What books did you read as a child between the ages of ten and fifteen?

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  1. xstatic profile image60
    xstaticposted 12 years ago

    What books did you read as a child between the ages of ten and fifteen?

    I know there are probably a few Hubbers who were born before 1950, and was wondering what books they read as kids. I'm thinking about a Hub along these lines highlighting some I read and still remember names and titles, even characters. I was not a Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew fan though,(not that there's anything wrong with that.)  I read a lot of comic books (wish I had them now), but I mean real books for the context here.

  2. Cardisa profile image90
    Cardisaposted 12 years ago

    Anything I could get my hands on. I even "stole" my sister's adult books. I remember reading my fist Barbara Cartland in that era. There was also this other book (don't remember title or author) about a woman who was brutally raped, it was a very powerful story. I think she fell in love with the rapist!

    I was born in the 70s but I do remember reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys too. They were my favourite detective teen books to read. As I said I read anything I could get my hands on. Oh, and Archie, Dragon Slayer (the comic book not a strip). I must have read thousands of books during that period. I was also a member of the parish library and I got to take home books from the school library as well. I was always reading....I had nothing better to do and my aunt was always sending me off to read anyway...lol

    Huckleberry Fin! Ha...memories of those adventures. There are so many I can't remember them all.

    1. xstatic profile image60
      xstaticposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for answering, Cardisa! It is funny, I know there are lots of Hubbers born before 1950, but few responded to this question. Wonder if they don't want to reveal their age? lol

  3. bell du jour profile image60
    bell du jourposted 12 years ago

    My favourite author as a child was Enid Blyton.......I read the whole St Claires, Malory Towers, and the Famous Five series by the time I was 12..  They were the first real books I ever read and they gave me a love of reading, and writing :-)

  4. profile image0
    whowasposted 12 years ago

    I was born in 1968 so I'm a little too young to help you directly with your project, however I was a voracious and insatiable reader. I still am. I loved Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Lost Valley. I was was swept away by Henry Gilbert's 'Robin Hood' and utterly enchanted by the beautiful, archaic language. Susan Cooper's 'The Dark is Rising' sequence, Ursula le Guin's quartet entitled 'Earthsea', anything and everything by Alan Garner, Henry Treece, Mark Twain or Charles Dickens, were formative for me. I also read poetry and thoroughly enjoyed Tennyson's rythmic arhurian romances and the Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. There's so much, too much to list but these are works that leap to mind. Oh, and Wodehouse - Jeeves and Wooster. Oh and Agatha Christies mysteries. Oh and...well, that'll do, won't it?

    1. profile image0
      whowasposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      ...and 'Stig of The Dump' by Clive King - a wonderful book for 5 to 8 year olds.

  5. Phil Plasma profile image67
    Phil Plasmaposted 12 years ago

    I read mostly science fiction.  Lots of Asimov, Heilein, Arthur C. Clarke, others of that genre.  It was a collection my dad had accumulated over many years that I really enjoyed.

  6. GoodLady profile image91
    GoodLadyposted 12 years ago

    Zane Grey.  "Rider's of the Purple Sage"?
    Enid Blyton
    Poetry books (Loved The Ancient Mariner - Coleridge.  Ode to a Grecian Urn - Keats)
    Barnaby Rudge (Charles Dickens)
    Rebecca West short stories
    We had a huge library of old books in my convent and I read lots of them, but can't remember too many titles, apart from the above.
    Sounds like an interesting idea for a Hub!

  7. Jools99 profile image86
    Jools99posted 12 years ago

    Anything by Enid Blyton but my favourite book was 'The Family From One End Street' by Eve Garnett.

    I also loved 'The Water Babies' by Charles Kingsley but it was read to me by a teacher and I think she probably 'dumbed it down' for us young 'uns.

    1. xstatic profile image60
      xstaticposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know those titles at all, sounds as if you were well-read!

  8. Teylina profile image59
    Teylinaposted 12 years ago

    Like Cardisa, it was anything I could get hold of. I was away from home one summer, and my dad faithfully sent me Nancy Drew; I was crazy about her by the time I was ten-twelve. I managed to climb up to a relatively high bookshelf on which my parents had some leather-bound volumes in red that caught my eye, and devoured every one of them--all by Faith Baldwin and adult in those years--before my mother caught me and said they were "too old" for me yet (maybe 13). I loved their art books, and they had no problem letting me read or look and explaining all forms of art--incl'g nudes and sculptures--and I was fortunate in that respect. By the time I hit 15 I got hold of Catcher in the Rye and Metalius' infamous Peyton Place (both banned)--Catch may have come later.. My respect for my English teacher soared when she caught me w/Peyton Place in the classroom, then asked how many had read it (few admitted it); when she asked about Tobacco Road, I was the only one who had read it. If I didn't know a word, I looked it up. My folks tried to control my reading of books like that, but they were very liberal for their day, and I am very grateful. I also read every story, article, etc. of the many magazines to which my grandparents subscribed! Forgot about "Rhyme" and "Robin Hood," but Robin Hood I had read before 10, and "Rhyme of Ancient Mariner I had to read again when a little older. Of course, Peter Pan is still a real fave!

