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What sort of stuff did you read as a kid?
(I think I did this one a couple of years ago, but participant turnover has been enough so it's not that much of a repeat.)
Like many on this board I was an early reader - started simple words when I was two, reading childrens books by three, and was reading "adult" books by the time I was 6-7 (A Night to Remember was big in the first grade, The Seven Science Fiction Novels of HG Wells' was a fave in the second grade, as was Jaws (but only the shark attack scenes - you think I cared a whit about Chief Brody's relationship with his wife?
)). Though I liked the Wells, I preferred the movies better and, for some reason, dropped the entire genre of science fiction from my "to read" list.
In the second and third grades I went through a HUGE disaster obsession, reading anything and everything I could about the Morro Castle, the Coconut Grove fire in 1946, train wrecks and plane crashes. I then went through a bizarre phase for a year or so where I read all the Black Beauty books and everything that I could find by Beverly Cleary and (
) Judy Blume. Luckily I reverted back to form by the fifth grade when I read The Exorcist and became obsessed with all things paranormal and extra-sensory and whatever - Van Daniken, Bridie Murphy, Ouija board expose's, and UFO sightings were personal favorites during that period. But after about 15-20 books, and not ONE CLEAR PHOTOGRAPH, I began to realize that it was 99.999% bunk.
I also loved a lot of non-fiction books, especially such tasty junk as The Book of Lists, and The Peoples Almanac. (All of which still retain a proud space on my bookshelf.
)
My experience with Wells pretty much left a bad (read: boring) taste in my mouth for science fiction novels, one that I didn't get over for at least 7 years. The above-mentioned paranormal stage led me to Stephen King's (he was the HOT NEW THING back then) earlier work - Salem's Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, etc. King was actually instrumental in me getting back into science fiction, as I tried to read Strokers Dracula, found it as boring as Wells, then had the
light go off in my head. After realizing that Wells' brand of science fiction was probably better (more exciting) in its day (I knew that Wells was a "Victorian age" writer, but I didn't really understand what the hell that meant until I was 11 or so - it meant that he wrote books that my great-grandmother could've read), I was going to give science fiction another chance. I then picked up Dune and never looked back.
Like many on this board I was an early reader - started simple words when I was two, reading childrens books by three, and was reading "adult" books by the time I was 6-7 (A Night to Remember was big in the first grade, The Seven Science Fiction Novels of HG Wells' was a fave in the second grade, as was Jaws (but only the shark attack scenes - you think I cared a whit about Chief Brody's relationship with his wife?
)). Though I liked the Wells, I preferred the movies better and, for some reason, dropped the entire genre of science fiction from my "to read" list.In the second and third grades I went through a HUGE disaster obsession, reading anything and everything I could about the Morro Castle, the Coconut Grove fire in 1946, train wrecks and plane crashes. I then went through a bizarre phase for a year or so where I read all the Black Beauty books and everything that I could find by Beverly Cleary and (
) Judy Blume. Luckily I reverted back to form by the fifth grade when I read The Exorcist and became obsessed with all things paranormal and extra-sensory and whatever - Van Daniken, Bridie Murphy, Ouija board expose's, and UFO sightings were personal favorites during that period. But after about 15-20 books, and not ONE CLEAR PHOTOGRAPH, I began to realize that it was 99.999% bunk.I also loved a lot of non-fiction books, especially such tasty junk as The Book of Lists, and The Peoples Almanac. (All of which still retain a proud space on my bookshelf.
)My experience with Wells pretty much left a bad (read: boring) taste in my mouth for science fiction novels, one that I didn't get over for at least 7 years. The above-mentioned paranormal stage led me to Stephen King's (he was the HOT NEW THING back then) earlier work - Salem's Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, etc. King was actually instrumental in me getting back into science fiction, as I tried to read Strokers Dracula, found it as boring as Wells, then had the
light go off in my head. After realizing that Wells' brand of science fiction was probably better (more exciting) in its day (I knew that Wells was a "Victorian age" writer, but I didn't really understand what the hell that meant until I was 11 or so - it meant that he wrote books that my great-grandmother could've read), I was going to give science fiction another chance. I then picked up Dune and never looked back.
). Enjoyed both historical stories and scientific history books as a kid. Never read much comics, never read fantasy before LOTR (and I wasn´t a kid anymore when I read it).
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