# First "Grown Up" Book You Remember Reading?



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

(Adult has somehow acquired a different connotation lol)

I'm just curious. I'm pretty sure for me it was a translation of "The Three Musketeers" which was a total revelation to me. I think I must have been nine years old. I never looked back and I still love that novel.


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## Thumper (Feb 26, 2009)

I think it was "The Hobbit" in 5th grade, though I'd had several grown up type books read to me before that...


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## Patrick Skelton (Jan 7, 2011)

First grown up book I read was The Martian Chronicles.


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## Miriam Minger (Nov 27, 2010)

Sad to say, but I really don't remember.  I think I was very young and I read so much---and constantly.  I do recall a stand-out, though, Anna Karenina.  Read all the beautifully bound classics that my folks had bought from a book club.  It really boggles the mind to think of what influenced my writing because my reading was so broad and varied.  

Miriam Minger


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## Kenneth Rosenberg (Dec 3, 2010)

The first "Grown Up" book I remember reading was Watership Down, which was quite long, but was also about talking rabbits... so maybe it wasn't quite a "Grown Up" book after all...


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## GBear (Apr 23, 2009)

Agatha Christie - The Man in the Brown Suit


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

High Citadel - Desmond Bagley.  I was about 7 or 8, took it off my parents' bookshelf.


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## TLM (Apr 8, 2010)

Jaws.  Not as high brow as the others mentioned   It was just before the movie came out and I was in 7th grade.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I'm pretty sure it was Chad Oliver's _Shadows in the Sun_... an anthropological science fiction novel published in 1954. In 1955 ( 11 years old) , I was at the Toul-Rosieres Air Force Base and I found a paperback copy (sans front cover) by the side of the road while I was walking from the library back to the Base Exchange to meet my dad to go home to the little French village where we lived. I think I still have that copy around somewhere. I've since bought one in better condition. 

It stands up remarkably well for an SF work written almost 60 years ago. I re-read it last year. I was not fortunate enough to take any courses taught by Dr. Oliver, but I did attend a lecture he gave on his experiences in Kenya doing some studies. He was one of those writers that other writers talk about.

Previously, my reading had been YA SF and mystery.

Mike


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## Jennybeanses (Jan 27, 2011)

I got a book about witches and demonology out of the public library when I was in 4th grade because I wanted to learn more about the Salem witch trials. After that, it was Salem's Lot by Stephen King, which proceeded to make me sleep with the blanket tight around my neck for about a week. I was 11.


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

I think it was Stephen King's It.


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## Jennybeanses (Jan 27, 2011)

Alan Ryker said:


> I think it was Stephen King's It.


I read that when I was 12. It was the scariest thing I did that entire summer before 7th grade!


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## aaronpolson (Apr 4, 2010)

Alternities by Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell.

I think I was in Junior High and a sex scene freaked me out.  Sheltered much?


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

Jennybeanses said:


> I read that when I was 12. It was the scariest thing I did that entire summer before 7th grade!


I wish a book could scare me now like _It_ did back then. I was paralyzed with fear.


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## Angela Carlie (Mar 10, 2011)

I wish I could remember for sure. I want to say, though, that it had to be a Stephen King novel. Maybe Pet Sematary.


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## susie (Mar 4, 2011)

I was ten or eleven and I remember reading two...The 900 days and The Happy Hooker.

The 900 days freaked me out.  How could man be so cruel to man?  Cutting off an entire city for that length of time and letting the population starve....and all the things that the population did to survive.  War is war, but that was not right.  Nowadays I keep a huge hoard of food, just in case.

The Happy Hooker.  Well, all I can say is that some of the advice she gave has helped me over the years.


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## Blanche (Jan 4, 2010)

When I was in fourth grade I stayed home sick from school and went digging through the bookshelves for something to read because I had to stay in bed.  This is when I found "The Wolf and the Dove" by Kathleen Woodiwiss.    Boy... did that open up a whole new world for me....    And of course I had to share this incredible book with all my friends when I got well enough to return to school.  It was eventually collected by my 4th grade teacher who tossed it in a drawer and wouldn't let us have it back.  Unfortunately, she then she passed it to my Mother during parent-teacher conferences.  Needless to say, Mom was not happy.  She kept a closer eye on my reading materials after that.


