span. Whenever we had the opportunity to order Scholastic Books in class I went straight for the joke books - they were short and it didn’t matter that they didn’t have any pictures in them. My classmates were all into the “Little House” books, but I didn’t understand how they could enjoy them _without pictures!_ Anyway, I was about the age of Margaret at the time, and I think I sat in a recliner & read the WHOLE book in one sitting. I must have been there HOURS! But I SO related to the book and characters. And Judy Blume wrote about stuff that I was thinking about but couldn’t say out loud. (Girls concerned about _getting their periods_! :eek:) I’ve read it again recently, particularly after seeing a play called, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Karen Carpenter.” HILARIOUS! Anyway, it was more sentimental than anything else. I hear the book has been updated since it was first written. Modernized. But it still takes me back. To anyone who identified with this book, if you find the play near you, you MUST see it. No matter how small the venue! I saw it in the basement of a Mexican Restaurant where they normally put on drag musicals. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/73 "2013-02-08T20:43:49Z")
C.S. Forester’s _Horatio Hornblower_ books are the first I can remember finding and devouring on my own. I can still remember buying them off a carousel display stand in Winston-Salem when I was in the 4th grade. ETA: What do I think of them now? - I re-read them once every 18 months or so. (The same books as a matter of fact.) ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/74 "2013-02-08T20:50:17Z")
> [@MsBatt](#): > > Mine was either “Voyage to the Mushroom Planet” or “David and the Phoenix”, sometime during first grade. I recently re-read “David and the Phoenix” and it’s held up well. I’d read “Voyage to the Mushroom Planet” again if I could find it. [Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet](http://www.fungi.com/product-detail/product/the-wonderful-flight-to-the-mushroom-planet.html). Along with other mushroom stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/75 "2013-02-08T23:36:19Z")
Like most of the SDMB, I was an early reader, so it’s hard to narrow down a “First Book/Novel” - I had copies of \*Heidi \*and _Black Beauty_, and the local library had the Baum Oz series and I read all of those multiple times. My first science fiction book was probably [Star Circus](http://www.amazon.com/Star-circus-Alice-Lightner-Hopf/dp/0525398902/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360366099&sr=1-1&keywords=Hopf%2C+Alice+Lightner+star+circus) by Alice Lightner Hopf - I found a copy many years later and re-read it. I recall it being a decent juvie - with some creepy aliens - hmm… maybe I should read it again! One of my first “grown up” novels was [Brittania Mews](http://www.amazon.com/Britannia-Mews-Margery-Sharp/dp/999741358X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360366288&sr=1-3&keywords=brittania+mews) by Margery Sharp - I’d read her Miss Bianca children’s series and my grandmother had a copy of this novel. It was a bit advanced for me (British class struggles, adultery, etc) but I remember enjoying it - another novel I might have to check out again. Another favorite childhood book that I have re-read as an adult: [The Witch Family](http://www.amazon.com/Witch-Family-Eleanor-Estes/dp/015202610X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360366439&sr=1-1&keywords=the+witch+family+eleanor+estes) by Eleanor Estes. I re-read it back in 2004 as an adult and posted a review the following over on GoodReads - it reads in part “The story was still enjoyable to read as an adult, with some of the little touches (such as Malachi) becoming clearer. Pen and ink illustrations are scattered through my copy (and I think through the library hardback as well) and add to the deliciously spooky atmosphere. Originally published in 1960, the story has aged very little; it’s not nearly as dated as the Ramona series, perhaps because most of the action takes place in the witches’ world.” ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/76 "2013-02-09T00:23:19Z")
Roger Zelazny’s “Nine Princes in Amber.” This was the first book I recall re-reading immediately after finishing it, and I’ve read the original Amber series three or four times over the years and still enjoy it. Corwin waking up in the hospital not knowing who he is or where he is, but certain he’s being kept there, still one of my favorite openings to a book. The series is also why Deirdre is one of my favorite female names. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/77 "2013-02-09T00:37:21Z")
When I was 4 years old I got [Lassie: Adventure In Alaska](http://www.amazon.com/Lassie-Adventure-Alaska-George-Elrick/dp/B0007HUDGW), because I was sure that was a wooly mammoth on the cover, and I FREAKING loved wooly mammoths. I prolly read that book about 900 times before I was 5 years old. I still love it, as evidenced by the fact that I still own it forty-mumble years later, but I do think the plot devices are a bit obvious, the subplots are strained and the metaphors don’t dance quite as nimbly as they did for my pre-K self. The narrative structure is solid tho. 😛 OTOH, my next purchases, [Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble On Diamond Island](http://www.amazon.com/BUNNY-double-trouble-diamond-island/dp/B000JVZV3Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360370012&sr=1-1&keywords=bugs+bunny+in+double+trouble+on+diamond+island) and [Woody Woodpecker and the Meteor Menace](http://www.biglittlebooks.com/woodywood.html) have held up astonishingly well. Yes, I still own them (and about a dozen more Big Little Books) as well. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/78 "2013-02-09T00:37:55Z")
“Winnie the Pooh” and “House at Pooh Corner” – loved them then, love them now. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/79 "2013-02-09T02:00:07Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > I read and loved lots of Nancy Drew and other kid fiction my parents brought home, but the first book I found at the library myself, read, loved and made me want to read everything else the author wrote was [Magic or Not?](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/312080.Magic_or_Not_), by Edward Eager. ooh, I love Edward Eager but Half Magic and Knight’s Castle are the best. a lot of the books mentioned (Wrinkle in Time, Hobbit, Winnie the Pooh, Wind in the Willows) were read _to_ me. The earliest ones I remember reading myself are either the **Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle** books or **Pippi Longstockings**. also early on was **Ginnie and Geneva** and sequels. I haven’t read any of them lately. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413/80 "2013-02-09T09:47:24Z")
Cant believe there has been no mention of the Willard Price Adventure novels. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-fictional-book-you-remember-reading-loving-on-your-own-what-do-you-think-of-it-now/649413.md?page=5)