Which books or author did you love when you were a child?

Oh we could be here all day. Enid Blyton's Famous Five series comes to mind as does R. L Stine's Goosebumps series. Then there's Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling of course; and I also fondly remember adoring The Lottie Project by Jacqueline Wilson.

Very cliche, but Robinson Crusoe and Moby Dick. Both were very easy to visualize and literally make a movie in my head. The funny thing about Moby Dick, for me, was I could easily visualize the characters like Tashtego, Queecog, Cpt Ahab, Starbuck, etc, and life at sea, but I could never put a face on the narrator “Ishmael.” I dunno, maybe that was Melville’s intent… I also liked the fact that it somewhat foretold the future. When whaling of the coast of the Ogasawara islands, he quips that if ever an entity were to reopen trade with Japan, it would be the intrepid whalers who go where no navy even dares to. Two years later, Perry arrived in Japan, and his main objective was to secure resupply ports for US whalers.

In my case it was the early 70s. I really enjoyed the following,

Enid Blytons famous five

Watership Down

The Hobitt

The Mr Men books, Roy of the Rovers comics, Arabian Nights.

Nancy Drew mystery stories.

Dr Seuss

I remember the first book I borrowed from the library aged maybe five or six was Orlando the Marmalade Cat. From there I went on to Enid Blyton, the Dr Doolittle series, anything about animals. When I was a little bit older I consumed the books my older brother borrowed from the library, mostly science fiction and some horror. I particularly remember the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

I thought I’d also enjoyed the James Herriot books as a kid, but apparently the first one wasn’t published till 1970, so my memory is obviously wonky. I had to have been a teenager.

no books.... no newspapers even... at school or at home. have been a voracuous reader for the last 50-odd years though.....

Enid Blyton wrote another series apart from the Famous Five. The Five Find Outers. Fatty, Bets and Mr.Goon.

Hardy Boys.

Three Investigators.

Agatha Christie.

Enid Blyton, Franklin Dixon (Hardy Boys), Sue Townsend (Adrian Mole), Willard Price, Roald Dahl, Norman Lindsay. I used to read a lot of books from my parents' bookshelf as well, and took a liking to non-fiction from a pretty early age, reading the encyclopeadias we had at home, history books, and anything on aircraft and astronomy I could get my hands on.

Forgot to add Noddy and Just William books.

Karl May, ibused to own all books of old shatterhand.

At 8 yo, "Paddle to the Sea" by Holling Clancy Holling, and "A Beaver's Story" and "An Otter's Story" by Emil Liers. Perceptual world builders. At 11 yo, "The Last Planet" by Andre Norton, and then, having discovered the Universe, just Heinlein, Asimov, Blish, et multi alii...

The Uncle series by JP Martin, illustrated by Quentin Blake. Uncle himself, the One-Armed Badger, Cloutman, Goodman the literate cat, Don Guzman and Old Monkey vs Beaver Hateman and the Badfort gang, Jellytussle, Hitmouse and Hootman. Surreal, wildly inventive and magical for little kids.

Since in Japan you're still a child at 13, I'd have to say 'Playboy'. Only for the articles, of course.

many.

Jules Verne,Karl May and many others.

Enid Blyton, Black Beauty, James Bond and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series (my older brothers books I was not supposed to touch!).

Harry the Dirty Dog, Talking to Plants, and then in my teen years Playboy, Penthouse, Club International.

All of Charles Dickens, requirements by my father. Animal Farm George Orwell, school. Das Kapital Karl Marx. Communist Manifesto Marx/Engels. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Ivanovych Makhno.

All the weekly comics.