What was the first adult novel/book you read, and how old were you?

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Can I check if the shark featured in the sex scenes?"

😮😆

When my parents split up my mother moved back to France and took us with her, unfortunately. But for my 11th birthday, my father gave me a collectable edition of The Hobbit. It was the only book I had in English. I wasn't allowed to speak in English or my mother would hit me but I could read The Hobbit. It is one of my most prized possessions.

When I was 10 I snuck my mums copy of Bridget Jones' Diary and read it in secret!

Can I check if the shark featured in the sex scenes?

@merryhouse - my first was also a Jean Plaidy - Madonna of the Seven Hills about the young Lucrezia Borgia - I was about 7 and had read her children's books - Young Elizabeth and Young Mary Queen of Scots so it seemed like a sensible progression. I then went on to read every Jean Plaidy the local library had. I still have a soft spot for the Borgia novels though.

Jaws. My brother gave it to me for my 9th birthday. My mum thought it was just about a shark and was not pleased when she read it after me and discovered the sex scenes. But it was too late by then 🤗

I read Deenie when I was about 8. I was confused by Deenie touching her "special place."

I remember reading A Christmas Carol at about 8 and finding it very dull. I read The Happy Prince as well around that time,(which isn't necessarily an adult's book but it was wordy enough that I was very pleased with myself for liking it).

I think I was about 11 when I read Lolita. So wildly inappropriate but I did enjoy it.

Gone with the wind, the two parts, and then Scarlett (same characters different author) at 13

Lots that have been mentioned here but the one I read over and over was Fast Friends by Jill Mansell. It sounded so exciting being a grown-up - I couldn't wait! Re-read it as an adult. What a pile of unadulterated tosh!

The cover I mean

Is that a bit of Hieronymus Bosch?

We had a small local library when I was little. The books used to get changed reasonably regularly. I used to watch to see if there were a couple of big locked wooden boxes left on the steps and then I knew there were new books.

I read most of Jules Vernes works (there's a couple I read but can't find now - the masterless man and the unwilling dictator (I think)). Also read Conan Doyle. Mum had lots of Cookson and Mary Stewart books which were OK.

Yes! My dm bought me that at about the age and I was fascinated.

I was just thinking about some books that are quite good "transition" books that straddle the child/adult readership and I put forward James Herriot and Gerald Durrell.

The Lord of the Rings when I was 8. I also distinctly remember reading the Clan of the Cave Bear when I was about 12 and my teacher being outraged that my mother allowed it (I came through the experience unscathed...)

Magician by Raymond Feist. I was 8. Got a bit confused in the middle when the main character has a name change. Read it through again and got it.

I remember being 12 and having Forever taken away from me in school and being asked if my parents knew what I was reading. Seeing as though I was reading the above plus Virginia Andrew’s at home, my mum was unimpressed when school called.

I read the Jilly Cooper girls's names novels when I was quite young because one of them had my name and I was intrigued 😀. Funnily enough when I read them I thought the lives depicted were entirely unbelievable. Re reading as an adult they actually seem reasonably realistic.

I read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights when I was 8. My mum bought them for me as I had read the Dickens books she had got from a jumble sale (!) and thought I would enjoy these as well. She always said that I would rather read the back of a cornflake packet rather than not read.

Something slightly different in criteria was an abridged version of David Copperfield that I read in primary school.

I was reading Jilly Cooper / Judith Krantz / Jackie Collins at 13 ish.

i picked up a Judith Krantz when I was at my mums last week, it’s fire filth

I'm not sure but it was likely ether The Thirteen Problems or The A.B.C Murders.

Lots of interesting stuff whilst still in school - I was really into reading, but the first book I bought myself was when I was 15 or 16 and I bought Crime and Punishment. I still remember the moment, it was in the back of a small used book store, and I came across this and recognised the name name Dostoevsky and had a notion that he had been A Great Writer and that this must be a great work of art. I was embarrassed because I was an exceptionally poor student and didn't want people to laught at me for choosing a book beyond my capabilities, so I kept it hidden. It remains one of my favourite books, but I also have about 200 favourite books!

Mila 18 by Leon Uris when I was around 10. I liked the cover. I had a few questions afterwards for my parents.

Basically when I was growing up my father thought that television rotted the brain and in a house full of books I read for entertainment. They never said I couldn't read specific books. Lace and everything by Jilly Cooper and Sidney Sheldon were all favourites.

The second I left for University they rushed out and bought a tv to watch midsomer murders.

The King Must Die ( Mary Renault). For some unknown reason it was in the school library ( primary school).I must have been about eight.

it set the course for much of my life.