The Sword and Laser discussion

Spending a few moments browsing some threads, and I became curious of what made people fall in love with reading. I'm willing to bet most of us can remember the first novel or book you read by yourself that made an impact on your life.

I'm 30 and I still remember walking into a bookstore in 4th grade, looking for a book to read on a trip.
That's when I saw this book on the shelf calling out to me:
Riverwind the Plainsman

I've been a Sword and Laser person ever since. I'm willing to bet everyone here loved books since they were little, but that first novel probably has a special place. So what was yours?

Depends on what you'd call a 'real novel'.

My first book that I remember reading on my own, without being forced to for class, was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 3rd grade.

Been reading ever since.

I was thinking about clarifying the question, sorry for the confusion. I'll edit the question for simplicity.

I don't remember the first book I read. I'm thinking it was something from Judy Blume (Superfudge or Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great) or Beverly Cleary (Ramona Quimby books). The first fantasy books I read where in 2nd grade or so, when I read the Chronicles of Narnia books and A Wrinkle in Time.

But I think I've probably loved reading for as long as I can remember. I have memories of my folks reading big illustrated versions of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland with us, before my siblings or I could read.

I read Alice and Wonderland in first or second grade but struggled with some of the words. The first book I read and loved was Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. My first memory of books though was at about 3 or 4 years old, throwing a fit in the library because I wanted a thick book like my sister had.

The Little House on the Prairie books got me going. Then Nancy Drew... the Hardy Boys... Judy Blume... Good stuff!

Little House on the Prairie whilst in primary school started me really reading random stuff, but David Eddings' Belgariad series had me HOOKED on fantasy and gradually more sword and lasery stuff. I still remember walking into the bookstore, randomly grabbing the book, immediately loving the synopsis on the back and spending all my savings on it. Never looked back since!

I remember blazing through The Bourne Identity and The Stars My Destination, but when I got to The Stand, I crashed and burned in the middle.

Oh yeah, I thought this story about driving in a parking deck was really cool: The adventures of Charlie Bates

Not really sure about the order, but this is my best guess - these were all very, very early reads for me. I think probably read these all in perhaps the same year, likely when I was 11 or 12 years old.

Tom Sawyer
Treasure Island
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Island of Dr. Moreau

"The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien. I was obsessed with that novel and it still is quite special for me.

I honestly don't remember what my first novel was, or even what got me hooked on reading. It feels like I've been obsessed with reading as long as I can remember.

What I do remember is my first book from the adult section at the library. I'd been getting bored with the children's books and I already really liked sci-fi and fantasy, so one of the librarians took me over to the adult sci-fi/fantasy section and found me a short little book (more along the lines of a novella) by Anne McCaffrey called The Coelura. I don't even remember how old I was at the time - elementary school for sure, I think before 4th grade - but I remember that it was that book.

Back in first grade, I was still reading storybooks until my father decided I was too old for them. One weekend he took me to the library and picked out a bunch of Hardy Boys books to read.

The next year, our neighbor went to a yardsale and found a bunch of Star Trek books. Knowing how much I loved the TV show, she bought a box full and gave it to me. I remember being excited because they all said "A Star Trek Novel" on the cover, which to me meant that these were real books.

Then in fourth grade there was a book-fair at school. My father looked at the selection and refused to buy me anything other than The Hobbit because he felt the books were beneath my reading level. When I finished The Hobbit, he took me to the bookstore and bought the complete Lord of the Rings boxed set. After that he started giving me adult novels to read, and if he saw me reading a kids' book, he'd get disappointed. I remember in fifth grade doing a book report on Red Storm Rising while the other kids were struggling with The Westing Game and A Wrinkle in Time. By the next year I was on to Robert Ludlum, Michael Crichton, and Stephen King. After that, my father let me pick out whatever I wanted without question -- I probably could've read Sons and Lovers or The 120 Days of Sodom and he wouldn't've cared -- and I started branching into science fiction.

My first one I read was Dune. I had never read a science fiction novel cover to cover until then. That's what Coles Notes was for :)

It was "The Castle of Adventure" by Enid Blyton. I was eight.

Oh, I also remember thinking that Jack in the Box (retitled Book of Love for the movie) was hilarious.

The first novel I ever read was On a Pale Horse. I was about 13 or 14, and going through a bit of a pseudo-goth phase; listening to a lot of Meatloaf from my parents music collection and the like, and the cover of the this book grabbed my attention so I picked it up.

