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



## Timothy (Jan 26, 2012)

I was in 4th grade, so I was about 9 or 10 years old when I read the "Freddy the Pig" series.

It was a series much like "Animal Farm", in that all the animals could talk. Freddy was the youngest and smartest of all the pigs on the Bean Farm in upstate New York. I loved that series and read every book. The animals get into all kinds of delightful adventures and talk freely with the humans who are involved with the stories.

I would suggest this series to anyone who has children of about 10 years old who like to read.


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## JoshuaNY (Jan 26, 2012)

The first series I read was the Mouse and the Motorcycle series by Beverly Cleary. I was 10ish. Those books were awesome.

I havent thought about those books in a long time. Im gonna have to see if I still have em.


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## CraigC (Jan 26, 2012)

I'm sure I read books that were designed to help kids learn to read, but as far as a series, that I actually wanted to read, had to be the Shannara series by Terry Brooks/Goodkind. I was 17. Now if we want to talk about authors, Alistair MacLean. Several movies have been based on his books, "Ice Station Zebra", "Where Eagles Dare", "The Eiger Sanction", "The Guns of Navarone", "Force 10 from Navarone" and "Breakheart Pass" are probably the best known.

Craig


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## Steve Kroll (Jan 26, 2012)

I think the first series I ever read was James P. Hogan's "Inherit the Stars" science fiction series. I don't recall exactly how old I was, but it was sometime in high school, so maybe 16 or 17. I stopped at the third book, because it was a number of years between the time the third and fourth books came out and by that time I would've had to go back and re-read books 1-3 to remember what last happened.

Actually, now that I think about it, I probably read Asimov's "Robot" series first.


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## Aunt Bea (Jan 26, 2012)

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


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## Aunt Bea (Jan 26, 2012)

Timothy said:


> I was in 4th grade, so I was about 9 or 10 years old when I read the "Freddy the Pig" series.
> 
> It was a series much like "Animal Farm", in that all the animals could talk. Freddy was the youngest and smartest of all the pigs on the Bean Farm in upstate New York. I loved that series and read every book. The animals get into all kinds of delightful adventures and talk freely with the humans who are involved with the stories.
> 
> I would suggest this series to anyone who has children of about 10 years old who like to read.



He wrote a story that was the basis for the TV show Mr. Ed.  He lived about fifty miles from where I live.


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## Alix (Jan 26, 2012)

I know I read all the Dick and Jane's, and likely other primary things. The first one I remember devouring was The Chronicles of Narnia in grade 3. From age 7 on I think I've read them more times than I can count. I still love them. The next series I read was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Jan 26, 2012)

Dick and Jane, Wrinkle in Time, Dr. Seuss,  But an actual series...I began reading, The Hobbit, aloud when I was 5, it took me a year.  After that I started the 3 books of "The Lord of the Rings."  I also started reading the PERN novels by Anne McCaffrey around the same time.


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## DaveSoMD (Jan 26, 2012)

I know it is going to sound cliche, but The Hardy Boys.  I was in grade school. Don't remember what grade or how old, just the teasing. Kids can be so cruel.  I don't really remember reading for fun much after that until high school.


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## Dawgluver (Jan 26, 2012)

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.


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## pacanis (Jan 26, 2012)

I read a lot when I was a kid. I played a lot, too, but I read a lot. It's what you did back then.
My first "series" was "The Happy Hollisters", all 31 or 32 of them. 
I don't think those Big/Little books were considered a series, since each book had a different story, but I read a bunch of those, too.
And then about the time I was 14 maybe it was The Edge series of books. A very hard edged series of westerns based on a guy called Edge.
Quite a bit different from The Happy Hollisters, lol.

When I was in second grade the teacher read us those Little House on the Prairie books... no need to read those ;^)

Those are the completed series books anyway. There was a sprinkling of Hardy Boys and others mixed in. Including A Wrinkle in Time, which I didn't even realize was a series. I guess maybe I read the first one? It had a blue cover I remember.


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## Aunt Bea (Jan 26, 2012)

pacanis said:


> I read a lot when I was a kid. I played a lot, too, but I read a lot. It's what you did back then.
> My first "series" was "The Happy Hollisters", all 31 or 32 of them.
> I don't think those Big/Little books were considered a series, since each book had a different story, but I read a bunch of those, too.
> And then about the time I was 14 maybe it was The Edge series of books. A very hard edged series of westerns based on a guy called Edge.
> ...



I remember reading some Tarzan Big/Little books but those Hollisters were just a little too happy for me.  As a kid Huck Finn was my all time favorite.  I think every kid should read it.  I am not sure if I was a kid today reading with an electronic device would have the same feeling of adventure I got from some of those old musty books that we read at camp on rainy days.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Jan 26, 2012)

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


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## Claire (Jan 26, 2012)

Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon, then jumped from the kids' department of the library in one fell swoop to Perry Mason.  I was bored with the kids' stuff, went through the YA, and into the adult when I was something like 10.  Mom used to say that we didn't move because Daddy got orders, we moved because Claire used up the base library.  Oh!  I forgot.  Wizard of Oz.  Very disappointed, and to this day I think they're more in the fantasy genre that adults might like (although I've not re-read them in my adult life, just that I found them confusing when I was 8 or 9).


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## SherryDAmore (Jan 26, 2012)

Nancy Drew, Little House, Tom Swift, and then James Bond.  I started when I was in second or third grade.


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## Claire (Jan 26, 2012)

Oh, I forgot about Laura Ingalls Wilder!  She was great because she wrote at different levels as she went along (much like Harry Potter series).  I think I was 8 or so when I read my first, and when I hit, I think it was called, "These Happy Golden Years" I was older.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Jan 26, 2012)

Dad had to sign me up and give his "permission" for me to browse and check out books from the "adult" section of the Public Library.  It never failed, I would get held up at the desk by another librarian thinking I had swiped my Mom's library card.  I had to get books at the library, I had already read all the one's at home...


