"What Was the First Book that Made You Love Books?"

[BeccaPrice]

In today's I Love My Kindle, Bufo Calvin cites a Publisher's Weekly story that asks that question.

Calvin's response is right on:“What was the first air that made you want to breathe air?”

I can recall vividly when reading all of a sudden Made Sense to me - don't recall my age, probably kindergarten or first grade. It was a picture of a black cat, with the letters C-A-T under it. When I connected those letters with the picture with the sound "cat", it was an almost audible click in my mind, and I thought to myself "now no one can hide secrets from me, ever again!" (and I've been a research freak ever since, too).

[BeccaPrice]

I think that first book was a Dick and Jane book - I could care less about Dick and Jane, but I loved that cat.

Once reading made sense to me, I read everything I could get my hands on, but they were mostly stories and escape fiction - lots of mysteries and science fiction.

In high school, I read the short story Leaf By Niggle by JRR Tolkein - that affected me for weeks after.

Another book that profoundly affected me was All The King's Men, which I read as a freshman in college. I remember the shock and depression that followed, as I realized that my parents had lied to me for all these years about what motivates politics and politicians.

[Catlady]

The first books I remember were Little Golden Books.

[GlenBarrington]

I can remember walking to our neighborhood branch library at 10 by myself in the dead of Winter (yes, uphill both ways in snow drifts higher than me) to find something to read. But that was 53 years ago, so that initial connection came even earlier and is an even dimmer memory.

That was before Springfield closed the branches and forced everyone to go to the central downtown facility. I feel sorry for kids, now. They have to wait for someone to take them to the library. And if they don't, then, Oh well, kids don't need the feeling of being able to take destiny into their own hands anyway.

Maybe, the high availability of free ebooks available for download makes up for it a bit. Kids CAN find stuff to read for free but this system lacks the basic filtering I think we want children's reading material to have.

Also, it seems a shame to place this burden on the backs of authors while allowing our institutions to skirt this traditional obligation.

Maybe Mobileread could have a download section exclusively for young people. Made up of Public Domain and author donated books for non adults? Lots of logistical issues to resolve, but what better place to try and instill a love for books and ideas in children than here?

[Apache]

I do not remember either. As far back as I can remember I have always read.
Apache

[Synamon]

It was probably a cereal box. Riboflavin is a great word.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The first books I remember were Little Golden Books.

Yes - those and the Golden Nature Guides (full of bugs, dinosaurs, etc.)

[QuantumIguana]

"Tell Me Why" by Arkady Leokum, but I was already reading a lot. I read this over and over and over.

[Pulpmeister]

The first book I actually read for myself, instead of having read out to me, was a Little Golden Book, Scuffy the Tugboat, by Gertrude Crampton and illustrated by Tibor Gergely.

The reason I can quote the writer and illustrator is because, some years ago in a second-hand bookshop, I spotted a mint copy, and in a burst of nostalgia, I bought it. I still have it.

[Billi]

I never ever decided to love anything or anybody. This simply happens.

I love reading since I was a kid but I don't think that any special book did the trick.

[~Kate]

As a kid I really loved animals and the outdoors, so mostly any books about that. Probably my earliest favorite was Wait till the Moon is Full by Margaret Wise Brown.

It's a story about a baby raccoon who begs his mother to go outside - again and again - and his mother always says "Wait till the moon is full". It had really great pictures of the animals in the forest that made the story real.

[alanHd]

I've always been an avid reader but the Doctor who series stand out, especially the ones by Terrance Dicks.

[wizwor]

The Ghost of Opalina or Nine Lives by Peggy Bacon

[Jozawun]

Originally Posted by Synamon

It was probably a cereal box. Riboflavin is a great word.

I thought you got more, character-wise, from Niacin.

[BeccaPrice]

It's the deep, interpersonal relationship between the secondary additives that really makes this cereal box.