What was the first book series you ever read and how old were you when you read it?

[PrincessFiona60]

Oh, how sad! neither of my parents are readers, but thank heaven when they realized I was (I remember it, although couldn't tell you when it was, probably when my 2nd grade teacher told them I was woefully deficient in math, but very advanced in reading), the library was the next stop, then the BX for a set of flash cards! I'm exaggerating of course, but definitely close together. Probably the flash cards first. During the school year I had to concentrate on school, but in the summers I got a biweekly trip to the library. Heaven!!! My mother's cry was, "Claire, get your G-D nose out of that book and go outside and play! NOW!" She loved that I read, but she'd been an athletic kid (I had two left feet and a bad sense of balance and bad depth perception. To this day, throw me a ball and my instinct is to put my hands over my face and duck to make sure it doesn't hit my glasses and give me two black eyes!).

There are times that I wonder what Mom thought when she realized I was so different from her? She did "go with the flow" (we're talking early 60s here, not in a hippie atmosphere, certainly not in the military) and make sure, although they couldn't afford to buy them, that I had all the books I wanted to read ... as long as my homework was done!

I was so lucky that my military Dad was just as book hungry as I was.

 

[Timothy]

Funny, I read the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books when I was an adult. Had to find out what everyone was talking about

I've never read any of the Hardy Boys books, I did read the entire Nancy Drew Series in my Pre-Teens. James Michener books took me from children's books to adult reading. Hawaii was my first brush with Adult reading. The book is a 10 of 10 for me.

 

[Dawgluver]

My mom allowed me to read any and every book. She never censored anything, and I was a voracious reader. Though the time she caught a friend and me reading a pile of "True Confessions" magazines at the beach when I was about 12, she read me the riot act!

 

[Claire]

Dawg, like many of my DC friends, you hit a real chord. When I was in 7th grade, Valley of the Dolls was the big scandalous book that all the mothers were reading and hiding from their daughters. All the popular girls who never ever read a book if they could help it, were stealing it from their moms' bookshelves and handing them around. Mommy got a copy and read it and handed it to me. She didn't like reading and just told me to go for it. As far as she was concerned it was a pretty good way to learn about what a girl should NOT do with her life! Way before that she realized she couldn't keep up with my reading, and after that she'd ask me about what I was reading and flip through on occasion, but never censored. Of course I really didn't like excessive sex, violence, etc, and there wasn't that much of it around.

Somewhere in there I had to get permission to read Catcher in the Rye for my jr high lit class. Mom didn't think twice about signing. The thing was, my reaction was, "What's the big deal?" I keep thinking to myself that some day I'll reread it, but, well, so many books, so little time.

 

[Dawgluver]

Funny, Claire! My mom had no qualms about letting me read "Valley of the Dolls"! She belonged to the Book of the Month Club, and whatever she got was fair game for me to read!

 

[chopper]

The little house series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I am not sure how old I was, pretty young.

I could written this same post. Let me just say ditto!

 

[chopper]

Little House series, I was pretty young too. The Bobsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Anne of Green Gables series ( probably my fave). I also remember reading my grandparents' copies of original Wizard of Oz series, which had 4 additional books, I think. I too started reading at a very early age.

I love Anne of Green Gables!!!

 

[Claire]

Are you sure you aren't my twin sister? Mom, when I was about 8, maybe 9, joined the Book of the Month club. Whatever was there, I could read. As I said, Mom wasn't a reader (why am I using past tense, she's still alive and kicking and still isn't a book reader). I'm not sure what possessed her. There are four books I distinctly remember. One is a comprehensive book of kids' stories. I don't remember what it is called, I own it to this day, but it is not really a children's book, very thick, small print. Couldn't resist, went up and found it. "Favorite Stories Old and New". One of them was my introduction to Wilder, and excerpt called "Indians in the House". The only book she liked was Art Linkletter's "Kids Say the Darndest Things." What I most remember was "Leave Your Tears in Moscow". What started me on Gothic novels was a book of Mary Stewart's, I think "Airs Above the Ground." That one has a fond place in my memory because I eventually wound up in Slovenia, in Lipica, at the originally breeding ground of the Lipizanner stallions.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I was allowed to read anything in the house except one book, the Kama Sutra. When i was old enough (16) to read it, Mom handed it to me and said, "If you have questions, I will try to answer them." I got done with it and asked her what the big deal was..."I didn't want to try to explain it when you were younger." I had no questions.

 

[Dawgluver]

I was allowed to read anything in the house except one book, the Kama Sutra. When i was old enough (16) to read it, Mom handed it to me and said, "If you have questions, I will try to answer them." I got done with it and asked her what the big deal was..."I didn't want to try to explain it when you were younger." I had no questions.

I guess not! Whew!

I remember asking Mom about her book, " Naked Camel". What was THAT about, Mom? The title was actually, "Naked Came I". Tiltle was hard to read when it was in the book shelf.