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## Skate (Jan 23, 2011)

The first I remember was "How Green Was my Valley" by Richard Llewellyn, when I was 11. There was one scene that my mother had a fit about me reading when she read it after me, but it had gone straight over my head. I had no idea what it was about!


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## ScottF (Mar 29, 2011)

1984


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Peter Freuchen's Book of the Seven Seas....still have it on my bookshelf !


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## Steve Emmett (Mar 31, 2011)

Probably something like 'Confessions of a Window Cleaner'. I was a shocking child.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Kenneth Rosenberg said:


> The first "Grown Up" book I remember reading was Watership Down, which was quite long, but was also about talking rabbits... so maybe it wasn't quite a "Grown Up" book after all...


Oh, Watership Down is very much adult fiction just is Animal Farm. I read both of those much later.

I've been trying to remember my second. I think it was probably The Count of Monte Cristo. Having discovered Dumas, I think I went on a Dumas jag and read everything of his I could lay hands on.


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## TLM (Apr 8, 2010)

Angela Carlie said:


> I wish I could remember for sure. I want to say, though, that it had to be a Stephen King novel. Maybe Pet Sematary.


I haven't ever been able to get past the synopsis of Pet Semetery. Too scary for me. I read The Shining during the blizzard of '78 and my brother was 6 yrs old. Scared the bejeebers out of me. Guess I am not a grown up enough for Stephen's books yet.


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

I was reading encyclopaedias when I was 5 - which is both scary and sad.  Does that count?e


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## GraceKrispy (Mar 28, 2011)

Hmm... good question. The first book that came to mind was Jean Auel's "Clan of the Cave Bear" series (I learned a *lot* in the later books... ) But I read Watership Down earlier than that, along with some of Stephen King's books. I had quite the Stephen King collection by 7th grade. My mom was an avid reader with a HUGE bookshelf of books, and I was always looking for something new in that bookshelf. I tried some of her Agatha Christie books early on, but could never quite get into those. I couldn't get into the Rabbit books (John Updike) either. I was in late elementary school at that time. I never really tried those books again.


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## KMA (Mar 11, 2009)

I think it was Lord of the Rings when I was five. It took me the better part of the school year because my kindergarten teacher kept confiscating it and punishing me for reading during "reading time." The disconnect puzzled me greatly. My poor mother had to storm the principal's office to retrieve it for me. She eventually had to promise that I would not read at school for the rest of the year.


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## Corie Weaver (Apr 9, 2011)

My father had the collected Sherlock Holmes stories. I have a notion it was Scandal in Bohemia, because I remember asking my parents why the King was so embarrassed about his "friend"!


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## Courtney Cantrell (Mar 16, 2011)

When I was 14, I sneaked _The Mask_ by Dean Koontz out of my mom's room when she wasn't home. It was the first time I'd ever read a book that had "the b-word" in it, and I felt very sly and guilty. ; )


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## Lysis_and_Isis (Aug 13, 2010)

Les Fleurs du Mal, by Baudelaire.  I was about eight or nine years old.  After that, I suppose it was Brave New World and 1984, like everyone else.  After that, too many to count.  I read Lucy Lippard's anthologies of dadaist and surrealist writing (I picked them up at our school's rummage sale), Baudelaire's prose, a novel by Celine, poetry by Rimbaud, the Lime Twig by John Hawkes, prose by De Quincey, lots of Hart Crane and Henry James. And now that I've seen others' posts, I'll admit reading Justine and Philosophy of the Bedroom by Sade when I was about twelve or thirteen as well.  Those were my father's books.

My two favorite novels were probably Au Rebours by Huysmans and J.G. Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition.  Les Fleurs was my favorite book in the world.


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## Straker (Oct 1, 2010)

_*Chariots of the Gods?*_ by Erich von Daniken. Oh, go ahead and laugh now, but it was all very convincing to a nine year old!


