What was the first book you discovered that made you think reading wasn't a complete waste of time?

Question

Scott Anderson, lead singer, Finger Eleven
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Answer 1

"Watership Down" by Richard Adams.
When I was a 10 yr old in 1977 attending Linden Lanes Elementary in Brandon,Manitoba this book basically invited me to cross borders and not to respect thier limitations.
Since reading that book,I've never looked at issues from just one perpective again.

Answer 2

I've ALWAYS loved books... in fact I have so many at university I don't have enough shelf space so they're stacked everywhere I have room...and it's the same situation at home, I used up a very large bookcase, a shelf unit next to my bed, and there are books still stacked everywhere around my room at home. Reading to me is something that some people are naturally inclined to do; I've always read books; I can't go to a second hand store without buying a few books, etc. My sister on the other hand was the opposite; if it's not a movie, why bother? Reading had such an effect on me to the point that I'm studying to be a History/ English teacher.
But if I had to pin it down to the books that influenced my love of reading the most when I was younger, I'd have to say Charlotte's Web by E.B. White when I was in first grade and then in 4th grade it was a tie between Peter Benchley's Jaws and Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne. Even today, I read Jaws and Dolores Claiborne at least once each summer with whatever else I find; it's become a tradition of sorts.

Answer 3

When I had just started grade 2, "Mr. Smiley Goes To Town" wasn't doing it for me anymore. Like most kids I had read a majority of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novels by then, and decided I'd move to something way more challenging.

I picked up a book called 'Raptor Red' by paleontologist Robert T. Bakker when I was in grade 3 after Jurassic Park got a whole generation into dinosaurs. The book followed the life and death of a velociraptor in a documentary style, and was simply amazing! It opened my eyes to what you can do with the written word, and showed me that there was more to novels than just mystery stories or characterizations. You could recreate and breathe life back into the dead, tell history from a fictional perspective, even personify a predatory dinosaur you get to follow around throughout an entire novel! It helped spark my imagination and made me a reading addict and avid book collector.

Ever since I've been an avid reader, and I always have a copy of something fresh to read close by! I'm a great fan of historical fiction (such as novels by Jack Whyte, or Hemmingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls) and the newer emerging style of writing embodied by authors like Coupland and Palahniuk.

Answer 4

I've always read, while growing up, my mother always let me read before I went to bed. I always loved the books that I was reading, so I don't honestly remember the first book that made me think that reading was a waste of time. I always pick books that I think are interesting. I love Stephen King. I think is books are amazing. I love the Stand. While I was babysitting (years ago) they had the book & I started reading it. I'm very glad that I finished it & I started reading his other books. Another book that I think is the best is "The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough." I been watching the DVD's about this book, & they are also awsome. I do believe that reading is an important thing to do.

Answer 5

I picked up a book called 'Raptor Red' by paleontologist Robert T. Bakker when I was in grade 3 after Jurassic Park got a whole generation into dinosaurs. The book followed the life and death of a velociraptor in a documentary style, and was simply amazing! It opened my eyes to what you can do with the written word, and showed me that there was more to novels than just mystery stories or characterizations. You could recreate and breathe life back into the dead, tell history from a fictional perspective, even personify a predatory dinosaur you get to follow around throughout an entire novel! It helped spark my imagination and made me a reading addict and avid book collector.

Answer 6

I honestly can't remember learning to read or even starting to read. It's just been one of those things that I seem to have always been doing. Trying to think back to the first book I read that really sticks out in my mind, I have to say that it was, like many other people, 'A Wrinkle in Time' by Madeline L'Engle. I was in grade two, and it was a birthday gift from my uncle. My teacher saw me reading it in class one day and borrowed it from me. To a seven-year-old, it was a big deal to be the only kid in the class reading a book that the teacher wanted to borrow.

If it comes down to the books that I spent the most time reading, it's a toss-up. I loved (and still love) encyclopaedias. It's so easy to just get lost in them! There's so much there, from science to the arts and everything in between. I think the uncountable hours spent reading encyclopaedias probably contributed to the fact that I can never quite decide what I'm interested in. Right now, I'm a fourth-year university student doing a double major in biology and history, but who sincerely wishes that her degree was flexible enough to allow me to take more English classes, and religious studies classes, and geography, and...

Answer 7

I'd have to say 'The Last Battle', by C.S. Lewis.

As a child, I never read much, and when I did, I read book series backwards, an odd habit of mine. So, 'The Last Battle' was the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia I'd ever read. My mum, a devoted Christian, practicly begged me to crack open a bible-- Or a Narnia book.

Of course, I chose the latter, and a little while later, my grandfather got sick, really sick. My mum brought me to the hospital, and I sat there, for an hour or so, reading 'The Last Battle' aloud to him.

When he got better, every sunday, we would read from the Chronicles of Narnia, and her never objected to the backwards series, just listened. That was what made me realize that reading wasn't a dull, boring thing stiff adults told children to do to make them miserable, it was a fun activty, one where you could escape the world, if only till the covers shut.

Answer 8

First book? Wow that's a hard one. I don't think there was a specific book... more a specific teacher.
I had a grade 5 teacher way back when that would read to the class every day. She had us do oral reports on anything we wanted to once a wekk, on one condition: it had to have something to do with a book, even if it was just a research book.

She taught me that reading is an escape from the everyday lives that we lead. We can go anywhere, do anything, BE anyone we want. We learned about magical worlds in The hobbit, Far away places in The Isis Game and amazing people in Sherlock Holmes.

To this day I still constantly have a book on the go, although my tastes have matured to include Shakespeare and Terry Pratchett, although I'll always remember Mrs. Lillie showing us that books are the greatest resource we'll ever have to keep our imaginations flourishing.

Answer 9

I've been reading since I learned to read haha, but the first novel I ever read from begining to end was the first Goosebumps book, then I began collecting the whole series...I read several books that I enjoyed in school. Hatchet, The Outsiders, 1984, and Lord of the Flies, just to name a few that stick out in my mind. Great question by the way! I am currently reading The Delusion of God.

Answer 10

That would be John Grisham's A Time to Kill. I was going away for the weekend,my girlfriend and another couple,anyways the book was in the back of this couples car.It was a long drive so I said what the hell,picked it up,started to read and couldn't put it down.It was the first book since jr high that i can say i read from cover to cover.Since then I've boughten alot of books and all of John Grisham's.It's my "one thing"

Answer 11

I have always been a voracious reader, ever since I realized I could actually read "In a People House". I've always something on the go, but I've abandoned books that aren't going anywhere. My father is an insatiable reader as well; some of my first memories are of him curled up on the couch engrossed in a book.