HSU IT Department

This is fun :) Thanks for sharing. Here's my answers:

My father used to read to me before going to bed. My favourite as a young child was Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy World (the old, very non-PC version). My father tells me regularly he still remember most of the story about Achoo the panda bear, since it was my favourite and I made him read it to me practically every night. That book is, not coincidentally, the first book I remember. When I was older, my father also read me The Hobbit and the Swallows and Amazons series. But then my parents got divorced when I was 11, so reading was entirely up to me at that point (I lived with my mom, and she wasn't a reader at all except for magazines).

I'm not sure there was ever a moment of realization that I loved to read. I simply enjoyed it and always have; and since I had a lot of bookish friends growing up, it seemed normal. I've definitely always enjoyed reading.

The first book I remember really capturing me was the first book of the Thoroughbred series. I was a horse-obsessed girl, and proceeded to collect the rest of them. The first and only audiobook I ever listened to was Black Beauty, of which I had a cassette tape and used to fall asleep listening to with regularity around age 11.

Your Godfather story reminded me of the first book I read with violence and sex. My mother never cared what I read, so while it probably should have gotten taken away, I read Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett at age 12 (as you say, it did mostly go right over my head).

The first book I remember staying up all night reading was Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite. The first manga I read was either X/1999 or Card Captor Sakura by CLAMP. The first North American graphic novel I read was Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez. (If you can't tell by this selection, I was a very angsty, goth teenager).

The first book I read for a class and actually enjoyed was Microserfs by Douglas Copeland while in my third year of college (after switching schools and switching majors). I remember on the essay I wrote about it, my professor suggested I become an English major. It would take two years, but I would eventually switch my major and words are now my career. The same year I read the first non-fiction book I enjoyed, in a different English class, which was Life and Death in Shanghai by Chen Nien. The first book I waited in line for at the bookstore was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

That's all the firsts I can think of :)