Skip to content
Do you have adblock enabled?
 
If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

(Fark)   CSB Sunday Morning: The first book you read as a child   (fark.com) divider line
173
    More: CSB, Southwest Airlines, Book, Western Publishing, Switzerland, AMBER Alert, Librarian, Online dating service, fondest memories  
•       •       •

480 clicks; posted to Main » and Discussion » on 05 Feb 2023 at 9:00 AM (7 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



173 Comments     (+0 »)
View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest


Oldest | « | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | » | Newest | Show all

 
Monty_Zoncolan [TotalFark]
2023-02-05 1:06:33 AM  
Age 2: I could read almost all the golden books I had before I could actually read, I knew the words but I didn't exactly connect them to the books, I thought they were more like 'ice breakers'... 'see Jane run'... esoteric
 
Stephen_Falken [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 1:39:04 AM  
I don't remember the very first per se, but these stuck in my mind from elementary school
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
MaudlinMutantMollusk [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 2:03:22 AM  
I was a child?
 
Phaedrus the Vague [TotalFark]
2023-02-05 2:08:58 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size


No, really Green Eggs and Hams or another Dr Seuss.
 
bloobeary [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 2:10:36 AM  
I had some of those Little Golden Books as a kid, but the only one I can remember the name of is The Pokey Little Puppy.
 
MrBallou [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 4:44:15 AM  
Mom says I could read at 3, and I don't remember ever not being not being able to read. I devoured everything I could get.

Some of my fondest memories are when my Aunt Caroline (much younger than mom) would come to visit and read to me from my storybook collection. Reading together somehow made reading alone later less of a solitary thing.

Favorite book when I was 6: Swiss Family Robinson. I checked it out from the school library so many times my name was almost the only one on the card. Later, when the librarian decided to retire the thread bare book, I bought it. I still have it to this day.
 
freddyV [TotalFark]
2023-02-05 5:02:54 AM  
Probably a Dick and Jane book.

I was never a reader when I was tiny. My brother was. He would read encyclopedias.
I was the sports kid

I read cliff notes in school. Hated being forced to read.
I got into reading in my 30s.
Now in my 50s, my eyesight failing, I switched to audible
 
Miss Stein
2023-02-05 7:13:00 AM  
I clearly remember reading Charlotte's Web when I was in first grade.  It was the first book I had read all by myself.  The last lines, "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.  Charlotte was both." have always stayed with me.
 
Demetrius [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 7:19:28 AM  
It was this or Dick and Jane.

i.kym-cdn.comView Full Size
 
hubiestubert [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 7:24:46 AM  
If I recall right, and given that it was a while ago, and at the time, my brain was tiny and sort of just getting used to imprinting memories for long term storage:

media-amazon.comView Full Size
 
FriarReb98 [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 7:32:49 AM  
media-amazon.comView Full Size

One of the earliest ones I remember, anyway. Had this, Green Eggs and Ham and McElligot's Pool for Seuss books.
 
Staffist [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 7:35:32 AM  
Harold and the Purple Crayon?  The Flying Hockey Stick?  One of those two, probably.  The Boxcar Children is an early one, too.
 
cretinbob [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 8:45:44 AM  
The first book, and not a primer like the Little Golden Books or Dr. Seuss, of any significance I read was Jaws in the third grade. I had a 12 grade reading level at that point.
 
cretinbob [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 8:52:12 AM  

hubiestubert: If I recall right, and given that it was a while ago, and at the time, my brain was tiny and sort of just getting used to imprinting memories for long term storage:

[media-amazon.com image 663x800]


Ah, the story of my life. I remember that one too. It was certainly one of the first, well before kindergarten, probably around the age of 2. I had a grandfather who was big on education and tarted teaching me to read , well, before I can remember because sitting on his knee being read to from Dr. Seuss books in which he had transcribed the phonetic symbols and took the time to explain what those symbols meant is one of my first memories.
Of course, it doesn't keep me from rambling when I'm free writing.
I also remember th4e first time he sat me down and introduced me to television. He said "Don't pay attention to the short stories, they are called advertisements and just want to sell you things". Pretty mind blowing to a three year old.
 
rnatalie [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 9:02:21 AM  
Certainly not Seuss.   I think it was probably the Golden Books history of George Washington or something like that.   I remember having ones for Washington, Lincoln, and Kennedy (knowing my parents at he time, the Kennedy one might have been the first).
 
Private_Citizen [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 9:06:17 AM  
The first non fiction book I read was Watership down. I was in 1st grade
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
kb7rky
2023-02-05 9:06:59 AM  
Green Eggs and Ham.

