Literature What did you read as a child/teen?

[Mel]

As I indicated in the Harry Potter thread, I grew up reading Archie comics (which I taught myself to read English with before we had English classes in 3rd grade, since I went to a Francophone school), and Sweet Valley High books when I was a little bit older.

I had quite a collection of both kinds. I still see Archie comics being sold these days, but they are so much more expensive and thinner than I remember. I sometimes want to buy them, but they'd probably take like 15 minutes to read now.

So, what did you read when you were a child/teen?

 

[Envy]

I liked Artemis Fowl quite a bit when I was a teen.

 

[Lord Snot]

Goosebumps (R. L. Stine), Ms Wiz, Enid Blyton, Sweet Valley High, Spookesville, Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak, Mrs Pepperpot, Milly Molly Mandy, ... I remember those as my favourites. Also Jacqueline Wilson, although I came to despise her books by the time I was in secondary school.

As a teen, Fearless (Francine Pascal), Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Noel Streatfield were the series I read. By the time I was 12 or 13 I was reading adult books, mostly horror like James Herbert or the crime fiction that my mum reads.

In terms of comics I read The Beano and The Dandy for a while, then moved on to Mizz and J-17 when I was a teen.

 

[Mel]

Oh I remember the Goosebumps series as well. I read a few of those.

I took a strong liking to Agatha Christie mystery stories as I got older, and I still like them now. There is something about the way she wrote that I really liked.

 

[Second Summer]

Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. They were huge in my home country.
The Phantom. Also huge there, virtually unknown in most other countries apparently.
Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Daredevil, X-men.
GI Joe
The Hardy Boys books
Jack London books

 

[Muggle]

Harry Potter.

I only stopped being a teenager just over a year ago

Children/young adult books that I read obsessively: The Redwall series, Enid Blyton, the Edge Chronicles, the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, the Bartimaeus trilogy, Tales of the Otori, Wind on Fire trilogy, Julie of the Wolves.

Adult books that I read when I was a child/teen: Bernard Cornwell: started reading the Warlord Chronicles when I was 9, the Sharpe series when I was 11 and I've read all his other books since as well. Manda Scott's Boudica series (started when I was 13), Tolkien (obviously ), Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Discworld, and an assortment of historical fiction writers like Simon Scarrow, Conn Iggulden, Ben Kane, Robert Low, and Tim Severin to name a few.

OK, I've basically just listed all the books/authors I can see in front of me but if a book has been granted a space on a bookshelf in my bedroom it means it's a book I re-read a lot.

 

[Forster]

SiFi/Fantasy almost exclusively. The first "series" books I read, well not counting Hardy Boys and such, Little House on the Prairie (when I was in 2nd/3rd grade), LOTR (marked my first venture into reading larger books that still continues, I was 11), John Carter of Mars by Burroughs, Dune, and umm... the GOR books by Norman. My mom hated, hated the covers on these which only made me want to keep reading them more, lol. I still have a "thing" for Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta's artwork.

 

[AeryFairy]

Everything! I read whatever I could get my mitts on. J K Rowling, Terry Pratchett, L J Smith, Enid Blyton, Celia Rees, Cate Tiernan, Roald Dahl, the Jennings books and Jaqeline Wilson all featured heavily at one point or another.

 

[Muggle]

Everything! I read whatever I could get my mitts on. J K Rowling, Terry Pratchett, L J Smith, Enid Blyton, Celia Rees, Cate Tiernan, Roald Dahl, the Jennings books and Jaqeline Wilson all featured heavily at one point or another.

Celia Rees!

I forgot about her! She came to my school once. I've got Pirates! signed

 

[AeryFairy]

Celia Rees!

I forgot about her! She came to my school once. I've got Pirates! signed

:O So. Cool.

 

[Chryssie]

I read almost constantly when I was a child and teenager. I read a lot of animal related books like Lassie stories, Jack London, The Black Stallion, Black Beauty... I had a real love for horses so I read about every horse book I could get my hands on. I am quite a bit older than most of you so the books I read you may have never heard of! I read Misty of Chintoteague (sp) and every book by that author whose name escapes me now. Old Yeller and sequels though they made me cry. Too many books to list and I can't remember all the titles! When I was a bit older, I really got into science fiction and read every Heinlein and Asimov book there was as well as Bradbury and many many others. I still enjoy sci fi and fantasy and love LOTR and have read that series several times.

 

[KLS52]

The Hardy Boys books

Nancy Drew!!

