First Book You Can Remember Reading

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...by yourself.

Mine was Lord Rex - The Lion Who Wished, by David McKee (who also did the UK animated series King Rollo). It was grebt but a bit scary due to Lord R wishing himself into a grotesque monster.

A search for the book cover comes up blank but does reveal my dream vehicle:

http://www.ksr.corvallis.or.us/rex/RexFiles/daVinciDays2000/daVinci2000MJ01/006.jpg

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 18 December 2003 01:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I honestly have no idea what the first book I ever read by myself was. It could have been 'If I Ran The Circus' by Dr Seuss. I was too young to remember.

― Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 18 December 2003 01:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, my Dad used to read books to me at bedtime (scifi novels, mostly) until I was about 8 or 9, I think, so I'm not sure how much reading I actually did myself or what was read to me.

― Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 18 December 2003 01:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember Lord Rex cos it's my first actual memory and because it felt like a big deal, choosing my own book and then actually going off myself and reading it. I may well have just looked at the pictures, but the memory of being on my own with the book is the main thing for me.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 18 December 2003 01:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Good question. I think it was 'Treasure Island.' But don't ask me to recall any of it: it's lost. The first one that I read that I really got into and can remember was 'The Hobbit' when I was 13 or 14.

― Berkeley Sackett (calstars), Thursday, 18 December 2003 01:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Not counting picture books, I read a kiddie version of Herakles' labors. I'm still searching for something to match it.

― otto, Thursday, 18 December 2003 01:37 (twenty-two years ago)

My grandmother had a knack for buying us books that deeply disturbed me. Two that I remember having this affect on 7 or 8 year-old me were In The Suicide Mountains by Johm Gardner and The Butterfly Ball. I can't remember who wrote the Butterfly Ball, i still have a copy somewhere. I even have the album somewhere. The illustrations were done by those people who did that elton john cover.All the pictures from that book are forever etched into my brain. i would stare at them for hours. which, i suppose, is more a story of the power of illustration, but still..i've never seen the movie they made of it. i would love to. i think it was just a u.k. thing.
oh, and i just remembered, one of my earliest memories is of reading J.T. which was also a movie. It was about a little black kid who finds a stray cat. The pictures were actually stills from the movie.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 18 December 2003 01:41 (twenty-two years ago)

please can somebody help me out!

there was an enormous park, like a hedge maze, with all sorts of hedge animals and things.

walking around the hedge maze were families of euclidean solids, like spheres and cubes and pyramidi with arms and legs and cartoon faces. they were red and yellow and blue and other cheery colors.

the book had lots of different panorama landscape drawings of euclidean solid families hanging out and working and being in school, etc.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 18 December 2003 02:03 (twenty-two years ago)

The first book that I chose to read was "The Dark Tide" by Dennis L McKiernan. Which started a love for high fantasy that lasts until this day. Even if it was really Tolkein-derivative.

― Xii (Xii), Thursday, 18 December 2003 03:05 (twenty-two years ago)

the hobbit when I was 8. Full length non-kiddie book anyway. Before that, I'm not positive. I had a book called The Ghost on a Saturday Night which I must have read before that (it was only 40 pages or so. I still have it!)

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Thursday, 18 December 2003 03:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sure the first book that I read on my own was some ultra-basic Dick and Jane type thing, but the first thing I can remember reading was the Chronicles of Narnia series. My Mom read the whole thing to us (my brother and I) before we could read, and then once I was able to read, I did the whole series again by myself.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 18 December 2003 03:43 (twenty-two years ago)

The Moomin stories. Tove Jannson was a genius.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Thursday, 18 December 2003 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought "If I Ran the Circus" was by Nas.

― antexit (antexit), Thursday, 18 December 2003 19:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I read other things beforehand, I'm sure, but the first thing I actually remember reading is the wind in the willows.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 18 December 2003 20:37 (twenty-two years ago)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Friday, 19 December 2003 00:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't actually remember the first book that I read "by myself" because I started reading very early. The first book I *remember* reading is probably The Hobbit.

