What books did you grow up on?

[Elmandr]

AS a really young kid. Meaning a tot, I read a bunch of arther books (Meaning i liked to look at the pictures). I think he was a kangaroo but i'm not really sure.

He could have been an anteater...

What about those pamphlet looking books that had the pictures you were supposed to color in them, you guys remember those? Those were awesome.

There were so many books that my teacher handed out to us, it was great because we'd pride ourselves on who had the most books. And i'm sure none of us ever read them really. Just sort of collected them, like war trophies. We all know that kindergarten was war.

Then, abit later, there was Nate the Great, and a series of other books similar to it. I can't bring myself to remember the titles of any. Just know that they were picture books with a line or two--Where the Sidewalk Ends! Thatwas an awesome book.

I heard the author's dead now...

Now I'm mainly reading self-improvment books--for my writing not my flabby parts--and manuscripts of either mine or friends works.

What i'm trying to say is, i miss my picture books. So, so much.

[Reaves]

I'm pretty sure its Arthur the Aardvark. And I only know that because I used to watch the TV show...

[CthulhuKefka]

AS a really young kid. Meaning a tot, I read a bunch of arther books (Meaning i liked to look at the pictures). I think he was a kangaroo but i'm not really sure.

He could have been an anteater...

What about those pamphlet looking books that had the pictures you were supposed to color in them, you guys remember those? Those were awesome.

There were so many books that my teacher handed out to us, it was great because we'd pride ourselves on who had the most books. And i'm sure none of us ever read them really. Just sort of collected them, like war trophies. We all know that kindergarten was war.

Then, abit later, there was Nate the Great, and a series of other books similar to it. I can't bring myself to remember the titles of any. Just know that they were picture books with a line or two--Where the Sidewalk Ends! Thatwas an awesome book.

I heard the author's dead now...

Now I'm mainly reading self-improvment books--for my writing not my flabby parts--and manuscripts of either mine or friends works.

What i'm trying to say is, i miss my picture books. So, so much.

Are you talking about Shel Silverstein? Where the Sidewalk Ends was written and illustrated by him.

[Elmandr]

AS a really young kid. Meaning a tot, I read a bunch of arther books (Meaning i liked to look at the pictures). I think he was a kangaroo but i'm not really sure.

He could have been an anteater...

What about those pamphlet looking books that had the pictures you were supposed to color in them, you guys remember those? Those were awesome.

There were so many books that my teacher handed out to us, it was great because we'd pride ourselves on who had the most books. And i'm sure none of us ever read them really. Just sort of collected them, like war trophies. We all know that kindergarten was war.

Then, abit later, there was Nate the Great, and a series of other books similar to it. I can't bring myself to remember the titles of any. Just know that they were picture books with a line or two--Where the Sidewalk Ends! Thatwas an awesome book.

I heard the author's dead now...

Now I'm mainly reading self-improvment books--for my writing not my flabby parts--and manuscripts of either mine or friends works.

What i'm trying to say is, i miss my picture books. So, so much.

Are you talking about Shel Silverstein? Where the Sidewalk Ends was written and illustrated by him.

Yeah. He died didn't he?

And he could be an aardvark but i don't think i knew what an aardvark was at the time.

[CthulhuKefka]

Yeah, he died in 1999.

I remember reading Where the Sidewalk Ends a long time ago.

[Elmandr]

Yeah, he died in 1999.

I remember reading Where the Sidewalk Ends a long time ago.

I'm gonna have to find me a copy...

though i probably shouldnt say this but will anyway, wasn't the picture he had of himself in the back of the book frightening? it was a really, really close close-up.

As a kid i always found it hilarious.

[CthulhuKefka]

I vaguely remember the picture being intense and a little scary looking, again I was young at the time.

Another of my favorite books growing up were the Wayside Series by Louis Sachar. Good times.

[The Jade Knight]

Louis Sachar wrote great children's books.

I always loved Bill Peet as a young kid.  His books fascinated me.

