# Books You Read In Your Teens?



## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

When I was about thirteen (probably older than the target audience) I devoured Ann M. Martin's Baby-Sitters Club series. I bought all those books and read them over and over. In contrast, my very favorite teen book of all time was S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders. I had kinda a crush on half the male characters.  

How about you? What books did you like when you were that age?


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## RobynB (Jan 4, 2011)

Ooh, fun question. I loved the_ Sweet Valley High_ series (don't judge!) and loved, loved, LOVED _Tiger Eyes_ by Judy Blume (I'm psyched the movie's coming out this year). I think I may have also read _Forever_ by Ms. Blume around this time as well (or maybe I was a tad older). I also was a _Seventeen_ magazine reader.


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## BarbraAnnino (Jan 27, 2011)

RobynB said:


> Ooh, fun question. I loved the_ Sweet Valley High_ series (don't judge!) and loved, loved, LOVED _Tiger Eyes_ by Judy Blume (I'm psyched the movie's coming out this year). I think I may have also read _Forever_ by Ms. Blume around this time as well (or maybe I was a tad older). I also was a _Seventeen_ magazine reader.


All these in my preteens and The Outsiders and then I could not get enough V.C. Andrews, then King and then true ghost stories.


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

Back then, I liked pretty much what I like now: Traditional mysteries and hard science fiction. Not exclusively, but it's my preference.

Mike


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

In my teens? let's see.. it was the 80s... I found James Michener & Stephen King, GWTW, Piers Anthony, Clan of the Cave bear came out in 81, (I was 10 but I read it) and everything else I could get my hands on. Marion Zimmer Bradley, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Robert Asprin, Lynn Abbey, The Thieve's World series (had the board game too), I must have read GWTW 8 times the year I was 13, I just flat out loved it.

And I liked reading the classics. One of my neighbors was in HS before I was and she had a list from her English class of books they could read, so I used that list as my reading list one year.. I think I was in 8th grade, so 14/15?


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Probably about a 50/50 split between sci-fi (lots of Asimov and his contemporaries) and WWII histories and personal accounts.


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## Anna Elliott (Apr 24, 2011)

Oh my gosh, Babysitters Club!  Yes, I read every single one.  I read ALL Agatha Christie's mysteries, too.  And when I was 16 I loved Gone with the Wind.


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

In my teens I read Poe, King, Higgins-Clark, Pike and a few others. I don't ever remember reading anything that was actually YA (except for Pike now and then). Which, is probably crazy since I actually enjoy YA now as an adult.


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## Remi Michaud (Apr 24, 2011)

A lot of horror: Koontz, King, Cook. Until my cousin gave me the first three installments of Edding's Belgariad. After that, I was done. Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, Raymond Feist, et al. To this day, I prefer a good fantasy read above all others.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

My teens were a mix of fantasy and adult romances.  hahaha

Tamora Pierce
Robin McKinley
Andre Norton
Anne McCaffrey
Jude Deveraux


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## jtshelnutt (Apr 21, 2011)

This was when I started reading, when I was in middle school. I found science fiction interesting and read books from Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clark, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, H G Wells, Michael Crichton, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, C S Lewis, George Orwell, Robert C O'Brien, Ayn Rand, Gene Roddenberry, Carl Sagan, Mary Shelly, Kurt Vonnegut, Stanley Kubrick, and probably more that I can't remember. Soon after this I also started playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends and this took a good part of my time. Fantasy became much more interesting to me at that point and I switched to swords, sorcery and dragons. But both genres are still my favorites.


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## Julia444 (Feb 24, 2011)

In my teens I discovered romantic suspense by "the big three" names in the genre at that time: Mary Stewart, Phyllis A. Whitney, and Victoria Holt.  LOVED their stuff.

I also read a lot of Agatha Christies and some Dorothy Gilman and other "fun" mystery writers.

My mom was a big reader, so I got into reading things by picking up her books and reading them.

Julia


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## Cynthia Justlin (Feb 23, 2011)

I devoured Christopher Pike's young adult titles from the 90s. Also the Anne of Green Gables series. I know there's more, but I'm drawing a blank right now...


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Julia444 said:


> In my teens I discovered romantic suspense by "the big three" names in the genre at that time: Mary Stewart, Phyllis A. Whitney, and Victoria Holt. LOVED their stuff.