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I always read far above my age/grade level and fairly regularly got questioned by librarians and teachers about whether or not I should be reading something. I'm fairly sure it wasn't my first grown-up book - I had been reading full fledged Science Fiction for a long time - but in 6th grade a remember a short but intense discussion with my reading teacher, the principal and my mother when I did a book report on _The Omen_.


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## BethCaudill (Mar 22, 2011)

I read a _Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ for a project in 3rd grade. We had to read a classic and I wanted that one. I had seen the movie with my dad and liked the plotline. My teacher wanted me to change because of how long it was but I read fast. I finished it before several kids who picked shorter length books.


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## crash86 (Oct 8, 2010)

Watership Down when I was about 8 and read "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King when I was 10.


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## mscottwriter (Nov 5, 2010)

I read a lot of 'adult' books when I was a kid, but the one that really challenged me (and my world view), was "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter".  I read that my freshman year, and it still stays with me.


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## naomi_jay (Feb 1, 2011)

I'm pretty sure it was either the Hobbit or Great Expectations. I do remember an English teacher telling my parents to make me read less genre fiction and more "literature" as I wasn't challenging myself enough. Presumably that's why I had to read Great Expectations.


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## Alle Meine Entchen (Dec 6, 2009)

The 1st "adult" book I remember reading was Stephen King's Christine. I remember b/c I was in middle school and mom and I got into a huge fight


Spoiler



("you're bringing the devil into our house if you read that")


. It scared me, but not a super whole bunch. He had another book that freaked me out. The one where the woman was


Spoiler



handcuffed and her husband died of a heartattack so he couldn't unlock her


. That was the first book I had to put down and come back to after a while.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

mscott9985 said:


> I read a lot of 'adult' books when I was a kid, but the one that really challenged me (and my world view), was "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". I read that my freshman year, and it still stays with me.


That wasn't my first but it was one that has stayed with me ever since. I can't remember exactly when I first read it.


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## Duane Gundrum (Apr 5, 2011)

When I was in my first grades of grade school, I remember reading Crime and Punishment because the teacher had a copy of it on her desk and told me that I was too young to be able to read a book like that. So I asked my mom to buy me the book, and I struggled through it when I was way too young to read it. And I finished it, understanding about ten percent of what it was trying to tell me. Years later, I read it again and was amazed by how much different that book was when I was a young adult. Years after that, I read it in my thirties and was amazed again that I had missed so much reading it as a young adult. One day, I'll read it again and realize I missed so much about that book when I was only in my thirties.


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## amandamay83 (Apr 11, 2011)

Alle Meine Entchen said:


> The 1st "adult" book I remember reading was Stephen King's Christine. I remember b/c I was in middle school and mom and I got into a huge fight
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


Gerald's Game! I read that sometime in high school. Absolutely loved it. I think because it was one of his more realistic books and thus way more frightening to me.

The first "grown up" book that popped to mind was, The Accident, by Danielle Steele. Read it in sixth grade. I think I was home sick and needed something to read and Mom had it laying around. That same year I read Gone with the Wind, too. (And V.C. Andrews. My mom is a librarian and some of her librarian friends were horrified by what she "allowed" me to read )


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## KerylR (Dec 28, 2010)

I know in sixth grade I read Lonesome Dove, North and South (and it's two sequels), all the DragonLance books I could get my hands on, plus assorted bodice rippers.

I don't know which one was the first, but they're all pretty grown up books.  

I still love LD and the N&S books.  And DragonLance holds a warm spot in my heart, even if I'm not nearly as moved by it as I used to be.


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## caseyf6 (Mar 28, 2010)

Christine here, too.  I had already gone through Tom Sawyer and Huck, was reading my Dad's "Readers' Digest", and was digging through his stuff.   It's still one of my favorite King books, because the main character seemed to really like the car dude (Arty? don't remember) even as he was scared by what he had become.  My folks had just gone through a divorce, so I could understand that feeling-- love mixed with confusion.

When I was in 6th grade, I took the "Slang Dictionary" to school.  We ALL learned a lot.    I also read quite a few books on my Mom's shelf that would horrify me if my kids read, but that have been great in my married life.  lol


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## Deb G (Jan 18, 2009)

Gone with the Wind. I was in 4th grade and I've been in love with Rhett Butler ever since!