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## joesfolk (Jan 26, 2012)

The first series I read was the Little House series. But I was in the sixth grade before my foot ever touched the floor of a library. I never knew what that room full of books was. (Thank you public schools system.) Isn't it amazing that a public school could have a library and a child could attend that school and walk past that room day after day and never even be told what the room was much less be allowed to enter it?! I mean, how many people can remember the exact first time they heard the word "library?"
Sorry, got on a rant there, but I mean, really...


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## Claire (Jan 26, 2012)

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!


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## Timothy (Jan 26, 2012)

Aunt Bea said:


> He wrote a story that was the basis for the TV show Mr. Ed. He lived about fifty miles from where I live.


 
That's very interesting, Aunt Bea. I think I also watched every episode of Mr. Ed also....Ha


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## PrincessFiona60 (Jan 26, 2012)

Claire said:


> 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.


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## Timothy (Jan 26, 2012)

PrincessFiona60 said:


> 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.


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## Dawgluver (Jan 26, 2012)

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!


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## Claire (Jan 26, 2012)

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.


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## Dawgluver (Jan 26, 2012)

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!


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## chopper (Jan 26, 2012)

Aunt Bea said:
			
		

> 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!


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## chopper (Jan 26, 2012)

Dawgluver said:
			
		

> 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!!!


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## Claire (Jan 26, 2012)

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.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Jan 26, 2012)

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.


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## Dawgluver (Jan 26, 2012)

PrincessFiona60 said:
			
		

> 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.


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## joesfolk (Jan 26, 2012)

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.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Jan 26, 2012)

Dawgluver said:


> 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.


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## Claire (Jan 26, 2012)

joesfolk said:


> 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.


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## Zhizara (Jan 27, 2012)

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.


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## Leolady (Jan 27, 2012)

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.


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## Alix (Jan 27, 2012)

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.


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## taxlady (Jan 27, 2012)

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.


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## babetoo (Jan 27, 2012)

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.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Jan 27, 2012)

Alix said:


> 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.


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## Barbara L (Jan 28, 2012)

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.


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## Aunt Bea (Jan 28, 2012)

Barbara L said:


> 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.




I have also collected other books by and about LIW.  I have two cookbooks one that were some of her recipes at the farm and the other a collection of recipes that follow the foods mentioned in the little house series.  I really think the one that follows the series is wonderful for kids reading the books.  Some of the recipes can help set the scene and perhaps provide a glimpse of what daily life was like.  The books of her columns about being a farm wife and country living still have a great deal of value in today's world.  If you enjoy her you might want to scout out some of the books by and about Tasha Tudor.  TT created her own world and lived an eccentric but beautiful life.


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## Barbara L (Jan 28, 2012)

Aunt Bea said:


> I have also collected other books by and about LIW.  I have two cookbooks one that were some of her recipes at the farm and the other a collection of recipes that follow the foods mentioned in the little house series.  I really think the one that follows the series is wonderful for kids reading the books.  Some of the recipes can help set the scene and perhaps provide a glimpse of what daily life was like.  The books of her columns about being a farm wife and country living still have a great deal of value in today's world.  If you enjoy her you might want to scout out some of the books by and about Tasha Tudor.  TT created her own world and lived an eccentric but beautiful life.


Thanks, I will have to check her out!

I have one of the books of Laura's articles--I can't think of the name offhand, but I love it. I have also read one of her daughter Rose's books and an article or two by her.


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## Claire (Jan 29, 2012)

When we were on the road for a few years, my husband would plot our travels from day-to-day using Rand McNally.  One thing the great atlas had was little marks for points of interest, and for some reason, they featured, among other things, museums and such that had to do with authors.  So we stopped at a few Laura Ingalls Wilder home towns.  Also at a couple of towns where other authors from my youthful days have museums.


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## CWS4322 (Jan 29, 2012)

Winnie-the-Pooh when I was 6. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys after that. And then the I love Flicka books (I think there were three or four of those).


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef (Jan 29, 2012)

PrincessFiona60 said:


> Dick and Jane, Wrinkle in Time, Dr. Seuss, But an actual series...I began reading, The Hobbit, aloud when I was 5, it took me a year. After that I started the 3 books of "The Lord of the Rings." I also started reading the PERN novels by Anne McCaffrey around the same time.


 
You read The Hobbit out loud for a year? What an annoying child you must have been! 

When my son was 5, he used to sit under a tree in our yard and read to the younger children in the neighborhood.

Other than Dick & Jane (see spot run. Run spot, run) I first read an actual series of books in, maybe, 4th grade? I found the books in my school library, and they were about a deep sea (hard hat) diver, but I have no idea of the titles or who wrote them. I tried to find them for my son for years and could never ascertain the titles or author.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Jan 29, 2012)

Sir_Loin_of_Beef said:


> You read The Hobbit out loud for a year? What an annoying child you must have been!



 Actually, it was the book Dad had been reading to us as a bedtime story. When he finished the book, I asked him to start again.  He handed me the book and he got a year off from reading bedtime stories.


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## niquejim (Jan 29, 2012)

Maybe 2nd grade I started reading the Brains Benton books, Brains Benton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , and by middle/high school I was reading Tolkien and have loved sci/fi fantasy ever since


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## no mayonnaise (Jan 29, 2012)

Arthur or The Stupids.  Goosebumps was the first one I liked though


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## Timothy (Jan 29, 2012)

What an awesome bunch of replies to the thread! Thank you everyone!!!!


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