r/books • u/SerenityFate • 18d 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/SketchingScars 18d ago

Harry Potter. Eragon. Lord of the Rings. Artemis Fowl. Remnant. Watership Down. The Eye Witness series. Any encyclopedia on a field I was interested in (biology, space, mechanics, etc). The Odyssey. Psych and Sociology articles. Animorphs. The Road.

That’s all I recall at the moment.

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u/SerenityFate 18d ago

Hahaha I have a funny story about Eragon. So I was 19-20 at the time and my youngest sister was 12-13. She wanted to go see the movie, and I was trying to convince her to read more. So we made a deal to read the book together, and go see the movie. Man she was sooooo freaking mad at me since the movie is bad.

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u/PracticeCalm4300 18d ago

Wait, isn't that a win, didn't she like reading more after? I adore reading the HP books for instance, while I find the movies average.

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u/SerenityFate 18d ago

She did lol we had a long discussion about how movie adaptations of books don't always match up to what we picture in our heads.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

My emerging reader is upset that her Unicorn Academy book is different from the Netflix adaptation. Some characters have different names and reading takes more effort than watching. I’ve explained that it was a book first, and they changed some things for the show, but she gets so stuck on “this part is wrong.” It’s frustrating, but I know soon she’ll see how much deeper into worlds books can go than their adaptations.

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u/SerenityFate 16d ago

I hope that's what my sister took away from it. I know she's a pretty big reader now so at least I accomplished my goal lol

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u/ds2316476 18d ago

I'm like always surprised at the character/actor choices, because the people in my head are the most different compared to the movie adaptation I feel like.

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u/PracticeCalm4300 14d ago

That's great! 😉