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

A.S. Warwick said:


> I was reading encyclopaedias when I was 5 - which is both scary and sad. Does that count?e


I didn't read encyclopaedias until I was about 8. Then I would end up going to sleep on top of them. I'd usually have two or three stacked in my bed looking up what I'd read in other books. I had to know what was right.


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## naomi_jay (Feb 1, 2011)

> The first "grown up" book that popped to mind was, The Accident, by Danielle Steele


Ye gods, I remember raiding my gran's collection of Danielle Steele books at a young age, and being scarred by how much rape and violence I stumbled across. Stephen King seemed positively uplifting in comparison.


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## Guest (Apr 12, 2011)

Lyndl said:


> High Citadel - Desmond Bagley. I was about 7 or 8, took it off my parents' bookshelf.


I loved that book. I read it in middle school, and spent a while trying to build crossbows afterwards.

For me, the first one I read on my own would have been Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight, when I was about seven, followed rapidly by the rest of the series. I can remember distinctly that I only took it off the shelf because it had a dragon on the cover.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

I know I was reading adult level books when I was young, but the first one that sticks in my brain was "Clan of the Cave Bear. I was 10 when it came out and read it multiple times.


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## Renee Adams (Mar 14, 2011)

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. That book will never get old. I read it multiple times. To this day, I still love the question: "If you were on a deserted island and could only take X number of items, what would you bring?" It sparks great conversations.


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## Alle Meine Entchen (Dec 6, 2009)

Alle Meine Entchen said:


> The 1st "adult" book I remember reading was Stephen King's Christine. I remember b/c I was in middle school and mom and I got into a huge fight
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


I just realized, I mixed up the name. It was Carrie, not Christine that I 1st read. I remember I was fairly young reading it b/c I could relate to the shower scene


Spoiler



since I started younger than anyone thought I should so no one told me about the facts of life and I also thought I was bleeding to death.


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## jason10mm (Apr 7, 2009)

"The Hunt for Red October" when I was 10 or so, was a recommendation from a teacher in the 5th grade. Clearly I must have been reading similar stuff prior, but that one sticks out. I read "Clan of the Cave Bear" as a kid as well, but not sure if it was before THFRO. I did read lots of classics like Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe, as well as the Narnia books, Alexander's Black Cauldron series, but some of that stuff is probably better classified as YA or childrens books (even if there are plenty of things you need to be an adult to understand). Stephen King has to be in there was well, my mom is a huge fan, but I don't recall exactly when I started on him. I also read lots of movie adaptations, but those are typically at a YA level at best.


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## Lexi Revellian (May 31, 2010)

_The Bull from the Sea_ by Mary Renault when I was twelve. I remember reading it on a beach, totally absorbed. She is still one of my very favourite writers.

I must have had a sheltered childhood. I read a translation of _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch_ and came across an unfamiliar four-letter word. I worked out it must be bad language.

Lexi


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## Cheryl Bradshaw Author (Apr 13, 2011)

I read the Judy Blume book "Are you there God, it's me Margaret," which seems like a tween book, but I was really young when I read it and my teacher was so worried that I was reading above my grade level that she actually called my mother in for a little chat  and then about a week later, I read another one of Judy's books, lol.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Cheryl Bradshaw said:


> I read the Judy Blume book "Are you there God, it's me Margaret," which seems like a tween book, but I was really young when I read it and my teacher was so worried that I was reading above my grade level that she actually called my mother in for a little chat  and then about a week later, I read another one of Judy's books, lol.


That's funny. Our public librarian used to call my mother for permission whenever I got a book she thought was too old for me. .... the joys of small town living ....


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## Will Granger (Apr 12, 2011)

_Jaws_! I don't think my parents knew about the naughty bits!

Will Granger
http://anabarauthor.blogspot.com/


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## Mcfergeson (Apr 3, 2011)

The very first book I read, back when I was a kid, was the Star Wars novelization. It was credited to George Lucas, but Alan Dean Foster actually wrote it, along with Splinter Of The Mind's Eye. After these, I was hooked on reading.


