We all read books as kids if we were lucky, and some of us still read a few kids novels now - am currently working through Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman/Giaman (never can get it right). So I thought I would start a discussion on what people's favourite books were as children. I spent my teenage years reading Betsy Byars but before that it was Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl, then Rowling and Pullman came along in late teens.
Neverwhere is a great book! I loved it when I read it! My favorite books to read when growing up were "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe", "Little Women", "Alice In Wonderland", "Island of the Blue Dolphin", "Hatchet", "Tuck Everlasting", Greek mythology and fairytales. I also read a lot of Piers Anthony as a teenager. I loved the Xanth books.
I enjoyed reading Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riodan as a pre-teen. Also The Kane Chronicles series last year (I'm currently fourteen). And his current series, The Heroes of Olympus. So I'm a mythology fanatic. And a Riordan fan.
I literally finished reading Neverwhere only a week or so ago - while the story itself didn't grab me, Gaiman's world was fantastic and the writing was beautiful and vivid As a kid - I read comic books as a very young child (between ages 4-13 and then another short burst between 16-17) Japanese children's classic Doraemon is a must-see - it's still the most creative thing I've ever come across and I've never seen anything else remotely like it, either in western or Japanese media. Now as for western books in prose form - it was Lucy Daniel's Animal Ark series (my first book being Owl in the Office) was what got me into reading - before that point I just wasn't interested in books without pictures. My being Chinese and catching up with my English at the time probably had something to do with this. I was 9 and stuck with animal-related stories for several years before I moved onto fantasy and then crime novels. The Narnia books, Northern Lights, the first 4 Harry Potter books were also brilliant. As a teenager, I then found Lee Child and Terry Goodkind's series (one's action thriller and the other's fantasy) - neither of which was well-written but I couldn't tell at the time and was thrilled with them lol. Then I found Henning Mankell, a much better writer, and who influenced my writing style a heck of a lot.
Oh and don't forget RL Stine's Point Horror and Goosebump's novels, totally with you about Little Women luna, actually i never got into alice until I watched Tim Burton's version, find it too annoying as itself
I had forgotten about R.L Stine! I used to devour his Goosebump books! I loved "Night Of The Living Dummy", it was very scary to me back then! Also, those choose your own adventure books. They were great fun!
I love Neil Gaiman. He's one of my favourite authors. Have you read anything by Garth Nix? I really enjoy his writing as well. The Abhorsen Trilogy is really good. Growing up, I read the Anne of Green Gables books, The Little House on the Prairie books, Little Woman, Trixie Beldan mysteries, The Bobsy (sp?) Twins mysteries, Narnia books, Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles (anything based in the worlds of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms), Dune, Greek mythology and so much more. My mom used to give me trouble for spending so much time in my room reading. She thought l should spend more time with the family.
When I was a child I remember reading a lot of Enid Blyton books, the Famous five series mostly, I also enjoyed 'The secret garden' by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I read a lot as a child, it was my favourite escape.
So many great books! I loved The Abhorsen series! I used to read while waiting in line for lunch at school, at the dinner table before the meal was served, on car rides and on the bus, on my way to school.
We also read books to our children. For very young children I like the humorous poetry of Hairy McLary books. Jeremy Strong also does often wacky humour without it being forced.
I sometimes feel like I skipped the children's novels. I did read a lot of R.L. Stine, and some Roald Dahl novels through school. My main passion though was Agatha Christy! When I was eight or nine, we were at a cabin for several weeks, and my grandma kept a lot of books there. One day I just started reading one of them. I can't remember if I understood everything, but I was really fascinated by it, and read several. At eleven I had a passion for Buffy, so I read Dracula and the Vampire Chronicles, several times (this was also the time I started writing for real, and looking back at it, I think maybe this wasn't the best of things for an innocent mind to read). After that, children's books seemed so childish. I read more children's books in my late teens than I did when I was a child... A children's book I read later though was "The Animals of Farthing Wood" by Colin Dann. I loved it, but maybe it had to do with the nostalgia I felt reading it. I used to watch the TV-series religiously. Anyway, thought it deserved a mention.
My absolute favourite was Roald Dahl, but I also loved The Borrowers, Enid Blyton's books (especially The Faraway Tree) and Terry Pratchett. One book I absolutely hated was Velveteen Rabbit, it upset me so much and it still brings me down when I think of it