The first "adult" novel I tackled for my own pleasure was Jedi Search.

I don't remember my transition to novels very well, but I know The Mouse and The Motorcycle was one of the first, by Beverly Cleary. Like Kristin, I read all those Cleary and Blume books! I used to love the Choose Your Own Adventure books of old when I was a young boy as well.

My first "sword" novel was The Sword of Shannara (which I don't remember at all) in 7th grade and my first "laser" was Foundation in 8th grade which is one of my favorites to this day.

I have been reading full length books for as long as I can remember. As a few people mentioned above I started out with the Hardy Boys, Boxcar Children, Narnia, with a lot of the Ramona books thrown in. My first fantasy book was Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings, my dad got me hooked on them and I have been reading fantasy novels ever since.

The Hobbit was my first novel... (the Pokey Little Puppy was my first book). I followed that with CS Lewis and the Narnia books, and have enjoyed fantasy/SciFi ever since.

I think I was 8 or 9 when I read Shadow Castle: Expanded Edition and fell head over heals in love with fantasy. I don't think anything I've ever read has had a bigger impact on me.

"Go Dogs Go" By P.D. Eastman :)

Actually the first book I read that really sucked me in was Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs of "Tarzan" fame. I believe I was in 6th grade at the time.

I feel kind of sad that I can't remember my first novel. I do remember my first "by myself" read- the feeling of "oh my dog I am never going to get the hang of this" in my stomach when my mother said "you can read that yourself, I'm busy right now" I must have been about 2 because the memory is visual, and I was way shorter than the kitchen benchtop. I guess I did get the hang of it.

Ramona, Nancy Drew... 'A wrinkle in Time" was very special to me. I read LOTR when I was about 8 and every year since- and until 2002 I don;t think I knew *anyone* else who had read those books. That was so lonely!!

Taueret wrote: "I feel kind of sad that I can't remember my first novel. I do remember my first "by myself" read- the feeling of "oh my dog I am never going to get the hang of this" in my stomach when my mother s..."

I never had that issue. My parent bought me lots of read-along books -- little storybooks with audiotapes -- which I'd listen to over and over until I had the whole thing memorized. I remember having a variety of Disney-based fairy tales, Star Trek The Motionless Picture, and The Last Star Fighter.

If, by novel, you mean book with chapters then it was definitely the Mega Man 2 novel that I bought in first grade for obvious reasons. I remember I bought that one and some Bearenstein Bears books from the Scholastic Book mailer thing we did at school. I got it and when I realized it wasn't a picture book I freaked out. You have to understand, at this point not only was I barely learning to read, I was just getting a grasp of the English language. It would be a few months later once summer came along and I had some free time that I would pick it up again and spend a whole day reading it. I was so proud of myself that I had gotten through this seemingly insurmountable task. I just realized that I never told my parents about it that day. But the next year at school I was suddenly a kid who read a lot.

I really do not know what my first novel would have been but at age 18 or so I picked up the first Discworld novels, Good Omens and The Caves of Steel

These are the books that got me into reading for real

A Spell for Chameleon is the very first novel that I remember reading. There may have been others, but this is the one that hooked me :)

I don't remember the first book I read, probably something by Agatha Christie or in Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series. But I can tell you the first book I remember: A hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I read it when I was 12, finished it and reread again immediately. I remember thinking that reading books like that was all I wanted to do, ever.

I'm pretty sure I started with the Hardy Boys - but my first "real" novel was Book 1 of the Wagons West series, Independence. I went on to read all of the other books in the series. The Stand was also my other gateway read into a life long love of books.

Regards, Jim

The first on I can remember was Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in the third grade. I had read other children books, or shortened versions of 'novels' prior to that, as I had enjoyed going to the used book fair at the school and seeing what they offered. However, the first true novel I remember clearly checking it out of the school library and reading it within a week. Of course, I can't remember much about it now, as I have not read it since.

Either The Hobbit or The Complete Sherlock Holmes

dune, by frank herbert. I was nine. I have read it many more times since then. (at least it was the first book i wanted to read without having a teacher tell me to do it.)

Christian wrote: "The first on I can remember was Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in the third grade. I had read other children books, or shortened versions of 'novels' prior to that, as I had enjoyed going t..."

