What were your favorite books as a child, and why?

[TotallyOz]

I feel in love with books as a child. The Wizard of Oz took me to another world. The Hobbitt was the book that deprived me of sleep for nights upon end until I finished it. Gone with the Wind and Huck Finn were read under the covers of my bed with a flashlight so my family would not catch me up so late.

My favorites involved adventure: Robin Hood, King Arthur, Captain Horatio Hornblower, etc. I am embarrased to say The Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew Mysteries were some of my favorites as were comic books of any genre.

When I ran out of legends, I read Edgar Allen Poe and Sherlock Homes. I feel in love with Keats and Shelly at an early age. But, I always took the time to read Stephen King and John Grisham. I seem to be able to read those in a few hours and books like The Hunchback of Notre Dame took me days. My first read of a little story about Romeo and Juliet took me a week but I found I had to read it over and over again.

I had 4 bookcases in my room as a child. I took special care of the books and I made sure that all were kept in pristine shape.

I still have a passion for reading but haven't bought a book in a while. My Kindle and IPad provide most of the entertainment for me while on a plane, watching the sunset or just relaxing by the pool. While these devices are great, nothing really beats my bookcases as a child.

What were your favorite books as a child, and why?

[Guest CharliePS]

My favorites were the Dr. Doolittle books. I can't remember the plots or even the subject, except that they were stories about animals, and they always left me feeling good. Then there was Winnie the Pooh. I also liked some young adult mysteries. There was one in particular that involved a family during the 1906 SF earthquake that I read over and over, as much for the ambience as the story. When I reached early adolescence, I read a Raymond Chandler mystery that had a gay character in it, and even though he was treated with contempt by Philip Marlowe, I was fascinated, because I realized that I wasn't the only person attracted to men (he was young and reasonably attractive as well, not a troll). I was a voracious reader as a child and adolescent, but I read many adult books that I really didn't appreciate properly, as I can see now (e.g., Cooper, Austen, Thackeray, Galsworthy).

[Lucky]

My family were avid readers. We went to the library and came home with stacks of books, which we read and returned for more. Which ones do I remember? The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and a third one which came to my mind when I started this post but did not stay for the writing of it. I liked Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, but literature might have been above me. In high school of course I liked Catcher in the Rye and Flannery O'Connor's short stories. I think I am one of the few people to have read Middlemarch all the way through and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Guest CharliePS]

My family were avid readers. We went to the library and came home with stacks of books, which we read and returned for more. Which ones do I remember? The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and a third one which came to my mind when I started this post but did not stay for the writing of it. I liked Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, but literature might have been above me. In high school of course I liked Catcher in the Rye and Flannery O'Connor's short stories. I think I am one of the few people to have read Middlemarch all the way through and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Middlemarch was one of my favorite novels, but I didn't read it until I was in graduate school.

[seattlebottom]

Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and The Three Investigators were my favorites. By the time I was in 5th grade I was reading Stephen King so I'll put him in the list as well.

[RA1]

I suppose it partly depends upon what age is meant by child. Our mother read to us many of the "classics" before we were old enough to go to school which my sister and I really enjoyed. However, after starting school, I discovered the Tom Swift series of books which an uncle had. I was fascinated with the adventures and "inventions" mentioned therein. I was very sorry when I discovered that I had read them all.

As everyone who posted on this thread very well knows, reading is a passion and life long activity which seems to be denied by many in the current and upcoming generations. Pity.

Best regards,

RA1

[BigK]

Oz, our reading lists are much the same. I read every Horatio Hornblower and every Sherlock Holmes. Never made it to the Hobbit series...something to check out someday.

[AdamSmith]

Amazing, marvelous, often warmly hiliarious to ruminate on how the books we loved as children helped form us.

When I was little (age 4-7), one or other of my parents would read to me many nights, just before bedtime, in the bed beside me. First The Gingerbread Man, which was grim enough; then the even more Grimm fairy tales (slightly redacted!), together with some Aesop from the same anthology as Grimm; other little children's books of the times, Little Toot on the Thames, The Berenstein Bears, et al.; then Dr. Seuss & Sendak & so on.

Then I got a voracious appetite for the, I think, 50-cent Fawcett-Crest paperback collections of 'Peanuts.' Also, thereafter, 'B.C.' ((possibly one of the drollest creations the other side of 'Beavis & Butthead,' at least until Jonny Hart was overtaken by senility)); 'Wizard of Id,' 'Tumbleweeds' and a few others. Anybody else have favorites to add?

Anyway, at age nine, I watched '2001,' then bought the paperback, and read and re-read it into oblivion. Literally. I still have it. 2/3 of its body weight is Scotch tape.

... One's first, alas lifelong, glimpse into the torment of all that remains unread.