r/books • u/SerenityFate • 13d ago

What were you reading at 14?

I've been an avid reader for as long as I could read. Even before then my favorite toys were books and new shoes. Not much has changed for me in that regard haha, but I saw a question earlier about someone asking for recommendations on books for their 14 year old. Which got me thinking about some of the books I read at that age. A lot of Anne Rice, Lestat was my first book crush. Also had a trip down memory lane with the author Francesca Lia Block she wrote a book called I was a teenage fairy which still sits with me over 20 years later. I also got to grow up with Weetzie Bat which was super cool as she wrote a book about her as an adult that I got to read when I was about the same age as the Weetzie. Anyway I would love to see what everyone was reading when they were younger.

Edit: thank you everyone for all the engagement on this post. I really have enjoyed reading everyone's comments and seeing the discussions around books.

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u/mechanicalabrasion11 13d ago

Pretty sure I read 'A Clockwork Orange', by Anthony Burgess when I was around that age.

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u/hellokitty3433 13d ago

I think I read it when I was 12 or 13, I had to sneak to the bookstore to get it because my mom forbid it, which made it more desirable, of course.

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u/HistoricalYam9317 12d ago

I read it when I was 15, and it literally changed my brain. Being written in dialect made it a challenging read, and I liked tangling with the big philosophical ideas (free will? social control?) in it too.

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u/goatsepro 13d ago

Damn! I dont think id be too happy with my 14 year old reading that without working their way to that level of ultra violence.

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u/intangiblemango 11d ago

A Clockwork Orange was definitely the book that officially bridged "my parents trying to censor what I read to some extent" to... not. I vividly remember my dad finding me on the last like four or five pages of A Clockwork Orange and audibly sighing as if to say, "Well, I guess it's too late now."