― HRH Queen Kate (kate), Friday, 19 December 2003 10:54 (twenty-two years ago)

The Hobbit.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Saturday, 20 December 2003 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm pretty sure it was the Hardy Boys, probably the first one in the series. I think I read about 40 or 50 of them all told.

― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 21 December 2003 20:15 (twenty-two years ago)

The first novel I read was "National Velvet". I can't recall who wrote it. I looked at it recently,and couldn't believe that I read that at age 7, because the text is quite complex and the font is so tiny. I couldn't really have grasped its full meaning. Other grown-up books that i read as a kid were "Helter Skelter" (age 12?) and "Jaws"-stuff my mother had lying around circa 1977.

― flacajax (Speedy Gonzalas), Monday, 22 December 2003 01:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember kids' books, board books, elementary school stuff like the Hardy Boys and R.L. Stine, the Phantom Toolbooth, but the first book I remember really exciting me was a fantasy book by Jane Yolen called "Dragon's Blood" that I randomly found in the elementary school library.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 22 December 2003 04:45 (twenty-two years ago)

The first "thick" book I ever read without pictures was Watership Down. I can remember it being a little over my head at the time, I think like fourth grade.

― p.j. (Henry), Monday, 22 December 2003 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

It was either THE RATS OF NIHM (lost my copy years ago and still sad about it) or one of the many FAMOUS FIVE books!

― Kristen Manning, Thursday, 23 December 2004 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

The first book I ever borrowed from the library was The Wind in the Willows from the school library. I always hated the tension that accompanied a trip to the library and the fear that if I picked a book that was too long I wouldn't have time to read it before I had to give it back, and if it was too short I would have wasted a trip the library (we had to go to the library by car with my mother, so it was a pretty big deal). I have not really liked libraries since.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 23 December 2004 12:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember reading The Fantastic Mr Fox and Charlotte's Web, soon after I started school.

― Ray (Ray), Thursday, 23 December 2004 12:38 (twenty-one years ago)

hard to say. contenders include one fish two fish red fish blue fish, to think that it happened on mulbery street, the poky little puppy,* and nobody's puppy.**

*on the merits of being punctual. puppy misses out dessert due to tardiness.

** contained the phrase "one dog is enough but two are not too many," which my father would later come to regret.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 23 December 2004 14:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Pinocchio!

― Fred (Fred), Thursday, 23 December 2004 16:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Andy Pandy?

(And Teddy.)

― the bellefox, Thursday, 23 December 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Gosh, I have just realized that I, too, seem to have read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, though I cannot now remember any more about it.

― the bellefox, Thursday, 23 December 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember having read to me and then reading on my own a children's book called Paulus and the Acorn Men. Is there actually such a book? I remember reading some juvenile sci-fi novels from Lester Del Rey and Robert Heinlein (Red Planet?) and of course I read the Narnia books, but that was a tiny bit later.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 23 December 2004 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't really remember the early ones, as I was reading from very young - I'm told I could read anything put in front of me at the age of 2. The first I remember was just after I turned seven, when I started at a new school. End of the first week, they encouraged us all to borrow something from the school library - one bookcase. I found most of it unappealing, but liked the look of one called 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne - it sounded exciting. I grabbed it and took it to the desk.
"You can't have that one."
Why not?
"It's from the top shelf."
That's okay, I could reach (only just - I was the youngest and smallest boy in the school)
"No, the top shelf is for fourth years. You're a first year. You won't be able to read that."
Of course I will. (I hadn't grasped that not everyone had my reading skills.)
"No you won't. Take something from the bottom shelf instead."

That was all the kind of thing I'd been reading a couple of years before, so no chance. They made me read out the first couple of pages and answer questions on some of the words before they would let me take it with me. That's why this one stuck in my mind.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 25 December 2004 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Milk and Cookies by Frank Asch, age two.