 

[joesfolk]

Wow, some of you guys were so lucky. Though they read the newspaper I think the only books in our house were the books of fairy tales my mother borrowed from a neighbor and I suspect she did that because some teacher told her that she needed to read to one of my brothers. For a time she read to us every night from Aesop's fables and from a book that contained 365 stories so she could read one every night. I can't imagine growing up in a house full of books. Strange thing is I married a man who can't stand having books in the house. He reads only when he needs some specific info. And now I have a daughter who only rarely reads. She will never know the joy of holding a beautifully bound book in her hands and getting lost in it's covers. But then she'll at least have a Kindle or some other such devise so I guess I will have to content myself with that knowledge.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I guess not! Whew!

I remember asking Mom about her book, " Naked Camel". What was THAT about, Mom? The title was actually, "Naked Came I". Tiltle was hard to read when it was in the book shelf.

ROFL!!!!

I had already read all the Time-Life Books on reproduction...I didn't need an explanation.

 

[Claire]

Wow, some of you guys were so lucky. Though they read the newspaper I think the only books in our house were the books of fairy tales my mother borrowed from a neighbor and I suspect she did that because some teacher told her that she needed to read to one of my brothers. For a time she read to us every night from Aesop's fables and from a book that contained 365 stories so she could read one every night. I can't imagine growing up in a house full of books. Strange thing is I married a man who can't stand having books in the house. He reads only when he needs some specific info. And now I have a daughter who only rarely reads. She will never know the joy of holding a beautifully bound book in her hands and getting lost in it's covers. But then she'll at least have a Kindle or some other such devise so I guess I will have to content myself with that knowledge.

Oh, lord, my sympathies. I want to cry for you. But at least your mom did read to you every night. Yes, we had a 365 stories (for me) and a mother goose that was on a 365 format too, when my sis and I were too young to read, and Mom, after we said our prayers, would read one for each of us (this is when there were only 2 of us).

"Richer than you, I will ever be,
I had a mother who read to me."

At least you had that.

My husband didn't used to read much outside of professional stuff when he was working. Now he reads more, but always picks a subject (almost always history) and reads it to death. I read a wide variety of subjects, but love my novels, and in keeping with my Nancy Drew, still love mystery series as brain candy.

 

[Zhizara]

Not really a series, but my Aunt Doris sent me a set of Winnie The Pooh/Christopher Robin books when I was 6. I adored them.

 

[Leolady]

My mother read to me all the time when I was little. I had some of the books memorized!

My first book series was "The Black Stallion" series of books when I was 7 or 8. I still read voraciously.

 

[Alix]

I'm sort of giggling to myself here. There are so many of you who leapt to adult books and I've just been leaping back to YA books. I'm finding so many of them so much better written than the adult ones that are popular these days.

I totally forgot about Trixie Belden! I LOVED her. I didn't read Nancy Drew at all, but Trixie ROCKED. Mom had to buy me a book everytime she made me go grocery shopping with her. It would shut me up and keep me from whining. Heh heh heh.

 

[taxlady]

Does reading a bunch of Heinlein "juveniles" count as a series?

I did read a bunch of the Nancy Drew books, but I preferred SciFi. I learned young to look for rockets on the spines of books at the library.

 

[babetoo]

i can't remember anything i read as a young child. my mom , not a reader, my dad was, but a lot of nonfiction. i remember reading heidi . was reading things like " the razors edge". i was pretty young but my dad bought me the complete poems of walt whitman. i have read so many books in my life, could never remember them all. my interest in true crime, the justice system and crime novels started about thirty years ago. i never read true romance, thought and still do that they are stupid. reading is my primary hobby, and i still read five to six books a month. love my home mail library.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I'm sort of giggling to myself here. There are so many of you who leapt to adult books and I've just been leaping back to YA books. I'm finding so many of them so much better written than the adult ones that are popular these days.

I totally forgot about Trixie Belden! I LOVED her. I didn't read Nancy Drew at all, but Trixie ROCKED. Mom had to buy me a book everytime she made me go grocery shopping with her. It would shut me up and keep me from whining. Heh heh heh.

I read more YA now than I ever did as a YA. Rachael Caine, JK Rowling, Riordan, even Kathy Reichs has put out some YA books.

 

[Barbara L]

The "Little House" series was probably my first series. I have loved Laura Ingalls Wilder ever since and have read her other books. I have the "Little House Cookbook." I have been to her house in Mansfield, Missouri (now a Laura Ingalls Wilder museum). Growing up, I always felt some kind of bond with her, as she died in 1957 and I was born later that year. Weird, I know, but kids are weird.

When I was around 10 I started going to the library every Saturday and I checked out as many books as I could. That is when I read all the "Happy Hollister" books I could find. I don't know if I read all of them, but I'll bet I did. I started buying them for my daughter when she was little. I read some of them a few years ago, just for kicks, and that is when I realized that everyone in the family, including the dog, and the cat and her kittens were always the same age. The whole time reading the books as a kid, I never noticed!

Around that same age I also loved reading a series of books on the early 1st Ladies. My favorites were the ones on Abigail Adams and Dolley Madison. I also read anything I could find on the U.S. Colonial period at that age.