 

[Kittendumpling]

The first books I remember enjoying were by Dick King Smith, Roald Dahl, and Robert Louis Stevenson. I had a fascination with horror as a teen, so read lots of Stephen King & Shaun Hutson. I loved poetry from a very young age, especially Ted Hughes, because if his anthology of animal poems, The Iron Wolf.

 

[Forster]

I read almost constantly when I was a child and teenager. I read a lot of animal related books like Lassie stories, Jack London, The Black Stallion, Black Beauty... I had a real love for horses so I read about every horse book I could get my hands on. I am quite a bit older than most of you so the books I read you may have never heard of! I read Misty of Chintoteague (sp) and every book by that author whose name escapes me now. Old Yeller and sequels though they made me cry. Too many books to list and I can't remember all the titles! When I was a bit older, I really got into science fiction and read every Heinlein and Asimov book there was as well as Bradbury and many many others. I still enjoy sci fi and fantasy and love LOTR and have read that series several times.

One had no other source of entertainment in the pre-computer/ pre-cableTV days.

 

[I Heart Corey Haim!!]

ummm as a kid i loved the richard scarry books, and sesame street and little house on the prarie....i loved romance novels and true crime since my early teens and enjoy it to this day.

peace

 

[mlp]

I went to a pretty small school. By some time during second grade, I had read all of the books in the school library that they would let grades 1-5 check out - for some stupid reason, they wouldn't let us check out the books deemed suitable for junior high kids, So my sister started bringing home books from the high school library for me. Then, when she went off to college, she brought home books from the university library for me. That kept me in books through fourth and fifth grade, and when I got to sixth grade, I started working my way through the junior high library.

Books were a real treat - I got books for my birthday and Christmas. My mother would go to the school book fairs, and being unfamiliar with the English language classics, would ask what the *good* books were,and bought those for me, together with the Russian authors who were familiar to her. So I ended up reading Wuthering Heights, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov, Far from the Madding Crowd, etc. in junior high. The Russian ones especially were a little dense for me on an emotional level; I found them depressing, and I've never been able to bring myself to read any of the Russian classics since.

Also, since all of the books that we had at home were German ones, I taught myself to read German during the summer after second grade by reading The Leatherstocking Tales in German, and from there reading all the Karl May books my mother had, Pearl S. Buck in German, etc. (There was no public library in town, so my summers were spent scrounging for reading material. I cannot express the joy I felt went a bookmobile started making it to town eventually.)

 

[Veggiemama]

Choose Your Own Adventure
Babysitter Club
Sweet Vally High
Sweet valley Twins
GooseBumps
Fear Street
....started reading Jackie Collins novels when I was 13/14. Waaaay too young!! LOL

 

[Veggiemama]

There used to be these books I read in elementary about bugs. It was some type of big land or something And I used to LOVE them. I read everyo one in the series and I cannot, for the life of me, remember what they heck theyre called. I'd love to buy the series for my son.

Also, a series of books about things like honesty, respect, manners, etc. if I remember correctly the illustrations were kind of cartoonish and the books were over sized. I would also like to get those for my bugs but I can't remember what the were called.

 

[lucky_charm]

From the moment I could read I have constantly read anything I could find. For me libraries are still some of the most magical places in the world.

Favourites were Goosebumps, the Narnia books, Enid Blyton, E Nesbit, Jaqueline Wilson, Roald Dahl... Then later, His Dark Materials, Harry Potter, The old kingdom series by garth nix, The black magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan, Terry Pratchett, JRR Tolkein and many others. I would get random books out of the library all the time so sadly there are many books I can remember the plot of but not the title, author or other distinguishing feature so I will probably never find them again. I love that feeling though when you come across a book that you read and enjoyed once but had forgotten, like meeting an old friend.

I still like to read children's (well, young adult) books. One of the great things about them are they are cheaper than adult books .

 

[Freesia]

Hmmm..

Enid Blyton, Sweet Valley High, Flowers In The Attic Etc, Classics like Bronte books, Judy Blume , Jackie Collins as mentioned , books about Queen Elizabeth I, or Henry 8th, books about women living in Islamic countries ie Saudi Arabia, Ie Princess by Jean Sasson, and many others that I cant even remember. I was a lot less sensitive then so I read pretty edgy stuff ie Trainspotting when I was 18, and things even more graphic/hardcore, but as I got older I have become allergic to those kinds of books and now only want to read about nice, cutesy stuff : ) .