Hey me too! I was in the 4th grade and we had a monthly newsletter that some publisher was putting out that allowed you to purchase books at discounts. I saw a picture of the cover and had to have it. Have read it since and it just keeps getting better due to the whole 'steampunk' feel to it now. Great memories of reading this in the fort I had built in the backyard. Verne lead to HG Wells, to Doc Smith, Heinlein and I was hooked for life.....

I do remember the 4th grade class reading "The Hobbit" but for some reason I just thought it was stupid and could not get into it. Took a few more years before I figured out that Tolkien was not just writing girlie fairy tales.

It was The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet in the 6th grade.

The first novel I remember reading, in the second grade, was Dracula. The next that I have distinct memories of reading were The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Rifles for Watie. I remember reading some Judy Blume and Beverly Clearynovels at some point as well as How to Eat Fried Worms, but I can't remember whether I read them before or after those first four, or at the same time. I might have read The Mouse and The Motorcycle first, or one of its sequels.

I believe it was The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again, in serialized form in Children's Digest when I was 7 or so. Man, I couldn't wait for that to come every month.

It was either Treasure Island or Tom Sawyer.
Then I started devouring Hardy Boys books. Loved those, and liked the little hardcover format.

After high school I was disenchanted with reading after being forced to read depressing, boring novels like Steinback's The Pearl, for example.

I didn't read for a few years after that until an old girlfriend's sister implored me to read King's The Stand. That got me to love reading again.

I don't remember but I do remember my first fantasy book. In 1990 ( I was 14) for Christmas my mom bought me "The Ruby Knight" by David Eddings on a whim. I immediately became obsessed with fantasy. I pretty much didn't read anything but fantasy through jr-high and high school after that.

I don't remember my age but If I were to guess< I would have to say I was around 8. My first book/series was The Wonderful Wizard of Ozfollowed by the rest of the series by L. Frank Baum. I am currently returning to these original books through my five year old daughter I read to every night :)

My first novel that I read, just for readings sake and the book that got me hooked on reading and SciFi Fantasy in particular was Dragon Sword by Gael Baudino it was a second hand book, we were camping as a family, my mum gave it to me so that I would stop pestering them, they never saw me again, a read the whole book that week long trip. I still have that book, I also now have the sequels

I can't remember the title anymore, but it was about a boy who lived on the moon with his pet robot.

My first fantasy novel was "Kothar and the Wizard-Slayer," which I still own and re-read for pure nostalgia every once in a while.

I don't remember the name or author, and it may not be the first novel, but it is the earliest one I remember.

All I remember is, it was about a trip to Mars. There were canals and martians. It was illustrated with line art. I think the characters wrote their own chapters in first person. There was a girl on the trip, probably a high school girl, who liked theater, so she wrote her chapter as a play script -- I thought that was the coolest thing!

This was probably around 1959-1960. It was a library book. I would love to figure out what book that was and find a copy.

It was either a Hardy Boys book, Tom Sawyer, or Watership Down. It also may have been The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

My first novel was probably The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Followed very shortly by The Hobbit.

I've been reading novels for most of my life, so I'm among those who don't remember.

The first book I ever read was Where the Red Fern Grows. I actually remember that I finished the book on a rainy night and cried when the dog died. I was about 7 or 8.

I've enjoyed reading since my first grade teacher started sending home extra books for me to read outside of class,The first ones I can remember reading on my own are The Cricket in Times Square and Ralph S. Mouse. But at about age 9, Where the Red Fern Grows was the first to really impact me. Nearly 30 years later, I can still remember much of the plot and many of the details. I credit this book with instilling in me a true love of story telling. I followed that withBridge to Terabithia and a year or two later, The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again and I've never looked back.

I had to read books in school, but school reading caused me to dislike reading.

The first book I really read after school was The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore. That was the book that began my love of reading.

In second grade I was given a box set of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I loved The Hobbit and enjoyed The Fellowship of the Ring, but it was probably another six or seven years before I was able to finish The Two Towers for some reason.

my memory is of The Hobbit being the first, but that's probably influenced by having been read it at school and having heard it on the wonderful old BBC TV programme Jackanory (which was basically someone sat reading to the audience. bring it back!!!) I probably read it for myself at about eight or nine, but by then had almost certainly read Roald Dahl - i especially remember Danny the Champion of the World - and Norman Hunter's Professor Branestawm books.

i remember getting the Lord of the Rings trilogy for my tenth birthday (i still have them), and taking three months to read Fellowship. We went on our summer holiday just after I finished, so i thought it only worth taking the Two Towers with me for the fortnight, and i finished it the second day there :D