# The First "Real Book" You Ever Read. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 18, 2006, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090 "2006-02-18T14:50:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Catfood\_Purrito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Catfood\_Purrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catfood_Purrito)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/61 "2006-02-19T19:54:44Z")
According to my mother, I somehow picked up the ability to read sometime at the age of 3 or 4. This was discovered when she was reading a book to me, paused for a moment, and I continued where she left off. She figured I’d just memorized it, so she pointed to a few words in that book and others and asked me to read them, and oddly enough, I could. I have no memory of this. Of course, I have no memory of learning to read at all, just being utterly bored and doodling in my book while everyone else in my class was learning. Anyway, according to my mother, I read Moby Dick in kindergarten. Again, I have no memory of this. But if it’s true, and hell, it might be, I do know more about the plot and characters than I should if I haven’t read it, I would imagine that was my first “real” book. The first adult book I actually remember reading is Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King when I was 7. I could only read it during daylight hours and I had to hide it from view when I went to sleep, because the cover scared me. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/62 "2006-02-20T01:06:35Z")
I read **Gone With the Wind** when I was 12 years old. Before that, my father had gotten me the entire **Wizard of Oz** series and I had read all of those many many times. The one good thing my mother did was teach me to read before I started kindergarten. ---
**Author:** ![Shaftjohnny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Shaftjohnny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shaftjohnny)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/63 "2006-02-20T04:05:40Z")
Red Badge Of Courage ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/64 "2006-02-20T04:48:05Z")
I’m not certain what my first book was. I had a _Complete Winnie the Pooh_ and an illustrated and (heavily) abridged version of _The Wizard of Oz_ that I have vague memories of not being able to read, and then at some point finally being able to. I know that I read a number of “kid’s books”, because I remember my father at some point telling me “Why don’t you read some real stories, like _The Outlaw of Torn_?” (Apparently he was a big Edgar Rice Burroughs fan himself.) A few weeks later, I found the book at the library. I think that might have been the first book that I specifically sought out, as opposed to reading just because it was there. I was probably 9 or 10 at the time. I really didn’t care all that much for reading until I was in about 4th or 5th grade. My teacher had a “library” set up in the back of the room, and we could go pick out a book to read if we finished our class work early. That’s where I picked up a fat paperback called _The Fellowship of the Ring_; I read it in about a week, and haven’t stopped since. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/65 "2006-02-20T12:39:11Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Don’t regress back to illiteracy, **FlyingRamenMonster**! Turn off the TV, turn off the computer, settle into a comfy chair with good lighting and relax with a good book. I meant in Chinese 😛 I think I am at about a 6-year-old level right now. I would like to learn to read again (and maybe write, but I always sucked at writing) but the problem with reading at a 6-year-old level while not six years old is that there is very little you can read that you actually feel like reading. That and thinking “I could have finished another chapter in [English book] by now” every page or two. Y’all seem like a pretty precocious bunch, anyway. I had a complete disinterest in adult literature until twelve or so. I am teh anti-intellectual \>:[ ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/66 "2006-02-20T23:24:57Z")
> [@Mishell](#): > > I read Moby Dick in kindergarten. :eek: \<_Bowing to the ground repeatedly_\> All hail the new queen! All hail the new queen! ---
**Author:** ![Rachael\_Rage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Rachael\_Rage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachael_Rage)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/67 "2006-02-21T01:01:23Z")
According to my mom, I started reading and writing around age two (thank you, Sesame Street). If you’re counting novels for young people - which apparently you are - then I went through all the “Little House” and “Narnia” books, a couple of of Judy Blume’s kids’ books, and far too many Nancy Drews by the time I was 8 or so. What sticks in my mind as my first “grown-up” books were reading the first two of Asimov’s [_Foundation_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Foundation_Series) novels when I was in 4th grade, around nine years old (I received them as a gift). I remember being involved in the story - about which I remember nothing whatsoever - but I felt they were hard to read and couldn’t get up the enthusiasm to tackle book 3. Ever since then, I’ve thought I would go back and complete the series, but 25 years later, I still haven’t bothered. Shortly after that, I read Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Breakfast of Champions, on my mom’s recommendation. That was more my speed - clever humor and crude drawings. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/68 "2006-02-21T01:25:00Z")
> [@Mishell](#): > > Anyway, according to my mother, I read Moby Dick in kindergarten. Dayum. I didn’t get that foisted on me until Sister Mary Charles’ 3rd-grade advanced class. Fucking hated it (the book…not the class). ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/69 "2006-02-21T01:31:47Z")
> [@vaderspal](#): > > If you’re counting novels for young people - which apparently you are - then I went through all the “Little House” and “Narnia” books, a couple of of Judy Blume’s kids’ books, and far too many Nancy Drews by the time I was 8 or so. Yep. The first “grown-up” book I remember reading was _Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ at about age 8 or 9; the next would have been _Jane Eyre_ at 10 or 11. I read the first because my dad told me I wouldn’t understand it, and the second because it counted for _two_ book reports. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/70 "2006-02-21T03:12:59Z")
