My experience is pretty similar to what you've described, JSWolf -- my mother read to me from the cradle, so by the time they shoved
Lord of the Flies on me, I'd already developed a love of reading that even that beast couldn't slay (yes, it was 9th grade). It just pre-disposed me to hate any book I was told I had to read, at the same time I was polishing off twice or thrice as many of my 'own' books in the same time periods.
I read
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 7th grade, on my own initiative. They were a difficult read for me at that age and the culture being so different from what I knew (looked up practically every third word!), but I kept at it until I finished them. So what if I checked it out of the library something like 15 consecutive times?