I still pick up Stewart, Whitney, and especially Holt books when I find them used and on sale. I think I've read everything Victoria Holt ever wrote, even the books under her pen names, although they weren't as much to my taste as her earlier books.


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

I used to be really big into Christopher Pike.  Funny thing is, if he'd written those books now, he'd probably be on the bestseller list.


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## Cheryl Bradshaw Author (Apr 13, 2011)

I was obsessed with those books where you could choose your own ending and could keep going back and re-choosing your path and end up with different outcomes - remember those


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

In my early teens I was really into King. That was back when he was bringing out all his best (imo) books, Carrie, The Shining, 'Salem's Lot. I read everything he wrote back then. And Poe. I devoured everything that Poe wrote and he wrote more than a lot of people realize.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Lots of science fiction, notably Heinlein and Keith Laumer.  Lots of astronomy and World War II nonfiction.


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## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

BTackitt said:


> In my teens? let's see.. it was the 80s... I found James Michener & Stephen King, GWTW, Piers Anthony, Clan of the Cave bear came out in 81, (I was 10 but I read it) and everything else I could get my hands on. Marion Zimmer Bradley, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Robert Asprin, Lynn Abbey, The Thieve's World series (had the board game too), I must have read GWTW 8 times the year I was 13, I just flat out loved it.


I thought we were the only ones. My group of friends all read "Clan of the Cave Bear" in 83'. I also tackled the Lord of the Rings Series at 13, because at 10 it was a bit too hard for me. Try and try again if you really love a book. Discovered Pern with the Harper Hall series. Read "Catcher in the Rye" in 8th grade for reading class and hated it. As a sophomore, read "Cannery Row" during Algebra II class by grabbing it from my friend since she was reading it during Literary Class. Loved "The Good Earth" and had a fabulous Lit. Teacher that did a whole unit on classic Sci-Fi. That's where I read Isaac Asimov for the first time. You sure we didn't grow up in the same town?


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## Mrs. K. (Dec 31, 2010)

I was probably eleven or twelve when I borrowed my mother's Danielle Steel books. After about three of them I realized I'd essentially read the same book three times. After that I stuck with stuff with more depth...like _Clan of the Cave Bear._


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

When I was about 12, I had a brief obsession with a young adult romance series ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunfire_(series) ). Each book was set during some historical event. They were pretty cheesy but hey, I was 12.

Then when I was about 13/14, I read "Queen of Camelot" by Nancy McKenzie and fell in love with the Arthurian Legend but never found another novel on it that I liked better. I read the Hobbit around this point too.

After that, to be honest, I kind of lost interest in reading. I don't really remember reading a lot during my teens apart from mandatory school reading. I know I read a few YA historical fiction and then my best friend practically forced me to read her favorite YA vampire series. But nothing was so good that I even remember the titles. And then in my later teen years I was suffering quite badly from depression so I wasn't very interested in reading much.


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## tim290280 (Jan 11, 2011)

My teens was filled with the literary classics and classic adventure novels. I really wanted to save myself only for the worthy books and had a thing for the complete and unabridged editions - yes ****** Jim was ****** Jim, not River Jim or whatever the PC police want to rename him.

Oh and being a teenage boy I also read Clan of the Cave Bear, Valley of the Horses and one other in the series that didn't have enough sex in it to make me finish it.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

my teen years ... that was the 80's and I read lots of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror - I read a lot more contemporary fantasy and horror like Steven King and Katherine Kurtz and much of the Golden Age science fiction like Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke .... I also went through a period of thrillers - spy thrillers, medical thrillers, etc.  but that was a sideline.  I also read anything I could get my hands on that was apocalyptic fiction.  There wasn't as much available then as there is now, but I loved reading about the asteroids, plagues and wars that destroyed civilization .....


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## Cal_Noble (Mar 5, 2011)

These are some of my fav books from when I was about 12-15

The Outsiders (and a couple other SE Hinton books)
The Pigman 
Of Mice & Men 
The Great Gatsby
The Danny Dunn series (probably 10-13y/o)
Huck Finn
Tom Sawyer

I also read
any horror my parents would let me get... usually mid-list writers (it was the 80's)
a lot of what my older sister read..


