h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I once attempted, taking my resolve from a Peanuts cartoon strip, to read War and Peace at the l;eisurely pace of one word a day. I was doing fine for about three days until I accidently read an entire clause and haven't been back to it since.

We simulposted. Go back one.
With regard to 'War and Peace', I have tackled it in my reckless youth and I found it irritating. I had trouble figuring the damn names out. I don't think you missed anything.

The Hobbit. I know I read books before that, but I don't really remember it very well. I was probably about 5, and my dad was sick of reading it to me over and over again, so he said he'd read it only on the condition that I read every other paragraph. When we finished, we started again, me reading each paragraph I hadn't read the last time.

-Strider

That's cool...

peace.

That's absolutely remarkable.
And clever of your dad, too.

Thanks. It was clever. It opened up the whole world of reading to me: after reading the hobbit, I felt I could read anything.

So did you read anything?

peace.

I did. It was a pretty good book, too. I highly recomend it.

And you, pacem theorum? What was your earliest book?

My earliest book that I can remember? I think it was a collection of short stories. One of them being about this creature living in the clouds and eating the snow. Written by the same guy who wrote about that depressed blue tapir. But it might be the reason why I remember it is I reread it a few years after because I found it again, and could remember it. But I do remember reading Michael Ende's The Magic Potion because I really loved that book. I was with the school on some trip, maybe when I was 7 or 8. And I read it all during that time. Maybe I should try reading it a second time.

But I also remember looking in more picture like books. Like my dads books about comparisons. They wrote about sloths and bluewhales and how big the Empire State Building was compared to a giraffe and all. And then this pirate book we still have out in the shelves.

I am sadly not one of those that taught themselves to read at age 2 and then read Dostojevskij.

the hungry caterpillar

good book!

I don't remember a time when I wasn't reading (used to get me into a lot of trouble - my mother would go looking for me and I'd be hidden somewhere in the house reading a book not at all appropriate for a five year old!), but the first book I remember reading and having an opinion about was "The Old Man and the Sea". I read it when I was 6, and clearly remember telling my mother that the plot was dreadful and that I didn't like the style of writing!!

Strange, I re-read it again recently and thought the same thing!

(I read the Hungry Catepillar a lot too!! And the first books I remember being read to me were "winnie the Pooh" and "The Tiger who Came to Tea")

Violagirl

I can remember the Ladybird books (1a, b, c, etc.), but as far as I can recall the boy and girl were Peter and Susan. Janet and John were in other books, which we had at school, but not at home. 'Janet and John' was the first book in the series, followed by 'Tip and Mitten', which was about their dog and cat. I'm going back a long way here, to when I was about 5 years old. I can remember having other 'learn to read' books, but can't remember what they were called. One of them had 'Book One' on the front, and I remember wondering why 'One' is pronounced the way it is when it doesn't start with 'W'. I was about 4 or 5 at the time.

I also remember 'Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Poetry' and 'Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Fairy Tales', two hard-backed books, beautifully illustrated. I loved those books so much that I still have them!

I think the first 'novel' I ever read was 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe' by C. S. Lewis. I was fool enough to get rid of my collection of The Chronicles of Narnia when I hit my early 20s. Richard bought me a new set some years ago, bless him! I also remember reading 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'What Katy Did'.

As for War and Peace, I've read it about 5 times, cover to cover, and my copy is more than a little battered. It does get hard going when Tolstoy gets philosophical, but other than that I have no problems. You may find it easier if you stop thinking of it as a classic or 'great work of literature'. Think of it as a 19th century 'soap' - it's just a very long story about a small group of families and how they interact, which sounds like a 'soap' to me!

I remember loving War and Peace, but I gave up on Anna Karennina half way through. I just wasn't interested enough in her to read the rest of the book. Same with Madame Bovary, which just struck me as a very male wet dream. Neither of them tapped into womens' sexuality at all, so far as I could see. Loved Therese Racine though. I had a paperback copy published in the 50s with one of those film-poster style bodice-ripping covers. A little less respectable than the Penguin Classics version.

I read War and Peace while I was temping in the late 80s, and I had an assignment sitting in a show home and smiling at the people who came in. It was 1988 and the only people who came in were from the builders or the estate agency. One of the Estate Agents commented that it was my chance to read War and Peace, and was astonished when I showed him that I was!

Still have my copies of the Narnia books, and as soon as they are out of boxes and in the same building I am going to re-read them.

I am a compulsive reader even now, and last night I read the label on a bottle of Diet Coke. Highly entertaining stuff too: 'Nutritional Information' which struck me as being an oxymoron given the context, and 'This is only to be used as a beverage' which sent my mind racing. Still worried about that one...

First book I remember reading? Janet and John and the Ladybird Lord's Prayer. First book I read for pleasure? Probably 'Prince Caspian'. First books read to me? Peter Rabbit and Pooh.

Ben

First book? One of those Spot the Dog thingies at primary school.
What I do remember is reading all the set books as fast as I could so I could get onto the 'choose your own' ones and read the collection of kiddies King Arthur books. I remember the day I finished the last set book and went up to my teacher, a Mr Oliver, and told him I had finished it. He told me I could go onto the other books now, but would first have to re-read all the set books! My face must have looked a picture as he then hurridly told me he didn't mean it! I was 1st person in the class to finish the set books and dead chuffed with myself! Anyone else like that?

As for Tolkien I remember my mum reading the Lord of the Rings to me and my sisters when I was, ooh, must have been between 4 and 6. Loved every minute of it and the only problem now is that when I read them they don't live up to the magical memory of my mum reading them.

Other than that, it was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and some series of books about a Ships Captain or summats that I remember being quite dark and moody but loved nonetheless.

Yes, I was like that. I was the fastest reader in the class, and a lot of the other kids didn't believe I could read that fast. They'd say, 'OK, what's it about then?', as if they expected me to be able to quote the book I'd just read word for word. Not that they could do that, even though they read a lot slower.

I've remembered a few other books from my childhood. Mum used to buy us the 'Ladybird Well-loved Fairy Tales' when we were very small. I remember 'Jack and the Beanstalk' from when I was about 4 years old - the giant on the front cover was hideous! I also remember Cinderella, Snow-White and Rose-Red, and The Three Billy-Goats Gruff. All were very nicely illustrated, not like the cartoon-style pictures you often see in children's books nowadays.

As for Tolkien, I was about 10 when I discovered 'The Hobbit' and didn't read Lord of the Rings until my late teens or early 20s.

I can see the bindings and some of the titles of the books that were at a seven-year-old's eye level on my father's bookcase....
I can't read the titles, but I can see the word lengths and the font..
We had a close and play mattel record player and some record books like Disney cwap and Jolly Green Giant give aways and matching the words on the records with the words in the book...

Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss!!!!
(still my favorite!)

I read that maybe at 5 or 6. When I was 6 i remember I broke my ankle and couldn't do anything so I read Charlottes Web about 37 times. I loved that book. The last one I read was The Aeneid by Virgil for English class. Didn't much care for it.
trillianete

I can't remember the first book I actually read but I remember being word perfect on Roald Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach" when I was about three. I couldn't actually read it but I had the tape and so was able to impress visitors with my highly advanced reading skills!