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Where Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I read that book over and over wore out two copies. Funny I went from that to The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. I did the same with that book. I also would check out any Hank the Cowdog books that our school library had.
Truly tough question. Because as a kid I feel in love with any book I picked up and read. To me books are magical. You can get lost in a world and become part of it.
As a kid, the first book that really got me hooked was Ender’s Game.
Another one around the same time was Raptor Red.
Nothing too crazy, I was a kid after all.
The wizard of the Emerald City by Alexander Volkov
The King, by Dick Bruna. I can still recite it by heart 53 years later.
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (because it was read to me)
Pirate’s Promise (first full book I read on my own)
Almost any Golden Book (Pokey Little Puppy) or
My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George),
Paddington Bear books.
Along with titles others have mentioned (Scarry, etc.). These are firsts
The Planet of Adventure series (it came as a single book) by Jack Vance.
It was more of an adventure book than sci-fi. Light on the science but amazingly descriptive with the details of its world building. It was the first time I could read a book and really experience it like I was there. I dug it out of my dad’s sci-fi collection when I was about 11 I think. It was a Dutch translation and came with a separate map. I loved that map so much, you could follow the journey and fantasize about all those other parts that weren’t mentioned in the book.So yea, it’s the book that opened a whole realm of imagination for me.
Richard Scarry’s “What do people do all day” is such a fun book that even now I wish I had again just to flip through the pages and see the intricacies of the drawings
The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O Shea. Pure Irish fantasy set in real locations I know in Ireland.
Old Man and the Sea, the first reading assignment I actually enjoyed. Sure it took 5 years after being weaned off of picture books to seriously get into reading, but hey I’m thankful because there’s no adventure quite like the kind that comes from a good book.
The 1982 version of “The Amazing Adventures of Hercules”. They re-released it in I think 2004, but butchered it.
House of the Scorpion. Pleasantly surprised to look it up and see it has pretty good ratings
Redwall, by Brian Jacques I think. Basically medieval fantasy drama but with woodland animals if I remember properly. I loved the whole series, great books when I was a kid.
Oh my god I saw the post and immediately thought Redwall! Glad to see you, new friend!
The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Edit: by Douglas Adams (yeah, like that addition was needed)
I felt personally offended when my teenage son was like yeah it’s OK.
So that’s why you gave him up for adoption ;)
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
As crazy as what we’ve discovered with physics and consciousness in the last two years, I legitimately think there may be something to it.
Like, maybe the scientific pursuit of measuring the tiniest possible details has a butterfly effect that makes everything in a level we notice completely fucking insane.
Like how Google maps when you zoom in it replaces all the pixels. Maybe zooming in anywhere causes a snowball effect where everything everywhere suddenly needs to also be determined at that level, and that’s why shit at the “human level” isn’t running right.
There’s so much in those books that sound so stupid in the surface, but honestly aren’t as far fet he’d as they initially seem.
Gives me Philip K Dick vibes but with some of the best comedic writing ever instead of meth induced paranoia like Dick.
+1
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, if I remember correctly is the first novel I remember reading. When we were kids, our parents bought us kid-friendly versions of the novels. I don’t really remember anymore if they were condensed versions, or just the same length but with a couple of pictures added per chapter.