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## aaronpolson (Apr 4, 2010)

I devoured true war books like _Pork Chop Hill_ by SLA Marshall and several first hand accounts of Vietnam. I also enjoyed Stephen Coonts thrillers--I blame it on Top Gun.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Cheryl Bradshaw said:


> I was obsessed with those books where you could choose your own ending and could keep going back and re-choosing your path and end up with different outcomes - remember those


Oooh, I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books. We had several and my brother and I both loved them.


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## jherrick (Apr 1, 2011)

At age 13, I was into the Not Quite Human books by Seth McEvoy. Also they tried rebranding the Hardy Boys books (they called them Hardy Boys Case Files or something like that) and I was into the newer ones.


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## Reussie Miliardario (Mar 4, 2011)

Cheryl Bradshaw said:


> I was obsessed with those books where you could choose your own ending and could keep going back and re-choosing your path and end up with different outcomes - remember those


I totally remember those! This is the first I've ever heard anybody mention them since childhood. I loved those! Mad Libs were fun too.


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## marielamba (Apr 21, 2011)

I, too, was into Mary Stewart...her travel mysteries, and her Merlin trilogy.  I loved The Once and Future King (White), the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, I also devoured all of John Steinbeck's novels.  And I loved the classics too: Austen, Bronte, Dickens.  

But I'm jealous of my own teen daughters.  The selection of YA they now have!  If Sarah Dessen and John Green had been writing back then, I would have been one very happy camper.


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## sherylb (Oct 27, 2008)

That was in the 70's for me.  I read everything I could get my hands on!


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

jherrick said:


> At age 13, I was into the Not Quite Human books by Seth McEvoy. Also they tried rebranding the Hardy Boys books (they called them Hardy Boys Case Files or something like that) and I was into the newer ones.


More books my brother and I enjoyed! The newer Hardy Boys, I mean. Don't ask me why he and I read so many of the same books.


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

I read a lot of R.A. Salvatore, Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Timothy Zahn, Raymond Feist. I blasted through the entire Wheel of Time in one summer (it was only up to Book 7) at that point, though.

Now that I'm old and decrepit, I attempt to write books that teenaged me would have liked. 

-JM


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## Laura Ruby (Feb 22, 2011)

Love this thread.  Let's see.  Judy Blume: DEENIE and FOREVER.  Paula Danziger was another favorite (CAN YOU SUE YOUR PARENTS FOR MALPRACTICE, because, um, I considered it often).  Ellen Conford (HAIL, HAIL CAMP TIMBERWOOD).  Lois Duncan.  S.E. Hinton.  Oh, and Patricia Clapp Cone.  Not sure if anyone else would have heard of her, as she isn't well known, but I loved a ghost story of hers called JANE-EMILY; I read that one dozens of times.  Also a novel that I believe was for adults called ALLEGRA MAUD GOLDMAN by Edith Konecky.  Hilarious.

Tried some romance novels, but I preferred the scary stuff. Peter Straub & Stephen King.  In my later teens, I ended up reading some fantasy and speculative fiction.  I carried around my well-worn copies of THE HANDMAID'S TALE and THE MISTS OF AVALON as if they were sacred texts.


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## soyfrank (Feb 2, 2011)

When I was a kid, I really enjoyed these books called Choose Your Own Adventure books. Anyone remember these? At the end of each chapter, the reader was given 3 choices of what the main character would do, and based on the choice you had to go to a specific chapter and repeat the process. There were several ways to actually read the whole book, you just had to make the right choices. I don't remember a lot about the stories themselves, just the format. It was really interesting. Anyone else remember these?


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## Tamara Rose Blodgett (Apr 1, 2011)

I cut me teeth on Stephen King with a flashlight ...and past my bedtime~!


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## Christine Kersey (Feb 13, 2011)

I remember reading Danielle Steel as well as Mary Stewart, Mary Higgins Clark and some Stephen King (I remember Cujo and Christine particularly)


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## julieannfelicity (Jun 28, 2010)

Loved Sweet Valley High books. Anne of Green Gables series. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram's Dracula. The Giver by Lois Lowry and Up A Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (my absolute fav book!).