[Vatdoro]

I blame my reading addiction on my Dad. Well, my Dad and my sister. When I was in third grade my Dad read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to me. The trick was he didn't read the entire book to me. He stopped about half way through, at a very exciting point, and told me I would have to read it myself if I wanted to find out what happened. Of course I had to find out what happened, so I read the rest of the book and then the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia. LOVED THEM. I still love to read them.

I remember reading the Indian in the Cupboard books at some point in Grade School, but for the most part I thought there's not much to read out there besides The Chronicles of Narnia, so I don't need to read any more books. I think I read on these forums somewhere that it's common for boys to stop reading between 4th grade and Junior High. I guess I fell into that statistic.

I didn't read anything again until 8th grade. My older sister lent me her copy of Pawn of Prophecy. She told me it was REALLY good, so I agreed to give it a try. It took me a long time to get half way through it, but then it finally got exciting and I was hooked. I devoured the rest of the Belgariad and every David Eddings book I could get my hands on. That's when I realized there are a LOT of good books out there to read and I became a reading junkie.

I read all of Lloyd Alexander's books in Junior High and loved them. It's fun to read that others of you enjoyed those same books. At that point in my addiction I was limited to the books in the Junior High Library and my sisters' book cases. Luckily between the two of them I found enough books to appease my hunger. I read The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist, The Shannara books, Robert Asprin's Myth series (so funny), a little Robin McKinley, and I'm sure there were some others I can't remember.

I think I found The Eye of the World in 10th grade and have been a Robert Jordan fan ever since. I had never read Tolkien, and I felt like I should since he is considered the father of modern fantasy. I tried the Hobbit, but it just didn't grip me and hold my attention like many other books I'd read. I ended up forcing myself to continue reading and finally finished the book years later. I then started The Fellowship of the Ring, but got completely bogged down (lost interest) in the Tom Bombadil section. I decided that Tolkien just wasn't my cup of tea and moved on.

This post is already plenty long. Wow! Hope I'm not rambling too much. It's fun to find out what got other people hooked. It also gives me some ideas on books to try out. Thanks everyone!

[mtlhddoc2]

I started on the Encyclopedia Brown stuff around 7 or so, then Narnia shortly thereafter, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and of course, at 9 I read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Around 10 or 11, I got really in WWII so I read everything abouyt WWII I could get my hands on, once I had read it all (yes, I think I had read every single book in 3 different libraries concerning WWII). I went back to fantasy/scifi with Chalker, Aspirin, Anthony, Brooks, Foster...  I didnt pick up the Magician series by Fiest, nor Wheel until I was in college.

[MrPaperCamel]

Louis Sachar wrote great children's books.

I always loved Bill Peet as a young kid.  His books fascinated me.

Louis Sachar was definitely one of my staples as a kid. Sideways Stories from Wayside School was always at the ready for me.

[dawncawley]

I think when I was a  younger kid I read all of the Little House on the Prairie books, I used to own them as well, and I read pretty much every Black Stallion book I could get my hands on at that age. I think I may have read them all at some point in my youth. I loved books about horses, and The Secret Garden and The Little Princess, when I was about eight I think. I started fantasy youngish....and scifi as well, although that didn't intrigue me quite as much. I read The Hobbit when I was at my dad's house for the weekend and looking for something to read, I must have been 12 or 13. But, I also read Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles about that time. I don't remember much about it though. I haven't re-read it since then, I think it would make much more sense now. I may have to look into that.

[Bastille]

I enjoyed fantasy books from the begin of my life because non-fiction to me is just plain boring. Fantasy to me takes me to a fantasy world were it's just the you and the character and nothing else.

[readerMom]

I thought kid's books were boring.  Once I read all of Nancy Drew when I was 6 or 7 I wanted grown-up stuff. It is very funny to read things now that I loved then.  Heinlein is much different as a 30-something than a 12-yr old.  I read and re-read all the Piers Anthony books, can't stand them now.

[MrPaperCamel]

You read Heinlein as a 12-year old? My brain exploded during some of his stuff when I read it in college. Were you some sort of CIA Youth League Operative Ninja?