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## Joseph Robert Lewis (Oct 31, 2010)

I remember reading *Jurassic Park* right after it came out when I was still in middle school. I remember reading it in the back of the car when we were driving around running errands. Loved it.


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## teeitup (Nov 1, 2008)

I wish I could remember all the books I read when I was in grade school and jr. high but I just don't but I do remember reading some type of Mickey Spillane book while we were on our way to California on vacation one summer (prob 13 or 14) and my brother said something about seeing a "naughty" word and the book was promptly taken away.  One I haven't read yet, though, was a book I saw hidden in my dad's underwear drawer (was putting laundry away) and always wondered why he had it hidden (lol).  It was The Honey Badger by Robert Ruark and it had a bright yellow cover and I later bought it when I saw it at a book sale~guess I better read it before I die so I'll know!


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## Taborcarn (Dec 15, 2009)

I read a lot of Grisham and Crichton in middle school, so probably The Firm.


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## Holly (Mar 8, 2011)

*Karen* and *With Love From Karen* by Marie Killilea were the first paper books I had. Treasured them. They were responsible for the paediatric nursing career I chose. Am now retired but still have them.


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## Chloista (Jun 27, 2009)

"Hawaii" by James Michener.  I was 10.


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## EliRey (Sep 8, 2010)

It was  either Summer Sisters or Wifey both by Judy Blume. I was TOTALLY into her in my teens. I have to go back and revisit both books... *runs off to kindle store!*


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## IndieAuthorX (Apr 16, 2011)

My best guess would be Robinson Crusoe.  I was twelve.  It was a wonderful experience for me and helped propel my love of reading.  I had just finished Treasure Island, I was a late reader, so I actually had a tough time with that one even though it was written for children, Robinson Crusoe was considerably easier for me to get through, my reading muscles had been exercised.


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## Will Granger (Apr 12, 2011)

I remember reading _Jaws_. The parts with the shark were scary, but I really liked the naughty bits. I don't think my parents knew there was sex in the book.


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## Ameleg (Mar 26, 2011)

The novelized version of "Back to the future Part 3."


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Mine was 'Wuthering Heights', took me a while to get into it.


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## MoonlitDreams (Apr 15, 2011)

I read *Christine*by Stephen King when I was in the 3rd grade. The young narcissist in me at the time picked it up because it had my name - not to mention the cool car on the cover!

I was able to check it out from the public library, no questions asked, despite my age. I took it home, read it, got a bit of an education, and a love for much darker tales. I also got fussed at by the librarian when I returned the book. She wanted to know what I was doing with such grown up material.


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## Courtney Cantrell (Mar 16, 2011)

MoonlitDreams said:


> I read *Christine*by Stephen King when I was in the 3rd grade. The young narcissist in me at the time picked it up because it had my name - not to mention the cool car on the cover!
> 
> I was able to check it out from the public library, no questions asked, despite my age. I took it home, read it, got a bit of an education, and a love for much darker tales. I also got fussed at by the librarian when I returned the book. She wanted to know what I was doing with such grown up material.


LOL, maybe she should have thought of that before her colleagues allowed you to check the book out in the first place!


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

Wow, I have absolutely no idea. Probably something by Shakespeare in English lit class.


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## joanhallhovey (Nov 7, 2010)

Pride's Castle by Frank Yerby.  I was around sixteen.  I'd already read many of the classics in school, and was an avid reader always,  but this was a different kind of grown up book. Romance, rich in  history.  I loved it.  

Joan


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## Arthur Slade (Jan 20, 2011)

Dune by Frank Herbert



Read it in grade eight. Still one of my favourite novels of all time. Also Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Also, one of my faves.


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## Keira Lea (Apr 15, 2011)

My first adult book was Thinner by Stephen King (Richard Bachman). I immediately cleaned out the library shelves for more of the King. Soon after, I found Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire on a shelf at a neighbor's house. I was addicted to Anne for years after that. I like to think of these two as my surrogate parents.


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## amandamay83 (Apr 11, 2011)

Geoffrey said:


> That's funny. Our public librarian used to call my mother for permission whenever I got a book she thought was too old for me. .... the joys of small town living ....