  9. duffsmom profile image60
    duffsmomposted 12 years ago

    Lots of different kinds of things.  Wizard of Oz, Black Beauty, Wrinkle in Time, Nancy Drew, some Hardy Boys.  I read anything I could find that was a horse story, but titles escape me.  I took a few books of the grown up shelves as well and one of my favorites at that time and still today was by Mary Lasswell, Suds in Your Eye about 3 old gals that live together in a junk yard.  Written during WWII and is like stepping back in a time machine.

    As a teen I found Travis McGee, John D. McDonald's character in several books.  Also the James Bond books and Sam Durrell (he was a spy) can't think of the author's name but each book title started with "Assignement: Singapore, or Assignment: Thailand etc.

  10. Teresa Schultz profile image68
    Teresa Schultzposted 12 years ago

    Oh my, what a lovely question! I loved to read books between the ages of 10 and 15, and before that too. By the time I was ten I was done with The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, and I think The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew I'd covered by then too. Also enjoyed those adventure books with the parrot Kiki, can't remember the author now, how disgusting. My favorite was The Mountain of Adventure. Also enjoyed My Side of The Mountain, I am David, and books about girls staying in school dorms or going to ballet school. Short stories by Roald Dahl. My dad's book The Third Eye, by Lobsang Rampa was read before I was 15. By the time I was 13 or 14 I was enjoying many Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz books. I think I would have loved to have been reading Terry Pratchett round about that time too, but didn't even know about these books until my older son (now aged 14) started paying an interest in them - he's read about 9 of them now, starting with them when he was about 12. I haven't read a book in a few years - I read articles online instead now - I know I should find the time to read a good old fashioned book again, soon! Sorry I was born in 1969, so can't help with what people read as far back as before 1950, as kids. Wait, I remember my dad enjoyed White Fang.

  11. profile image0
    oceansiderposted 12 years ago

    I definitely read the novels below when I was between 10 and 15 years old.

    Jane Eyre
    Little Women
    Les Miserable

    These are the only ones I can remember right now.

    Helen

  12. profile image0
    Catzgendronposted 12 years ago

    The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Bobbsie Twins, The Outsiders, A Separate Peace, Fahrenheit 451, Pig Farm, The Brave New World, Romeo and Juliet.

  13. LaThing profile image59
    LaThingposted 12 years ago

    Oohhhh, the memories! I love books, and like Cadisa said, would read anything that I could get my hands on! I remember those Barbara Cartland's books, lol.... Looking back at them, they are hilarious, all the same story!
    I read all the Jane Austin's, Voctoria Holt's, Jane Eyre, and of course, all those adventure books like famous five, secret seven, hardy boys, etc.
    I was reading comic books at the age of 3! Born in the late 60's, hope that doesn't throw me off your list! smile

  14. Marcy Goodfleisch profile image80
    Marcy Goodfleischposted 12 years ago

    Gone With the Wind, 1984, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies, Of Human Bondage & others I can't recall just now

  15. unknown spy profile image41
    unknown spyposted 12 years ago

    As far as I can remember at that age, Im crazy with bible stories, church magazines, inspirational mags from church. I used to win them over questions and answer portion at church.  i also love reading health and home. i used to beg my mother for those books.. smile
    i adore comics book as a child but not as much as bible stories smile

  16. ananceleste profile image60
    anancelesteposted 12 years ago

    I could not help myself answering your question. Even if I don't fit into the demographics of your research, I wanted to share this with you. I remember like if it was yesterday. At the age of twelve,a neighbor of ours new how much I love to read. She was an English college professor at the State University. She gave me a copy of Dante Alighieri's  "The Divine Comedy". I could not put the book down! It took me 3 months to finish it and learn a little Italian in the process. My neighbor would quiz me on the week ends about it. She also let me borrowed books from her library. She had a collection of old books that I have never seen before or since.

    When I had my fourteenth birthday she gave me a copy of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", I was hooked. Where I come from, we don't read Shakespeare at school. Or any English language writer for that matter. So to me was quite a read. For my fifteenth birthday, she gave me her copy of "Paradise Lost" by John Milton and we read it together.  As you can see I was a very boring teen... But she did not mind.

 
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