For me, it was "Adventure" books. Not the books like "Treasure Island" but those books that let you choose your own path. You would read a page or two then at the end of those couple of pages, you were given multiple choice option. You would pick one of those options and turn to the page it gave to continue your adventure.

One book I was reading I came to a dam that had water flowing over the top. The choices I believe we're to go through a door and walk down a corridor to the other side or to use your boots of water walking to cross the dam quicker. I always followed the rules of these books and tried my hardest to get these boots to see what would happen in the story. One time through this book, I went ahead and chose the Water Walking boots and it took me to a page telling me I had lost the game because I cheated and was chastised by the book saying things like "You must be the type of person who jumps straight to the back of every book and read the last page then act like you read the whole thing".

These were great books.

This set of encyclopedias:




Sidenote: Hey! They changed the way you add images!

I remember those. Had several.

for me, I guess it was Stephen king. I started reading the gunslinger books around age 8.

(05-28-2015, 09:05 AM)Tiger Teeth Wrote:

^ That is a classic, and yes we really did read them in addition to looking at the pics. Playboy always had some good writers and I assume it still does. Discovered it when I was about 10. The writing was better than Time or People (news and pop culture magazines with big circulations at the time) and it covered the same issues of news and popular culture. And, of course the photography was amazing. Even as a kid you got that the girls in there were a fantasy, but more importantly Playboy taught you it was ok to fantasize, when much of the world around you was telling you that was wrong. The monthly interviews were almost always excellent.

Before discovering Playboy, I read the sports page cover to cover from the time I was in first grade, and my favorite books at that time were probably "The Three Investigators" series. Hitchcock (the movie director) published them and I think there were several authors. They were sort of pulp for kids I guess, similar to the Hardy Boys mysteries but I always found the writing in The Three Investigators far superior. I also love sports biographies as a kid.

(05-28-2015, 11:11 AM)xxlt Wrote: ^ That is a classic, and yes we really did read them in addition to looking at the pics. Playboy always had some good writers and I assume it still does. Discovered it when I was about 10. The writing was better than Time or People (news and pop culture magazines with big circulations at the time) and it covered the same issues of news and popular culture. And, of course the photography was amazing. Even as a kid you got that the girls in there were a fantasy, but more importantly Playboy taught you it was ok to fantasize, when much of the world around you was telling you that was wrong. The monthly interviews were almost always excellent.

Before discovering Playboy, I read the sports page cover to cover from the time I was in first grade, and my favorite books at that time were probably "The Three Investigators" series. Hitchcock (the movie director) published them and I think there were several authors. They were sort of pulp for kids I guess, similar to the Hardy Boys mysteries but I always found the writing in The Three Investigators far superior. I also love sports biographies as a kid.

Small world, I came to this thread to type the exact same thing.  I loved that series.  Good ol Jupiter Jones....lol.

I was a big sports biography guy too, and there were books in our library about each Super Bowl, and the season for each team leading up to the big game.  I can't remember the title, but I loved reading those.  The Beckett Price Guide was another go to....although not necessarily reading.  Another hot topic early for me was WWII.  I loved a book called "Battle in the English Channel" about the tracking of the Nazi super battleships Bismarck, Gneisenau, and the Scharnhorst.  Good read.

I also got into Jules Verne and Ray Bradbury fairly early as well.  I loved the imagery and storylines.....and going back and reading them again as I got older, and understanding the social commentary involved made the experience all the more rewarding.

Of course Playboy was killer.....any of you guys remember the Weekly Reader from grade school?

As a small child: Stone Soup, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, anything Dr. Seus
Elementary School: Goosebumps, Animoprphs, Sports Biographies, Sports Illustrated
Middle School: Tom Clancy Books, Car and Driver, ESPN the Magazine
High School: High Times, Growing and Cultivation books (no joke)

I remember the Weekly Reader - it did it's job pretty well, which was to make you curious to go read more about the little items in there. It was almost the forerunner of today's "click bait." When you see what happens next...

And, I remember Goose Bumps, because my son read those faithfully. Kind of cool that there are guys on here who read stuff I read as a kid and guys that read stuff my son read as a kid.

The Hobbit.

I never got into J.R.R. Tolkien like others did when I was in high school. No, I was the weirdo that got into Shakespeare because of freaking MacBeth, lol.

Middle school, I was into the Chronicles of Narnia series and S.E. Hinton with "Rumble Fish", "That Was Then, This Is Now" and "The Outsiders". I'll still read them every blue moon, lol.

I was never a good reader since I have the attention span of a goldfish. If a book doesn't catch my attention in the first five or so pages, I won't read it and that's a shame.

Where the Red Fern Grows was one of my favorites, Huckleberry Finn/Tom Sawyer like 5th 6th grade. Later Stephen King, Tom Clancy. Of course Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, SI, Guns and Ammo, and Playboy when I could find one. LOL.

(05-28-2015, 01:43 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: I never got into J.R.R. Tolkien like others did when I was in high school. No, I was the weirdo that got into Shakespeare because of freaking MacBeth, lol.

Middle school, I was into the Chronicles of Narnia series and S.E. Hinton with "Rumble Fish", "That Was Then, This Is Now" and "The Outsiders". I'll still read them every blue moon, lol.

I was never a good reader since I have the attention span of a goldfish. If a book doesn't catch my attention in the first five or so pages, I won't read it and that's a shame.

My dad read the Hobbit to me when i was little.

If you need a book that will catch your attention in the first 5 minutes. Hell the first paragraph.. Check out "The Game of Thrones" book 1 in a Song of Ice and Fire.

(05-28-2015, 01:52 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Where the Red Fern Grows was one of my favorites, Huckleberry Finn/Tom Sawyer like 5th 6th grade. Later Stephen King, Tom Clancy. Of course Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, SI, Guns and Ammo, and Playboy when I could find one. LOL.

Loved Where the Red Fern Grows....

I always read a ton, but these were my favorites:

Hatchet
Choose Your Own Adventure (I was addicted to these)
Anything written by Beverly Cleary, especially Ralph Mouse and Dear Mr. Henshaw
Bridge to Terabithia
The Call of the Wild
Maniac Magee
Where the Red Fern Grows

Sherlock Holmes.

(05-28-2015, 05:10 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes and some of Paul Zindel's books were basically the only things I'd read when I was young.

Cather in the Rye.

It had curse words.

Curious George
Dr. Seuss
Treasure Island
Robin Hood
Ivanhoe
The Count of Monte Cristo
old textbooks
The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings
Dune
Ray Bradbury stories
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
The Outsiders
Catcher in the Rye
Edgar Allen Poe stories

I think we need a better definition of "child".

A lot of these books are high school reading. I think much of the existential angst of Holden Caufield would be lost on children.

(05-29-2015, 12:03 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I think we need a better definition of "child".

A lot of these books are high school reading. I think much of the existential angst of Holden Caufield would be lost on children.

Before 10 years old would be a child.