― sparkle j (sparkle j), Monday, 27 December 2004 05:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure, maybe The Call of the Wild...but i remember the first longish thing I ever read, and it was a very short story about ombrellas walking around in the rain and getting to know each other. I remember the almost physical pleasure it gave me to be able to read, I must have been 6 or 7.

― misshajim (strand), Monday, 27 December 2004 10:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't remember anything but Dr. Seuss and Richard Scarry books from when I was really young.

It's interesting to see how many of us remember reading 'The Hobbit'. When I was seven and some fraction and was living in a small town called Wawona at the southern border of Yosemite National Park, my father and I set off on a three day hike from the high country back down to our house. Our first night we spent at this ski lodge

http://www.badrascal.com/Yosemite%20December%202001/Ostrander/images/ostrander%20hut_JPG.jpg

albeit in early summer and my father gave me 'The Hobbit' to read by the light of the Coleman lanterns. The next night, we camped in the middle of nowhere in the backcountry and after dinner, my father took one of the cans that had contained part of our dinner and, by melting its base, anchored a candle in it, creating a makeshift candlestick. He said I could read until the candle was burned out. So, there I was surrounded by the soft soughing of the wind through the trees, with the faintly perceptible outlines of the Sierran peaks visible in the moonlight, passionately reading away and looking up occasionally to see how much candle I had left. That candle with that book in that place was one of the best gifts I ever got.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 27 December 2004 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

You tell your tale well.

When I was seven, I was too young to read The Hobbit.

I like Richard Scarry.

― the bellefox, Monday, 27 December 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I am still enthralled by Scarry.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 27 December 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

By which elements?

And which are your favourite volumes?

I recall a Big Rainy Day Colouring Book, I think. Also What Do People Do All Day?

― the bellefox, Monday, 27 December 2004 20:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the artwork. As a child we had Richard Scarry's Best World Book Ever which made me very interested in the larger world.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 27 December 2004 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I still have dreams about the picture books I read when I was very little. I remember Dr. Seuss as creepy and riveting... I must have read "On Beyond Zebra," with all its sickening imaginary animals, 50 times. When I think about it, all my favorite picture books were the ones that made my skin crawl. I loved the Phantom Toll Booth so much that when somebody mentioned it on a thread about y/a books a few months ago (since its illustrations are so creepy it still counts as a Creepy Picture Book) I had to buy a copy. Still creepy!

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 00:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Gosh, yes, Ann, I had forgotten that last title. What a queer book for a child's mind.

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 28 December 2004 10:14 (twenty-one years ago)

a slim volume called "Splash" author unknown, starring Dick & Jane.
read to me (preschool): Sammy the Seal by Sid Hoft

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

First book I remember was "Tricylce Tim" - about a kid on his tricycle trying to find Mr A Somebody of 100 Something Street, Nowhere after seeing his name and address on a sample envelope in the post office. I think he ends up finding a playgroup with lots of other kids on tricylces.
I assume his parents are still looking for him to this day...

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 30 December 2004 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

While I'm sure it wasn't the first (I was reading at age 2 like Martin), one of the first I have strong memories of reading was Harriet The Spy. I have no idea how old I was when I read it. It was the first book I read that was separated into "books" and so I decided to restore it to its proper condition, and tore the book into separate books. (Well, into two -- the third book is so short I think I realized at that point that a "book" was just a megachapter.)

I still have that copy of the book, in two parts, though it's missing the cover.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 31 December 2004 05:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I read a lot of Richard Scarry.

Books I remember taking out of the library in 1st grade: Pippi Longstocking and The Lonely Doll.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Friday, 31 December 2004 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

twelve years pass...

The first book I know with certainty that I read was the Dick and Jane Reader used the beginning reader in my first grade classroom. I was 5 years old and before attending first grade I did not read independently, but was only read to. Soon I was a voracious reader of such gripping tales as One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Go, Dog, Go!, and I, Mouse.

― A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, 15 November 2017 20:08 (eight years ago)

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