When I was still in grade school, the public librarian arbitrarily decided which books were for adults. Gone with the Wind was marked, "18 and older, ONLY".


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## AnelaBelladonna (Apr 8, 2009)

It was "The Happy Hooker".  I was about 12 and convinced my father it was a book about fishing.  He wasn't usually so gullible.


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## GBear (Apr 23, 2009)

AnelaBelladonna said:


> It was "The Happy Hooker". I was about 12 and convinced my father it was a book about fishing. He wasn't usually so gullible.


I DO remember getting my hands on this and reading it at summer camp. I'm not sure I would have dared to try to bring it into our house. I'd read plenty of "grown-up" books by then, but nothing nearly so eye-poppingly "adult."


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## Neekeebee (Jan 10, 2009)

_Little Women_, when I was 9 or 10. I remember being quite proud of myself for reading such a thick book.

N


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## Elle Lothlorien (Apr 13, 2011)

To Kill A Mockingbird


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## Blanche (Jan 4, 2010)

> It was "The Happy Hooker". I was about 12 and convinced my father it was a book about fishing. He wasn't usually so gullible.


He He! Maybe it wasn't gullibility as much as deniability. He WANTED to believe it was about fishing . I know my Father certainly would have! .


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## PraiseGod13 (Oct 27, 2008)

This discussion has me totally intrigued and so far I haven't been able to come up with a title.  I'm slightly over 60.... and, believe it or not.... from an age when my 10th grade biology teacher forbade us from reading the chapter on human sexuality in our biology book... so I didn't.  Thus, I probably didn't read a "grown up" book until my "College-Prep" junior/senior in high school classes.  Had to have been one of the "Classics" that I chose myself, unless you want to count the required Shakespeare in my sophomore English lit class.  So... Tale of Two Cities... Les Miserable.... Moby Dick.....Crime & Punishment.


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## libbyfh (Feb 11, 2010)

DAVID COPPERFIELD, when I was eight.


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## Keair (Apr 18, 2011)

The first grown up book I remember reading was Stephen King's Pet Semetery. I was nine years old, it was the summer between the third and fourth grades, and I got it at a yard sale for a quarter. I had loved the movie most of my life so, being the dorkish bookworm I was (am) I bought it and made it my summer goal to read it. I did read it though I can't say I understood the whole thing. However, it opened up a whole new world for me. Grown up chapter books!  haha


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

Daphne DuMaurier's "Rebecca". I read my mother's copy when I was about 13 and when she discovered I was reading it she almost took it away from me (because of the incestuous pregnancy) but then she figured I wouldn't understand it and let me finish. She was right -- I didn't.


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## ajhunter (Aug 23, 2010)

I read Jurassic Park for my 7th grade reading class...and probably four or five times since.


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## susan67 (Mar 18, 2011)

I was lucky, both my parents read alot and never kept me from reading anything I wanted. The first book I can remember my mom buying me was by Harriet Beacher Stowe about the underground railroad.

The first grown up book I can remember reading was the holocaust. My parents had let me stay up late on school nights to watch the miniseries. At some point I went to the library to get the book, went home crying cause the librarian said I was too young and she wouldn't let me take it. My mom drove me back to the library and told them I had permission to check out any books I wanted (yay mom!). I was probably 7-8 at the time.

Even after all the reading I have done...I can still be amazed at humanities cruelty to others.


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## Michelle Muto (Feb 1, 2011)

I probably read a few, but the one that sticks in my head is Dracula. I was ten.


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## jherrick (Apr 1, 2011)

I think mine was Tom Sawyer when I was about 12. I'm a St. Louis native and was curious about Mark Twain and what living near the Mississippi River was like in the 1800s.


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## JJayKamp (Mar 11, 2011)

My first adult book was "The Shining," which I read at the age of twelve, being then stuck on an island with my parents, with no place to go and nothing to do.  I remember reading it in the middle of a summer day, and being scared out of my wits.  Fun!