...well, pretty much every Dr. Seuss book, but Green Eggs and Ham was *the* very first book I can recall reading by myself.

50+ years later, I read that book to my friend's Head Start class for Dr. Seuss Day.
 
vpc
2023-02-05 9:08:56 AM  
Max the cat, who sat on a mat, and saw a rat. I was about three? Maybe three and a half?
 
EBN-OZN
2023-02-05 9:09:09 AM  
Don't know if it was the first, but it's the first book I remember reading. Back when the space race was going on.
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
wxboy
2023-02-05 9:09:52 AM  
I wish I could remember something specific like that. I sort of taught myself to read (according to my parents) around 3, and I would certainly have consumed all sorts of children's books (I used to hang out in the book section of a store while my mom shopped), but the earliest book I can specifically tie to having read at a specific point doesn't come until 2nd grade.

The only reason I can do that is because my teacher would reward good behavior with self-designed play money, which could be accumulated and redeemed for books (among other things), and I still have some of those, with my name written on the inside cover in his handwriting.

So my answer, based on that, is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
 
baronbloodbath [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 9:10:03 AM  
First book I remember reading cover to cover. I must have been three/four-ish.

Fark user imageView Full Size


I was the kid that checked out all the stuff in the 000 Dewey Decimal System because it was the first thing you could get when you walked into the library. I wanted to read everything in order but found I had little attention for anything except Bigfoot, UFOs, Atlantis, Stonehenge, and dinosaurs.

Now I focus on Bigfoot, UFOs, Atlantis, vampires, Stonehenge, fossils, geology, and politics.
 
Vacation Bible School
2023-02-05 9:11:29 AM  
probably a Little Golden Book at my grandparents. The first books that I LOVED were these:

Fark user imageView Full Size


but I'm pretty sure I learned to read on Soldier of Fortune magazines that my dad had lying around the house.
 
bedonkadonk [TotalFark]
2023-02-05 9:14:03 AM  
I pissed myself in school when I was 5 and got sent to the office to wait for my parents to pick me up. I was given a book to read while I waited.
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
Streetwise Hercules
2023-02-05 9:14:49 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size

Spoiler alert: a flower pot IS a hat if you put it on your head.
 
Vacation Bible School
2023-02-05 9:16:59 AM  

Streetwise Hercules: Spoiler alert:


goddamnit!
 
El Borscht
2023-02-05 9:17:59 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size

I used to be into his earlier stuff. You probably never read it.
 
Glockenspiel Hero [OhFark]
2023-02-05 9:20:18 AM  
I can't remember not reading - I've been doing it since I was 3 at least.  I do remember going to a used bookstore when I was very young (~4?) and having my mom say I could get a book.  She was a bit surprised when I picked out this one since she thought I wouldn't be able to understand it, but with the exception of some words like cyclotron I had no problems and I read it like a dozen times

upload.wikimedia.orgView Full Size
 
LaurelT
2023-02-05 9:20:31 AM  
i.gr-assets.comView Full Size
 
Ker_Thwap [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-05 9:21:22 AM  
Probably Curious George or Babar the Elephant?  I remember my idiot grandmother taking away Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel from me, say "you can't read that yet!" and being annoyed, because I thought I was managing just fine.
cdn.shoplightspeed.comView Full Size
 
Fear the Clam
2023-02-05 9:22:08 AM  
It's one of my earliest memories. Boring rainy day at my grandmother's house, and I picked up a copy of this:
Fark user imageView Full Size

She helped me get the hang of it. By the time my parents came to pick me up that evening, a habit of a lifetime was underway.
 
Nick Nostril
2023-02-05 9:22:11 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
ChrisDe
2023-02-05 9:22:14 AM  
Are You My Mother? seems to stick in my memory.  Not to be confused with that bestseller from the hood, Are You My Father?
 
thealgorerhythm
2023-02-05 9:23:39 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size

https://americanliterature.com/author/edward-lear/poem/the-dong-with-a-luminous-nose
 
Nick Nostril
2023-02-05 9:25:09 AM  
In all seriousness, one of the first books I can remember reading as a kid was...

