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

Pride and Prejudice, when I was 8, followed by just about everything else. By the time I was 11, I could and did read everything -- suitable and unsuitable. Then I commandeered my boarding school library selections at every age group, and finally the school library fiction shelf. It was bliss!

Kim by Rudyard Kipling, and The Call of the Wild by Jack London, aged 9.
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong, at 10 (found it hidden on top of a wardrobe, so guessed it was a book to be read surreptitiously).

LOTR. It follows from the hobbit which is a kids book. So I assumed it was a kids book too. Bilbo Bagins had a birthday party in the beginning which re enforced that impression!

I did stick with it but gave up on the Simerillion (sp?) not sure I could read that now as an adult.

Another young Flowers in the Attic reader here! I also remember reading Jilly Cooper's Riders at about 13, and a few other bonkbusters that were passed around school. Also read all my mum's Mills & Boon books for light entertainment.

I had already read LOTR by that age, and had a love of sci/fi fantasy, so read loads of that genre throughout my teens. Still love to read now.

My DS13 just doesn't "get" reading for fun at all, so hardly ever does, which I find a bit sad and frustrating. There is so much other readily available entertainment these days, he thinks he doesn't need books, despite me trying to convince him otherwise. Maybe it's a boy thing?

Imogen, Octavia, Bella and Harriet - I’m going to re-read!

The Jilly Cooper books that were named after girls - I think Imogen, ?Felicity etc
Would quite like to read again as I loved them!

Gosh, so many.
raiding parents' bookshelf at about age 10 or just turned 11 (went to boarding school st 11-1/2) -- The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley (highly unsuitable) A Town like Alice by Neville Shute, Peyton Place.
on a lighter note -- My Family and other Animals by Gerald Durrell and The Darling Buds of May by HE Bates.
When i first got to secondary school it was all historical romance, like Katherine by Anya Seton and The Winthrop Woman, ditto. Then Brave New World, (Aldous Huxley)
Cold Comfort Farm, Lord of the Flies and Pincher Martin (William Golding) and The Diary of Anne Frank, when i was around 11-13.
these days it's mostly thrillers😳😳

I read Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene when I was 12. I don't remember much about it other than I was quite a well developed and tall (5'10") 12 year old and I was reading it in the park and a man approached me. I think after talking to me a few minutes he got worried he'd made a huge error in judgment and asked if it was a childrens book... he was probably early 20s and poor guy couldn't get away fast enough when he realised his mistake.

I think that my comment on the other thread gave rise to this thread. It was “A Summer Birdcage” by Margaret Drabble. A schoolfriend with a keen interest in books (she is now an editor) lent me her copy. We were 12, so I was a late adaptor of grown-up books compared to some on here! I bought my own copy many years later and have reread it twice.

I also enjoyed Agatha Christie and have kept all my original copies of her books.

I went through a Jackie Collins phase at about 13. I think that her books would make interesting retro reading now. I remember the character named Lucky and her love of soul music, but that’s about it.

Jane Eyre when I was 10.
little women when I was 9.
dad’s reader’s digest from the age of 7.
And my aunt’s Cosmo from the age of 6!!! 😂

Something by Jean Plaidy. Not sure what, a toss-up between The Wandering Prince and The Young Elizabeth, followed by Madame Serpent.

What all these books had in common was that they start with the protagonist as a small girl (though in hindsight Madame Serpent gets pretty dark pretty quickly ). Slightly smaller than me in fact - it was in the new house so I was probably 7.

I learnt a lot of church schism history very quickly! Also learnt that you could have babies without being married and this was considered a Bad Thing (but ok if it was a king).

Didn't quite grasp what was meant by Lucy Walter dying of "a condition often suffered by those who had led her way of life". I assumed she was exhausted from all the rootless travelling around!

I used to read anything I could get my hands on. On holidays I would read my books, then my mums, then Dads then find a bookshop!

The ones I really remember reading were Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha (I would have been 10) and Whit by Ian Banks (12). I particularly loved Whit, and reread it many times- might have to dig it out again!

One summer I found an English bookshop in a small town in Spain and read loads of classics. Printed on wafer thin paper in about size 4 font.

Probably set texts at school. Put me off for life. All very male. War if the Worlds. Lord if the flies. Put me off reading for years. I probably started reading about 19/20I love reading as an adult.

Aged 9, Anne Franks diary.

Jennie, by Paul Gallico, if that counts as adult. I remember crying and crying. I must have been about 9. My main bridge between child and adult books was Agatha Christie, my nanna’s house was full of them. I was scared silly by And then there were None.

I used to read my Dad's Spike Milligan war memoirs when I was a about 9 or 10. My first adult novel was either a Shirley Conran or Jackie Collins at about 12 or 13. We used to share them round at school and read out the naughty bits.

The Odessa File at 9.

My Nan had a copy of Judith Krantz's Mistral's Daughter hidden in a pile of other books, and that's the first adult book I remember reading. Think I was around 8 or 9.

Roald Dahl was a familiar name so I read his books first in the adult section of the library. I guess I was about year 6.

Reader, Dahl’s adult oeuvre is not overly suitable for a ten year old. But I learnt quite a bit…

also around the same age Agatha Christie and James Herriot books.

7yo. The Painted Bird because I liked the cover.
Features bestiality, racism, violence, war, a lot of childhood abuse.
well written, I liked it.
It's quite controversial in Poland.
I'd like to reread it, now I think about it.

Jane Eyre. A Christmas present when I was 10. I can still remember reading the bit about Jane hiding behind the curtain with a book for the first time and identifying with her.
I’d previously read The Hobbit but thought of it as a Children's book. I haven read it for years so maybe it is more adult than I remember.

Never read Flowers In The Attic but my first adult novel was probably My Sweet Audrina by the same author. Loved it.
You could probably age any woman based on the books that were obsessed over at age 12/13: for our year it was Forever, Deenie (YA about a girl who had to have her spine in a brace), My Sweet Audrina, and The Outsiders 😂.

I can tell who is about my age. I never read 'Flowers in the attic' but it was handed around like a drug in 3rd year (I don't need to tell you that's now year 9 do I?).

The local library used to do a sale and I remember coming home with a carrier bag of sci fi, then they changed it that as books were taken out of circulation they were sold so you had to be a regular to buy them.