-18 Penguin Books Australia asked a good question on Facebook to celebrate International Literacy Day: What is the first book you remember reading? I don’t remember my first book, but it must have been a Sooty or Joe 90 Annual - I still have the former, but sadly the latter has long since gone missing.
I lived with my grandparents as a kid and they had kept my father’s Film Fun Annuals from the 1940s. I recall reading the comic-book style stories about Laurel and Hardy, and Abbott and Costello et al.
As for “chapter books”, I read my father’s Biggles’ adventure stories (“Chocks away, Algy!”) and I loved reading Enid Blyton‘s Secret Seven and Famous Five series.
In fact, Enid Blyton’s books inspired me to write (and illustrate!) my own adventure book as a ten-year-old, Sand Island (yes, I still have the original copy!).
So while I don’t remember the first book I read, I do remember the first book I wrote, 45 years ago!
What about you? What is the first book you remember reading?
© 2017 Robert Fairhead
(Originally published on robertfairhead.com September 2017)
Robert Fairhead
Sydney, NSW, Australia.
A middle-aged dad and dog owner, Robert is the Founding Editor and a writer for Tall And True and blogs at RobertFairhead.com. He enjoys reading, writing, playing the guitar, walking his dog, and watching Aussie Rules Footy with his son. Robert has worked as an electrician, sales and marketing rep, computer programmer, dog trainer and (wanna-be) writer. He also had a one-night stand as a stand-up comic.