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## Annette Fix (Apr 22, 2011)

I was 12 and my parents were going out for the evening, leaving me to babysit my 3 yo sister. I was browsing our built-in wall unit of bookshelves and just before they walked out the door, my Dad said, "You can read any book here, EXCEPT this one." He pointed to _The Choir Boys_ by Joseph Wambaugh. So, naturally, I yanked it off the shelf as soon as they drove away and spent the evening skimming for "the good parts." The first scene I found that blew my prepubescent mind had a drunken male cop at an off-training party lying under a coffee table licking the glass, the only barrier between his mouth and the panty-less crotch of a female cop who was sitting on the table in a swimsuit robe. Needless to say, I stopped skimming and read the book cover to cover, then went on to read all of Wambaugh's books that year.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Annette Fix said:


> I was 12 and my parents were going out for the evening, leaving me to babysit my 3 yo sister. I was browsing our built-in wall unit of bookshelves and just before they walked out the door, my Dad said, "You can read any book here, EXCEPT this one." He pointed to _The Choir Boys_ by Joseph Wambaugh. So, naturally, I yanked it off the shelf as soon as they drove away and spent the evening skimming for "the good parts." The first scene I found that blew my prepubescent mind had a drunken male cop at an off-training party lying under a coffee table licking the glass, the only barrier between his mouth and the panty-less crotch of a female cop who was sitting on the table in a swimsuit robe. Needless to say, I stopped skimming and read the book cover to cover, then went on to read all of Wambaugh's books that year.


Haha! Great story.

I'm afraid most of the "good bits" in the stories went right over my head. I had no idea in The Three Musketeers that d'Artagnan was having an affair with a married woman although looking back I have no idea WHAT I thought they were doing.


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

I can't think of a specific title, but I know I was eager to get access to the adult section of the library because I had read everything in the children's section. In eighth grade, around the time the movie came out, I did a book review of "A Clockwork Orange" and my parents and teacher didn't want me to read it at first. I didn't have any trouble with it, I couldn't see why they were worried.


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## Batgirl (Sep 22, 2009)

I can't remember for sure, but it must have been either Forever by Judy Blume, Flowers in the Attic, Clan of the Cave Bear, or something by Stephen King.  Looking back, I read a lot of "mature" books at a rather young age (6th or 7th grade).


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## Todd Young (May 2, 2011)

For me it was Gone with the Wind, though I can't remember how old I was when I read it.  Maybe nine or ten.  It would be interesting to read it again, for I'm sure I had a sketchy idea of why Scarlett wanted Rhett so badly.


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## Anna Elliott (Apr 24, 2011)

I read The Valley of the Horses by Jean M Auel when I was 10.  My poor mom had no idea of the content.  It was . . . eye-opening, to say the least.


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## Alex Owens (Mar 24, 2011)

Great thread, it's really taking me back! I think my first real adult book was Danielle Steele's Palamino  - I "lifted" it from the book shelf of my mom's college friend while we visited her family a few states away. 

But, I clearly remember reading a YA book before that that counts as my first eye-opener. I can't remember the title, but it had a youngish guy hooking up with his Older neighbor lady. It made me blush, so I hid it under my mattress.


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## Alex Sinclair (May 5, 2011)

My first grown up book and oddly the first book that actually made me go "Oh, reading isn't boring." Was, The Silver Sword, which is set in world war 2. It is about a family on the run from the nazi's. It is a really good book and I was fairly young at the time. I think my sister was reading it for her GCSE's. She was a few years older than me.


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## Remi Michaud (Apr 24, 2011)

Pet Sematary. I was nine. That started me on a very long line of horror.


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## Fredster (Apr 11, 2011)

My first adult book was _Firestarter_, by Stephen King.


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## Tamara Rose Blodgett (Apr 1, 2011)

Firestarter by Stephen King. Although...that may almost be considered YA now...


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## geniebeanie (Apr 23, 2009)

The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King.  I read all four books at age nine, got me kicked out of the children's room at the library because they caugth me up in the fake second story of the adults section reading the Return of the King.  I got a adult library card  but still had to read in the children's section.


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## par2323 (Nov 22, 2010)

I read Leon Uris' "Exodus" in junior high school and remember sneaking it out during study hall.  I'd never read anything that long before or that had such a long-lasting impact on me.

Patricia


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