Grown-up books

All of Graham Greene's novels are excellent. He clearly draws on his life experiences. Just saw The Quiet American film on Prime: worth watching for the early stages of the Vietnam conflict and the personal relationships.

When I outgrew the children’s downstairs library in my hometown and before I was allowed upstairs to the grown-up books I was reading my mother’s Hollywood, home, gardening, cooking magazines, along with Life and Look magazines.

Then for some reason I remember holding a James Michener novel - Hawaii (which came out in 1959.) Ever since then I’ve been a voracious reader. I prefer non-fiction books but a good novel is always thrilling too.

Read to your kids/grandchildren every day!
USA Gundy

PS Heinrich Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet caught my imagination in a big way and I've always enjoyed reading about exotic locations.

I devoured all John Buchan's books, from my parents' book case, followed by Hammond Innes's novels. I preferred my dad's adventurous tastes to my mum's romantic fiction.

Charles Dickens, Pickwick Papers as my father gave it to me.

I was given Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice for Christmas when I was about 12. Loved them both. I also enjoyed JB Priestley books, very out of fashion now and read all of George Orwell.

My mother borrowed Jane Ayre from the library for me when I was confined to my room with jaundice when I was 10.
I used to climb into a cupboard and read my Dad's book club collection. I read Campbell's Kingdom and The Darling Buds of May at about the same age.

I had read all of the suitable books in the junior library by ten and so the librarians let me have an adult ticket. I started with the Scarlet Pimpernel books by Baroness Orczy(?) and then moved onto Georgette Heyer and finally Jane Austen. I used to get 4 books out on Saturday and hope that they lasted until the Tuesday when the library reopened .

Mills and Boon. i've moved on a lot since then.

We read Tom Sawyer at school, as soon as we finished I got Huckleberry Finn out of the library, had my nose is a book ever since.

I was also a fan of dennis wheatley books, my aunt introduced me to them, i still have a few and also find it difficult to find them in charity shopsetc. I was an avid reader and also loved neville shute and always worried the scenario from his novel on the beach would really happen!
At the other end of the scale i still read elinor m brent dyers chalet school series

Emmanuelle which we covered in brown paper at school

I got a detention for reading ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ in a French lesson aged 14!

Probably 39 Steps we had to read for school, After that it was Agatha Christie.

My late grandfather's medical book. I would have been about 10. It definitely wasn't my granny's as she was illiterate and could only write her name

Loved The Day of The Triffids. Wrote about it for my Higher English!

Oh dear ! Lady Chatterleys Lover. Passed around our class and hidden from the nuns in my desk ! I was 13.

Agatha Christie was my own choice, the John Wyndam books and Thomas Hardy, the school's. I had a very high reading age for my years and some of the books I read didn't compute on a deeper emotional level but I enjoyed reading them.

Archeologist

Dennis Wheatley for me too
Then I bought a huge tome
The works of William Shakespeare
Loved it
Then lots of books on Ancient Egypt & archeology I wanted to be an archiologist But my parents thought it wasn’t a career for a girl. !!

Marydoll

Lathyrus

Rebecca, Frenchman’s Creek, My Cousin Rachel, Jamaica Inn.

All sneaked from my mothers bookshelves.

And Wuthering Heights. Couldn’t make head not tail of the plot and who was who.

Me too! I loved them.

And me!!! Loved Daphne Du Maurier and Rebecca has been a lifelong favourite.

I was a late starter and caught up at 15 when I read The Carpetbaggers.

Oh Theexwife….I hope you’ve given it a second chance …black comedy at its best. I think about it every time I push the vacuum cleaner ( one with tubes!)

Lady Chatterley's Lover that I found on my Grandma's bedside cabinet!!! I was about 14 years old

Ooh, My Cousin Rachel; it was my aunty's library book and I loved it - so much so that I took it to school and read it under the bench in a rather boring Friday afternoon Biology lesson! I was 13..