> [@LiveOnAPlane](#): > > If you even remember, what was the first genuine novel you ever read? I’m excluding non-fiction here, simply to eliminate occasional looking stuff up. > > To start, I clearly remember looking at comics in this store when I was about 7 years old. Saw an intriguing paperback with a Mars scene, swords and all, and picked it up and thumbed through it. One name just kind of resonated with me: Dejah Thoris…(Note: I do not remember the exact title. Obviously, it was by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and had to do with the John Carter of Mars character. In later years, I read all of these, as well as others by the same author. Then my horizons expanded and expanded) IIRC, the name of the book is _A Princess of Mars_. Great series of books, but YEARS since I read them. As to the OP’s question. The first book I remember reading was _Heidi_ when I was about four or five years old. Since then, I’ve read scads of Nancy Drew mysteries, all of the _Little House_ books, Encyclopedia Brown, and oodles of the little biographies they had in the school library. Hey, I was always getting into trouble for secretly reading during class (by hiding the book between the pages of my textbook!)!! I still read as much as I possibly can, not always easy with three kids around! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2006, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/71 "2006-03-12T09:52:32Z")
I believe the first adult novel I read was Asimov’s _Robots and Empire_ when I was 9 or 10. However, I read an awful lot of nonfiction before that. My grandfather had an Encyclopaedia Britannica that I would sit and read for hours at a time, just thumbing through whatever articles looked interesting. When I was 6 or 7, my dad bought me the Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, and I at least scanned through the entire thing. I probably read at least 30% of it in depth. I also had books on space flight, astronomy, the human brain, robots, computers, all kinds of stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2006, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/72 "2006-03-12T10:12:01Z")
I read Black Beauty when I was, I think, five. I read The Black Stallion right after. yeah, I liked horses. Before that, I read Boxcar Children books and Cam Jensen books, but I was very proud of myself after reading Black Beauty and the Black Stallion. My Boxcar Children books and Cam Jensen books were just little paperbacks from the library, whereas my horse books were gorgeous hardbound books with gold on the edges of the pages. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/73 "2006-03-12T15:26:13Z")
I have the vaguest of vague memories, and am assured by my parents, that the first novel I read was Dr. Doolittle, at some time before I went into kindergarten. Honestly, I don’t know… It’s been a long, long time. Maybe I should read it again; it might bring back a memory or two. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/74 "2006-03-12T15:33:31Z")
> [@Lemur Catta](#): > > I have the vaguest of vague memories, and am assured by my parents, that the first novel I read was Dr. Doolittle, at some time before I went into kindergarten. Honestly, I don’t know… It’s been a long, long time. Maybe I should read it again; it might bring back a memory or two. Thinking about it now, the funny thing is that I _still_ want to talk to the animals… ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2006, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/75 "2006-03-12T23:55:55Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > (Best I can recall the author was somebody like Payson (maybe Payton) Terhune.) Albert Pearson Terhune, who lived in Pompton Lakes, not too far from where I’m posting right now. There’s a street that intersects the Hamburg Turnpike called Terhune Drive, If you drive down it, you can see where [the real Lad is buried.](http://www.roadsideamerica.com/pet/ladadog.html) ---
**Author:** ![xkoolkacix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/898d66/32.png) [@xkoolkacix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xkoolkacix)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/76 "2006-03-13T01:25:26Z")
It was “Holes”. it is a realy good book that i read about 60 times before moving on to a new book. strangly this book got me intrested in Harry Potter books, but i dont even remember how? they really are not related at all. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2006, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/77 "2006-03-13T02:40:06Z")
I was another very early reader (age 2 or so), so I don’t really remember my first books (probably Beverly Cleary). My first adult novel (pre-read by my mother) was Sphere by Michael Crichton. I was 9 and I had tonsillitis. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2006, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/78 "2006-03-13T02:42:59Z")
> [@xkoolkacix](#): > > It was “Holes”. it is a realy good book that i read about 60 times before moving on to a new book. strangly this book got me intrested in Harry Potter books, but i dont even remember how? they really are not related at all. Did you see the 2003 movie? Maybe you saw a Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) trailer there and then thought it was the book of “Holes” that got you interested in HP? ---
**Author:** ![MessyPaint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@MessyPaint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MessyPaint)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2006, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/79 "2006-03-13T02:45:06Z")
I Am Leaper. If you haven’t experienced this book, you must. "Leaper, a kangaroo rat who can communicate with humans, enlists the aid of a boy named Julian to help defeat a “monster” that has been terrorizing the desert where she lives. " And the rush of childhood swarms. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090/80 "2006-03-14T00:00:55Z")
I didn’t learn to read until I was six and in the first grade. I still remember the book I learned from, with the little train pulling the silent “e”, and reading “Frog and Toad are Friends” which was the first book I ever read by myself. I thought that reading was the greatest thing ever invented. That summer I read all of the Little House books, and then I was off and running. I read every major children’s classic, plus a lot of mysteries. By the time I was nine I was assistant to the school librarian. I used to go with her to the Children’s Hospital to bring them books and volunteer in their library. I also served on the book selection committee for my elementary school (there was a major debate over whether we should buy Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree”). By junior high I was definitely reading regular adult books. I know that I read The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy when I was thirteen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-real-book-you-ever-read/345090.md?page=5)