R. L. Stein's books. Christopher Pike's books. Stephen King's books (Salem's Lot, Carrie, Gerald's Game).


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## Tatiana (Aug 20, 2010)

My teens were in the late 1960's and early 70's.  I read the Classics, Leon Uris, R. F. Delderfield, historical biographic fiction, biographies, historical fiction.


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## Gastro Detective (Feb 17, 2011)

Favorite Books 12-15

Catcher in the Rye
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter
Anything by Ed McBain
Flowers for Algernon


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

soyfrank said:


> When I was a kid, I really enjoyed these books called Choose Your Own Adventure books. Anyone remember these? At the end of each chapter, the reader was given 3 choices of what the main character would do, and based on the choice you had to go to a specific chapter and repeat the process. There were several ways to actually read the whole book, you just had to make the right choices. I don't remember a lot about the stories themselves, just the format. It was really interesting. Anyone else remember these?


Totally. I loved them.


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## Pinworms (Oct 20, 2010)

Dara England said:


> When I was about thirteen (probably older than the target audience) I devoured Ann M. Martin's Baby-Sitters Club series. I bought all those books and read them over and over. In contrast, my very favorite teen book of all time was S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders. I had kinda a crush on half the male characters.
> 
> How about you? What books did you like when you were that age?


My older brother used to love those Baby Sitter Club books. I guess it was a shameful secret because they were aimed for girls. He wrote a letter to Ann M. Martin, letting her know of a very minor grammatical error in one of her books. She wrote back thanking him, and provided a signed photo.

When I was about 8 or so, I got in a fight with him, and I took his signed Ann. M Martin photo and cut it up.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Reminder:  this thread is in the Book Corner. . . .no self-promotion allowed.  Such posts will be removed.


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## soyfrank (Feb 2, 2011)

Dara England said:


> Totally. I loved them.


Dara,
Fantastic. Thank you so much! I thought I was going crazy or that no one remembered those books. Yay, I'm so glad you read them, too.

Frank


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## MaryKingsley (Mar 26, 2011)

Julia444 said:


> In my teens I discovered romantic suspense by "the big three" names in the genre at that time: Mary Stewart, Phyllis A. Whitney, and Victoria Holt. LOVED their stuff.
> 
> I also read a lot of Agatha Christies and some Dorothy Gilman and other "fun" mystery writers.
> 
> ...


I did the exact same thing, except that my sister was my reading influence. I read all the Dark Shadows books - remember that show? - and my sister, already a teacher, gave me _Jane Eyre_ so I could see what the real thing was like.

Later I discovered Charlotte Armstrong, Elswyth Thane, and Georgette Heyer. I still reread their books. Christie and Holt, on the other hand, haven't held up for me.


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## Anne Maven (Apr 18, 2011)

It was Elinor Brent Dyer, Agatha Christie, P.G Wodehouse, Victoria Holt, the Bronte sisters, Richard Bach and Ayn Rand. Plus I never could get over Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew. You have to forgive me. LOL! Went through a phase when I read nothing but self-help books and then realized that nothing was going to work unless I made up my mind! Now I read whatever I can.


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

Robert Heinlein & John Wyndham, followed by all the SF Hale classic hardbacks in the plain yellow covers that I could find in the library. I was lucky in that my parents never considered buying books as a luxury - in that regard I pretty much got whatever I asked for. I try to be the same with my teenager now and it's paying off in that she's as avid a reader as I am.


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## Doug DePew (Mar 26, 2011)

I read pretty much the same things as a teen that I read today (history, biographies, memoirs) except I read more fantasy back then.

I was a huge fan of the _Earthsea_ trilogy by Ursula K. Leguin and _The Chronicles of Amber_ by Roger Zelazny. I need to re-read the Zelazny books, but I bought them as a special, two book set from Science Fiction Book Club, and I seem to have misplaced the first one!! I also loved the _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ set. I have that in one volume from Sci Fi Book Club. I read anything I could find by Tolkein, too.

I read nearly every classic in our house as a teen/pre-teen, too. I have a set of classic children's books that my mom bought me when I was a baby. I read all of them including all four of the Tom Sawyer books.

Mostly it was history, though. I love reading history the most. I'm really into archaeology. I told my wife once that I had a subscription to Archaeology Magazine when I was twelve, and she said,"You were a wierd kid."

