Memories of your first novel

[Machupicchu14]

Hello everyone! I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but I think I'll like to share with you all my memories of the first novel I ever read. This was Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. I really like and still love this book as it was the first one to introduce me to real literature. Also it brings me back very happy memories. That's why Charles Dickens is one of my favourite authors.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I love Charles Dickens too!

Regarding my first novel, if you mean the first long book I ever read which was divided into chapters it was The Enid Blyton Book of Brownies. I was surprised and excited when the story carried on and on because I'd read The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies not long before and that was a collection of short stories, so I thought Book of Brownies would be the same!

If you mean the first more "grown-up" book I read it was probably an Agatha Christie, but I'm afraid I don't remember which one.

[Chrissie777]

Hello everyone! I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but I think I'll like to share with you all my memories of the first novel I ever read. This was Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. I really like and still love this book as it was the first one to introduce me to real literature. Also it brings me back very happy memories. That's why Charles Dickens is one of my favourite authors.

That must have been "Robinson Crusoe" for me which I read shortly before "Tom Sawyer". My Crusoe version was a nice green hardback copy from Bertelsmann, probably re-written for children, because in the original version the part of the book, before Robinson Crusoe finally reaches the deserted island, is quite long and tedious. I tried to read an adult version decades later, but never enjoyed it as much as my children's book version which has circa 200 pages.

[Courtenay]

I can't remember exactly, but I suspect mine was quite possibly The Enchanted Wood, closely followed by The Magic Faraway Tree and The Folk of the Faraway Tree!

[Rob Houghton]

I really can't remember exactly what the first novel I ever read was - because I was always surrounded by books, and I can't always recall which books I read and which I had read to me. I know 'The Adventures of Binkle and Flip' was one of the first 'novels' I read - or maybe it was 'The Wishing Chair Again' - which was the first Wishing Chair book I read.

One of the first novels I definitely remember reading independently was 'The Enchanted Castle' by E Nesbit - one of my favourite books of all time. I also remember reading many children's novels about a lorry and it's driver - hardbacks with dust wrappers - when I was very young. I borrowed them from the library and read loads of them, but have never been able to find out what they were called!

As an older person, I think the first adult novel I ever read, aged about 13 or 14 was either 'Rebecca' by Daphne DuMaurier, or 'Cat Among The Pigeons' by Agatha Christie - both still two of my favourites. At school, one of the first novels I remember reading in English lessons was 'The Lord of The Flies' by William Golding.

[John Pickup]

My first novel would be Good Work Secret Seven. The first adult novel I read I'm fairly certain was The Satan Bug by Alastair MacLean.

[Julie2owlsdene]

My first full length novel I read as a child was The Treasure Hunters. I was hooked after that.

As for my first adult read, can't remember what that was, obviously it didn't make such an impression on me!

[Lucky Star]

The Sea of Adventure was the first book I ever read on my own. I still credit it as the book which gave me the reading bug. It's responsible for a lifetime of literary pleasure and I still love it today.

I'm not sure which was my first adult book but it may have been either Treasure Island or Robinson Crusoe. And I still love both of them too.

[Rob Houghton]

A very interesting thread! I find it intriguing that most people's first independently-read EB novel was usually one I would consider being for 'older children' - I didn't read any of the Adventure novels until I was maybe 9 or 10 and never read 'The Treasure Hunters' until about 15 years ago!

In most cases though, it seems Enid gave us our love of reading, whatever book it might have been!

[Chrissie777]

In most cases though, it seems Enid gave us our love of reading, whatever book it might have been!

I whole-heartedly agree with that !
Before I discovered EB, I read rather boring stuff, classics like "Heidi", "Nils Holgersson", "The Langerud Children", "The Little Prince", a book on Mozart's life etc, but all that changed when my best friend lent me her brothers' FF volumes. It turned me into an avid reader.

[Machupicchu14]

Enid Blyton is a fantastic writer, no doubt. But, I wouldn't say Heidi or the Little Prince are boring books.

[Machupicchu14]

As a fact I only rediscovered Enid Blyton about a few years ago. My sister used to read them when she was little, but at the time I couldn't really read, so when I moved house I quite forgot about them. Then I started reading them again and now they are my best friends!!
Also, it is curious how nearly everyone has grown with EB's books. I suppose they are the all time classics!

[Chrissie777]

Enid Blyton is a fantastic writer, no doubt. But, I wouldn't say Heidi or the Little Prince are boring books.

Well, that's how I perceived them.
My dad absolutely loved "The Little Prince", but I guess with less than 10 years of age I just couldn't appreciate it.
But I never forgot one sentence from "The Little Prince": You can only see with your heart.
I enjoyed the Heidi movies, but not the two books.

[Courtenay]

I've always loved Heidi, which I read when I was little — first as a shortened Ladybird Book version (with beautiful illustrations), then later the full novel. The Little Prince I didn't encounter as a child, but I might not have appreciated it then anyway. I do as an adult. But we all have our own tastes. I'm possibly in the minority as an Enid Blyton fan who thinks the Famous Five are terribly overrated and has never been able to get into the Barney series!

[Rob Houghton]

I always used to feel the same about The Famous Five until I read them all in chronological order last year. I agree they aren't the best Blyton series, but I love the sunny holiday atmosphere, the feeling of freedom and the fun of the plots. I tend to look on the other series like Adventure and Barney mysteries as being quite serious, but the Famous Five as just being good fun!