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Original poster

What were you reading in the late 90s

58 replies

Vladandnikki · 25/04/2026 21:00

Not so much a what we're reading more a what were you reading in your teens. Because I loved the Riders series of books by Samantha Alexander (not the Jilly Cooper novel) and I don't think I have ever met anyone else that read them.

OP posts:
Doubledutchbus · 25/04/2026 23:02

Flowers in the attic and the many sequels. I spent the entire summer holiday after GCSEs finished reading these. This was late nineties. There was another series by the same author that I was really into around then that was about orphans that I read that summer too. Shortly after that it was Harry Potter.
Early nineties for me would have been all the sweet valley high books.

Meridas · 25/04/2026 23:00

Bridget Jones
Trainspotting
Marian Keyes
Jane Green
Iain Banks

Flannelenthusiast · 25/04/2026 22:55

And Catch 22, so many times!!

Terfdiarist · 25/04/2026 22:51

Bridget Jones Diary
Loved Jane Green too.

lovealieinortwo · 25/04/2026 22:51

Harry Potter! I borrowed them from my younger sibling. I would have be late teens then, when I was younger I loved Sweet Valley, Point Horror etc.

Flannelenthusiast · 25/04/2026 22:51

Stephen King
Richard Laymon
Dean Koontz
Christopher Pike

Douglas Coupand
Richard Yates
Haruki Murakami
Kathy Acker

Catherine Cookson
Danielle Steel
Jackie Collins
Shirley Conran

houseofstark · 25/04/2026 22:49

Anne Rice and Harry Potter

OwlsDontGoToSchool · 25/04/2026 22:47

In the late 90s I was reading the Scarpetta books, Kate Atkinson I think, unless she was a bit later, a lot of Douglas Coupland. I was born in 1975 though so if you want what I was reading in my teens - Gone With The Wind, The Secret History, Stephen King, a lot of Anne McCaffrey, and a shed load of sci fi.

ItsPickleRick · 25/04/2026 22:46

Point Horror and Sweet Valley High! We read To Kill A Mockingbird and The Colour Purple for GCSE English around that time too and I loved both.

Thank you for this thread, it’s made me remember a lot of books I’ve read previously. I loved Dean Koontz, and read some really good Sidney Sheldon books too. Favourites remain The Hunger Games series, and everything by Kahled Hosseini.

NerrSnerr · 25/04/2026 22:45

In the late 90s I was in my late teens (I turned 18 in 2000). I was reading Stephen King, James Herbert, The Adrian Mole books. In my earlier teens it was Poknt Horror, Famous Five and the Adventure books.

H202too · 25/04/2026 22:45

mynameiscalypso · 25/04/2026 22:16

I’ve been trying for years and years to remember that series and I’ve almost posted on here so many times about it. THANK YOU!

Show quote history

I loved them.

Wallabyone · 25/04/2026 22:45

In the late 90s, I was studying English Lit at A Level.
books I remember reading back then-Captain
Corelli’s Mandolin, Harry Potter, and I can’t remember much else!
I did go onto study the same at uni; I have read many books but can rarely recall them unless someone says, ‘have you read X?’

feckingcat · 25/04/2026 22:44

Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Richard Layman, I was heavily into horror despite me not long having bought my first house and I’d be spending most of the time shitting myself at every noise there.

BeMellowAquaSquid · 25/04/2026 22:43

Also Adrian Moles diary.

imbolic · 25/04/2026 22:43

In the late 90s I was in my 50s and had just discovered online fanfiction. It was quite a revelation...
In my teen years (1960s) I read almost exclusively science fiction... Asimov, Heinlein, Simak, Wyndham...
And Georgette Heyer.
Oh, nearly forgot "The Passion Flower Hotel" which was secretly passed around when I was at school (a girl's convent school) ... about teenage girls at a boarding school setting up a brothel for the boys at a nearby school ...

BeMellowAquaSquid · 25/04/2026 22:42

I loved Judy Blume I remember starting my periods and wondering when my Mum was going to offer to get me a period belt… I also loved the Twilight series

rightoguvnor · 25/04/2026 22:41

ooh yes, I forgot Flowers in the Attic. My horror author of choice was Dean Koontz. I still have nightmares about the outsider.

rightoguvnor · 25/04/2026 22:40

I turned 13 in 1980. I had a couple of years reading my older sister’s Mills & Boon, then the next few years were full of Judith Krantz, Barbara Taylor Bradford, a bit of Judy Blume, a lot of Danielle Steel.
When you say the 1990s, I think James Patterson and Patricia Cornwall. Very late 90s I got into Bernard Cornwall, Sam Llewelyn.
Today, it’s all murder murder death death. I’m sick of it really. But I have several series that I follow.

shellyleppard · 25/04/2026 22:37

Anything by Stephen king ❤️ been a fan for 40 years!!

fashionqueen0123 · 25/04/2026 22:36

MidnightMeltdown · 25/04/2026 22:15

Goosebumps and Point Horror 😀

Same!!

And babysitter club and sweet valley high

FionnulaTheCooler · 25/04/2026 22:36

Flowers in the Attic.

examworries2026 · 25/04/2026 22:35

Christopher Pike

Isekaied · 25/04/2026 22:35

Point horror

Nightmares series
Christopher pike books.
Spooksville.

Point sci-fi
Point fantasy.

Louise Cooper.

Sweet valley high- and all the other sweet valley series.

Baby sitter club

Mystery kids.

Pony club.

Horse club?

And loads of others.

Few other favourite authors.

Tamora pierce

Aworldofmyown · 25/04/2026 22:27

I think 'Memoirs of a Geisha'.

Happytaytos · 25/04/2026 22:25

Babysitters club and sweet valley high. ----

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