Fark user imageView Full Size


Still one of my favourite Seuss books, along with Faux in Sox and GEAH.
 
scruffythecat
2023-02-05 9:25:20 AM  
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.
 
holdmybones
2023-02-05 9:27:48 AM  

bedonkadonk: I pissed myself in school when I was 5 and got sent to the office to wait for my parents to pick me up. I was given a book to read while I waited.
[Fark user image image 425x618]


Yep. That's the first book I remember reading. Or at least enjoying enough to remember the story.
 
jso2897 [TotalFark]
2023-02-05 9:30:00 AM  
A weird Czech children's book called "The Bountiful Cow".
My parents were 50's bohemians, and everything I had as a kid was weird.
I was listening to Leadbelly and Billie Holiday as a five year old.
 
Adolf Oliver Nipples [TotalFark]
2023-02-05 9:30:30 AM  
My parents told me that the first time they heard me read was at 18 months when I was sitting in my father's lap and started to read the newspaper, much to their shock.

But the first book I genuinely remember reading was Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. To this day I still know where Goldbug is on every page, but I still haven't figured out if Maniacbug is related to him.
 
Omnivorous [BareFark]
2023-02-05 9:31:04 AM  
It was "The Poky Little Puppy", which I'm reminded of every day when walking the 72-pound Labrador retriever.  Her attitude is "every scent must be pursued", leading to random vectors.

As a child, though, my obsession was getting the front section of the Plain-Dealer, then going straight to the back page where there were photos of fascinating things with captions.

/What did they call the photo page?
 
Durboloid
2023-02-05 9:32:17 AM  
"Hop on Pop", a classic Dr. Seuss.  Long before I started school thanks to a determined teenaged aunt.
When I did get to school we got to read such stirring fair as "Fun with Dick and Jane" and their dog Spot, who was encouraged to run.  (See Spot run!  Run Spot, Run!)
 
BitwiseShift
2023-02-05 9:33:08 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size


Fark user imageView Full Size
 
KRSESQ
2023-02-05 9:34:24 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size


And then I built a tree house.
 
Ragin' Asian [recently expired TotalFark]
2023-02-05 9:37:01 AM  
The first books I read on my own were these 20 page illustrated large print Greek myths. They instilled an interest in mythology in general. I recently picked this up:

Fark user imageView Full Size


It's got footnotes (FOOTNOTES!) referencing regional influences and how the stories influenced adjacent cultural stories.
 
WyDave
2023-02-05 9:38:29 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
daffy
2023-02-05 9:40:31 AM  
I don't remember what my first book, but my older son's was Winnie the Poo and the Hunny Tree. With my second son it was a bit confusing. I would read Goose Bumps books to him and one night I heard him reading the next chapter to himself. I asked him why he didn't tell me he could Rea and he said that he was afraid that I would stop reading to him. I told him that I would read to him till he asked to stop. Two weeks later he did.He did his first book report in second grade on Dune. I guess I did something right.
 
hoodiowithtudio
2023-02-05 9:46:02 AM  

jso2897: A weird Czech children's book called "The Bountiful Cow".
My parents were 50's bohemians, and everything I had as a kid was weird.
I was listening to Leadbelly and Billie Holiday as a five year old.


If you were reading Czech books, were your parents literally bohemians?

I shouldn't comment without contributing, so here goes. I learned how to speak at age five and was taught how to speak through reading. That, along with being hearing impaired, led me to have a book in my hands nearly always.

The first book that wasn't age appropriate was "the client" by John Grisham, which I read when I was ten. I told my parents friend that I read adult books. My mother had to clarify that I wasn't reading porn.
 
Hermione_Granger
2023-02-05 9:46:17 AM  
This reader series kept me going for most of kindergarten. I used to read a book a day on the ride home from school with my mother.  They are great for reinforcing phonics reading. Now they're all online. I was able to share them with my youngest last year. I had the books. He read them on a tablet.

Here's the link:
https://iseesam.github.io/readers.html

Fark user imageView Full Size
s reader series kept me going for moat all of kindergarten.
 
luddite v2.0
2023-02-05 9:47:19 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size
Fark user imageView Full Size


I taught meself to read with these books
 
Sexy Jesus
2023-02-05 9:49:16 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
InfoFreako
2023-02-05 9:51:36 AM  
I don't know if it was my first, but it was an early favorite. So when my son came along, I found a copy to read to him. He loved it too.

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
Displayed 50 of 173 comments


Oldest | « | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | » | Newest | Show all


View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest

Redisplay/refresh comments
This thread is closed to new comments.

Continue Farking

If you like these links, you'll love

TotalFark

More Farking, less working

learn more | sign up
On Twitter

  1. Links are submitted by members of the Fark community.

  2. When community members submit a link, they also write a custom headline for the story.

  3. Other Farkers comment on the links. This is the number of comments. Click here to read them.

  4. Click here to submit a link.