When you were younger, did you read books for fun?

If so, what kinds or series got you fascinated?

I spent a lot of time in my school's library checking out all the joke/riddle books and books on NFL players and teams. Then I picked up an Encyclopedia Brown book. I read as many of those as I could. Ellery Queen followed soon after (thanks to the TV show). Weird thing that I am not into mysteries anymore like I was back then.

Since both my parents were teachers, I could count on a book or two for presents I had a good library of my own of children's stories. Of those I had, I fondly recall 2 books even today: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1570438.Great_Wolf_and_the_Good_Woodsman?ac=1 and https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/652386.Miss_Suzy (A little gray squirrel). http://curiouspages.blogspot.com/2010/01/tooters-tweeters-strings-and-beaters.html is another book I recall from my childhood.

What books do you recall getting you into reading?

Animorphs

Mainly to watch the corners of the pages evolve

I read lexicons and science books because I was such a cool little kid.

Science fiction/horror are my favorites.

But the book that got me into reading was a goosebumps book called "Why I'm afraid of bees" .

Captain Underpants. I actually did use books before that for making up my own stories with the pictures, though. I didn't learn to read until I was in 2nd grade due to simply lacking interest. Strangely, my reading abilities were quite high when I did learn to read. I actually was pretty good at talking teachers into letting me read higher level books, which was how I discovered the Series of Unfortunate Events books. Still adore Dav Pilkey's books.

My favorite book before learning to read was No, David. No need to understand the words for that one since the pictures always told enough of the story. Actually, probably would love the books still.

I always found nonfiction books about animals, including dinosaurs, far more interesting. Mainly read science related books as far as nonfiction goes.

I remember those! I liked watching the pages morph, too

I wasn't a cool kid It's cool that you enjoyed expanding your horizons

Goosebumps were more my son's era, but that is cool

Just curious, does Poland have a lot of "mythological" stories in book form? That is something America lacks

I had a good collection of dinosaur books, too. I had a big interest in them as a child

Books. <3 The very earliest memories I have retained throughout the years of going to sleep all include bedtime stories which were the norm in my youth, chief amongst those were the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munch_Bunch books and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Men books. My parents were very passionate about giving me an interest in books and I was already learning to read and write a little before entering my 1st year of elementary school, and during that year I spent a lot of time reading https://img.bland.is/album/crop/73244/m/20131221225434_0.jpg?d=635232632734500000. So for my 1st year of school (ages 6 - 7) it was mostly just light comic reading, a few speech bubbles here and there, but as I entered 2nd grade I started reading true novels and while unfortunately I mostly just got to read novels by Icelandic novelists whom are largely very bad and talentless writers (yes, those are some strong words but I have some strong feelings for Icelandic authors...), I eventually started reading translated books and soon after books in English which rekindled a dying passion for reading.

The first series I ever dabbled in would have been the translated to Icelandic series about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sune_series a young boy whom in the first novel is a 2nd grader (much like I was when I started reading them), those books weren't all that great either and if I remember correctly I didn't really read them in any particular order and I certainly didn't read nearly all of them, only a few. A series that didn't leave a big impression as I remember very little about it, it was a series I stopped reading as soon as 2nd grade was over.

I remember the Harry Potter craze started but I wasn't all that interested in the series to begin with as to me when I was young the premise sounded boring so I didn't give the series a chance until much later. The 2nd series I would delve into and the first one I'd finish was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Sky, a series of very short books (if they can even be called that) that grew slightly longer after the 9th book (apparently the original intent was to have 27 tiny books, but after 9 of them with 18 to go a problem with the books getting lost behind bigger books on shelves drove publishers to push the books into being released 3 in one so instead of 18 more books there were 6 books, each 3 times larger than the original 9).

My interest in reading didn't really kick off properly until I was introduced to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_the_Ice_People by Margit Sandemo. A 47 books long series that leads into a 15 books long series called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warlock and from there into a 20 books long series called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legenden_om_Ljusets_rike which unfortunately only had 13 books translated into Icelandic so to my grief, some years after first starting the series, I got stuck after book 75 of 82 in the complete series. Big disappointment, almost worth learning Norwegian, Swedish or Polish to read the rest and finally learn what happens in the end.

From the time I started The Legend of the Ice People my life started to be filled with books and trying to count out individual titles and series would just leave me typing my entire book history instead of just my first books.

I read The Hobbit when I was 10, and that opened the floodgates of fantasy fiction for me....

