What book got you hooked?
By Marjorie Kehe | 08.21.08
Do you remember your first love – literary, that is?
Many people do, and if you’d like to see what book it was that turned celebrities as diverse as Emma Thompson, Chipper Jones, and Art Spiegelman into readers, take a look at the First Book website. You’ll discover that Spiegelman and Joyce Carole Oates both claim Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” as that first great book, while Stephen Colbert votes for “Swiss Family Robinson” by Johann David Wyss.
The site is actually cause-oriented and you can choose to make a donation to help send books to kids and you can also vote as to which state should receive a shipment of 50,000 free books for children.
I haven’t voted yet but when I do it will be for “The Wolves of Willoughby Chase” by Joan Aiken. Admittedly it’s a less highbrow choice than J.D. Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey” (Ira Glass’s first great love) but it’s a splendid literary romp nonetheless and in all my years of reading since I have yet to come across villains with better names than Letitia Slighcarp and Mrs. Brisket.
(And if you’re still wondering about Emma Thompson and Chipper Jones, it was “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and the Hardy Boys – I leave you to guess which was which.)
Comments
2. Marcus | 08.21.08
Oh, come now. If you don’t get hooked on reading until you’re old enough to understand “Frannie and Zooey” or “Catcher In The Rye”, you’re not much of a reader.
For me, it was a book, title long forgotten, about a leprechaun and his pot of gold. Age, about 4.
I do understand Swiss Family Robinson and Alice though.
3. Pat Padden, Franklin, NJ | 08.21.08
I remember being very taken by a young lady named Eloise who lived at the Plaza Hotel. I once nearly drowned in the river behind our house attempting to secure a Skipperdee of my own.
4. Ronny, Norway | 08.22.08
My first real and strong literary experience was with the Norwegian translation of the Swedish book “The brothers lionheart” (brødrene løvehjerte) by Astrid Lindgren. I dont remember how old I was, but I remember that in 3rd grade (9 years old or so), I volunteered to read it out loud during lunch at our after school program, so my own reading of it must have been before that. I remember thinking of it as real tome, but it was ‘only’ some 200+ pages, and every one of them full of imagination and wonder.
5. Carolyn | 08.22.08
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was like Shackleton and the Endurance for tweenage girls! Imagine my delight when I discovered there were eight more books in the series.
6. Aimelire | 09.02.08
I’ve been reading voraciously since I was four years old. Then it was The Snowy Day by Ezra Zack Keats, anything Richard Scarry, Dr. Suess and Make Way for Ducklings–a book about my hometown of Boston. I still get a charge out of those books. I moved on the the Nancy Drew Series, Laura Ingalls Wilder series and Louisa May Alcott. As a young adult, I still loved books but wasn’t getting excited about them the way I had when I was younger. But, then I bought the Harry Potter series for my child and the reading fire was lit all over again. I hadn’t found a book that magically transported me to a completely diferently place like that since I had read “Little Women.”
8. BLAIR PITTMAN | 09.08.08
At age 8, HARDY BOYS. Age 14, Robert Service. I was encouraged by a high school English teacher let me memorize 1,000 words from CREAMATION OF SAM MCGEE.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. Anthony Brown | 08.21.08
My first love of books began as a high school freshman; I had read “Catcher In The Rye” by J.D. Salinger. It was an invaluable experience and had caused me to read the great books.