I didn’t really love reading until I hit my 20s. A Brief History of Time really did it for me.
The Swiss Family Robinson. My father read me a chapter each night & it was one of my fondest memories.
Unfortunately, Harry Potter. Was so confused when You-Know-Who came out as an absolute piece of shit. I couldn’t agree with her bullshit and didn’t want to stop loving what I used to say was my favourite book.
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
The original tv series opened my eyes so much, i really wish it was made available somewhere.
Arr it be available if you look in the right places
The Lord of the Rings, for sure. But then I did not read for a few decades, and recently got back into reading thanks to audiobooks. Since then, the first book that I loved every moment of was The Lies of Locke Lamora.
My parents gave me that book when I was 9 because they thought it was a collection of fairy tales. I fell in love with the first sentence.
I remember being 12 or so and when I finished The Lord of the Rings, I felt a sense of loss. I just wanted the book to go on forever. I suppose that is the first book I truly loved.
Illuminatus!.. At the age of 11.
Adolescence felt pretty straightforward after a book like that.
Still one of my all time favorites. I’ve tried suggesting it to a few people, but none of them can get past the first page. I think that says more about my friends than anything else though.
They sound exciting.
The Velveteen Rabbit
The Six Bullerby Children by Astrid Lindgren. I was maybe 9 at the time. I should reread it someday.
2nd time I see this question, so my answer is my second book:
The color of magic by Terry Pratchett
Bridge to Terabithia. Yeah, I was a kid, but I cried when a main character died.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
The Little Prince.
Read it as a child. Cover to cover. Painstakingly sounding out each word. Repeatedly. Then for years I forgot about it.
As an adult I came across it in my bookshelf, buried deeply (it having fallen down the back a bit) and read it again. It is a completely different book when you read it as an adult…
“So you want to be a wizard” by Diane Duane. Opened my eyes to magic systems that just aren’t just hocus pocus and wand waving. Remarkably well designed for YA.
Urban fantasy with well thought out magic systems are still my favorite type of books to read today.
First? The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree. I read the Oz books pretty early. I read all the Sherlock Holmes books in junior high, I think.