The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper

The Wrinkle in Time series, by Madeleine L'Engle

The Chronicles of Narnia , by C.S. Lewis

The Earthsea books, by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende

Roald Dahl
Piers Anthony

Then I moved on the big Sci-Fi series when I was about 13
Herbert, Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Bradbury, etc

First books I remember reading were Dr. Seuss. I still like him, some things you never grow out of.

When I started getting older, I would read alot of Stephen King and a bit of Robin Cook.

Nowadays I hardly have the patience to read books. Magazine articles and newspaper articles I can manage just fine, but books are few and far between these days.

You mean actual Slavic myths or folk tales and legends? We have plenty in every region. About our early kings, city founders, Jurata the queen of Baltic, the Wawel dragon and what have you.

Well, the first books that REALLY got me into reading were these biographies on the US presidents. Then when I got to.....6th grade(?) I REALLY got into Dragonlance books.

I remember when I was about 10 or 11 and got hold of a Reader's Digest Condensed edition of "Call of the Wild" by Jack London. I enjoyed it immensely.

Earlier, 5, 6, or 7 yrs old, I remember the "dike and Jane" series. We had them in the Elementary School I attended.

I'm 17, been reading very often ever since I remember. Wheel of Time? Game of Thrones? No problem. Even with school and all, I'd finish a book a week from those series (very big books)

A couple Golden Books: The Little Engine that Could, and Chicken LIttle. Around '72

In Elementary school, it was generally WWII books from the school library; I loved the intruments of battle and maps. A cut-away of the Enterprise or a fold out of the Bismark? *swoon* From the local library a few miles away it was always books about dinosaurs.

The reading in middle school (age 10 - 14ish) was AD&D 2nd ed. rules. Hours and hours going through the DM Guide, Monster Manual, Players Handbook.

Other game sets and rules for RPG's, micro-armor, and table-top wargames took up much time after that (ever try reading the original Advanced Squad Lead rules? . Some recreational reading there but nothing really in a series.

edit: Oh, some Clancy after high school, Doulas Adams and Burke Breathed (Bloom Co.) during high school, and Harry Potter as an advlt.

You started much earlier than I with Tolkien. I read the Hobbit in High School and followed up with the Ring Trilogy. That was when I got into fantasy books. A place where I have trouble leaving now A couple of my sisters had great fantasy book collections that I was able read. I think my first fantasy book was actually Dragon Quest, by Anne McCaffrey.

My Father had an intense hatred for Dr. Suess, so I had to sneak them from the school library. "Those are NOT real words!" was his big complaint.

Yes. America just does not have that history and legends only from what was brought over from Europe. Native American history and legends can be interesting, but I just don't associate with it like I do European myth and legends

I enjoy the first few Dragonlance books I have read. I have not read anything very recent from that. The Dragonlance setting in D&D is probably my favorite.

My folks had bookshelves filled with Reader's Digest Condensed books. I don't think I ever picked one up, though.

We used the Merrill Reader books in my school, so I missed out on the dike and Jane readers.

Some great books cited

White Fang

Hatchet

Tom Sawyer

In first grade I read War of the Worlds. I didn't understand much I don't think but I read a mini version of it.

I don't remember what books I started off with, but reading in general has become a big part of who I am.. I started reading the first Harry Potter book when I was still a kid, but I don't remember where I got it or how old I was. I seem to remember that I wasn't sure whether I wanted to read it or not, and my dad I think is the one who said to buy it.. years later growing up I became a huge fan of the series, and now I have a ton of merchandise from it. I read the Inheritance Cycle after I finished Harry Potter only because it was the only other fantasy that I knew of, but there haven't been any other good ones since.

I never did read C.S Lewis or J.R.R Tolkein due to not having an interest in them, and I find it doubtful that I will.

I did start reading Dean Koontz when I was still a bit young (don't remember my age at the time), but if I remember right my dad took them away because I wasn't old enough yet.. then I started getting back into them when I was a little older. I've read several of his books now but I haven't read a new one in a while.

I read a book a day sometimes. By the time I was in 4th grade, I had read every book in the grade school library and they started letting me borrow books from the high school.

The first books I can remember owning were a book of Edgar Allan Poe short stories and the Complete Sherlock Holmes. My mom had incredible taste for a woman who never went to college and grew up basically a hick.

Dinosaur books, nature books, bird books, space books, science books, Lord of the Rings, and Dune. Started reading my earliest of books when I was about 3.