Maybe.


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## sheltiemom (Dec 28, 2008)

I read all of Salinger's books, "Valley of the Dolls", and "The Group".   "Of Human Bondage" was banned in our school library so I remember reading that one.


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## slpierce (Mar 2, 2011)

I read this book when I was maybe nine.  It was called Dinah and the Green Fat Kingdom.  I loved it and I have never been able to find it since.  Anyone ever heard of it?  
I just remember being so heartbroken for the main character who was heavy but the rest of her family was 'perfect' and nothing she did was ever enough.


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## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

Another teen of the 80s.  I remember reading the Dragonlance series, Interview with a Vampire and The Vampire Lestat.

Dawn


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## Elizabeth Black (Apr 8, 2011)

I was hooked on Nancy Drew, which led me to Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. I'm from Baltimore, so it's only natural I discovered Edgar Allan Poe. I also loved Alfred Hitchcock's books of short stories. I could never get enough of those.


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## ChadMck (Feb 25, 2011)

I'm pretty sure I just read Stephen King non stop from 6-12 grade. Sister Anne called my parents and told them I should read fiction more appropriate to my age. Pfffft silly nuns.


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## gatehouseauthor (Apr 22, 2011)

I've always been a sci-fi and fantasy junkie. Back in my teen years in the 80s, I happily devoured almost anything written by Piers Anthony, Jack Chalker, or Anne McCaffrey, all of whom wrote both science fiction and fantasy or some strange amalgamation of the two!


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## Casper Parks (May 1, 2011)

I enjoyed CS Lewis' "Space Trilogy".


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## John Booth (May 1, 2011)

I read almost everything I could lay my hands on when I was a teen.  I recently went to a lot of trouble (and expense) to get my hands on the Kemlo series by EC Eliot (Though I was younger than teen when I read most of those.)

My favourite children's books were by Robert Heinlien and Madeleine l'Engle, though there is a book by a guy called Arthur Calder Marshall called 'Fair to Middling' which I think is the cleverest children's fantasy book ever written.

I read a lot of adult books as a teen, all the James Bond books, Alastair MacLean, Peter O'Donnel and westerns by anybody.  Late teens was almost entirely science fiction, though Tolkien got a look in.  I even read classics like Dickens and Conan Doyle.


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## Skate (Jan 23, 2011)

Maybe I'm strange, but I read Dickens (Charles, that is, not Monica), Walter Scott and Thomas Hardy. Dickens, because I loved his characters; Scott, because he was a challenge; and Hardy because he stopped me getting depressed - no one could be more miserable than his characters!


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## Tess St John (Feb 1, 2011)

I'm so jealous! I didn't start enjoying reading until I picked up my husband's Koontz and Clancy novels after we were married. I didn't pick up my first romance until I was in my thirties! I've devoured books ever since...in all the genres!!


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## rayhensley (Apr 16, 2011)

Stephen King, Ann Rice, Clive Barker....


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## Die$el (Apr 24, 2011)

I'm still in my teens, so here are some of my favorite writers:
Newer: Chuck Palahniuk, Stephen King, JK Rowling
20th Cent. American: Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemmingway, Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, Madeleine L'Engle
Victorian Era: Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley
Stream-Of-Consciousness: James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner
The Bible [Genesis, Exodus, Job] (I'm Atheist, btw)


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## Guest (May 3, 2011)

In my teens I was reading anything I could get my hands on, usually when I should have been doing something else. There is never enough time in the day for books! 

I started on Asimov, Heinlein and Van Vogt and then moved onto the thrillers when I ran out of sci-fi on the shelf. I still like the three "Early Asimov" books, not just for the stories but for his footnotes. His "Before the Golden Age" collections of 1930's stories were my first real introduction to early pulp adventure, now sadly out of print.


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

I was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes from 12 to 14. Heck, I still am.  When I got to high school, I discovered Discworld and read a lot of Terry Pratchett. I was also in love with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Samuel Beckett and Tom Stoppard (and still am). Those were really my go-to guys in high school.


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## Batgirl (Sep 22, 2009)

Another teen of the 80's here.  I remember reading (and loving) everything by S.E. Hinton.  I also read lots of Stephen King, Anne Rice, John Irving and Pat Conroy.


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