What did the men in your life read as children?

[mrsgBANGing]

DH was an avid reader but doesn't remember that much detail from his childhood (duff memory is a family trait)

I know what books I read as a girl, but I also know that my two DSes are most likely going to reach an age where they don't want to read Ballet Shoes, Malory Towers etc. So what are the male equivalents?

DH read the Willard Price Aventure series. So did I, they were great.

The Swallows and Amazons series.

He still has them, and seems to want me to believe that those 12 books were all he read.

As far as I can see from the bookshelf on his parents' landing much the same as me (although minus the pony books) - Jennings, Dr Doolittle, Swallows & Amazons, Narnia, the Borrowers etc.

I would suggest Jennings as a much better alternative to Malory Towers

Getting a bit older, my Dad was a big fan of Biggles and the Saint. Both certainly stood the test of time well when I read them in the 70s/80s, not sure how they would fare measured against modern tastes - both very un-PC!

Nothing.
Atall.

He did say he remembers 'Where the wild things are' , when he saw it. That is huge for him as his memory is not great.

Ladybird information books. He still reads them now

Buster, The Hungry Caterpillar, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Enid Blyton, Swallows and Amazons.
He was a bookworm as a child, apparently, just not now!

I have just asked him - the answer is "nothing that school didn't make me read". These days he reads like a demon - Umberto Ecco, Gogol, Checkhov and a load of really depressing books about the environment. He also likes arty films that leave me cold.
Despite not reading anything by choice until he was in his late 20's, I suppose he has turned out OK in the reading department.

Swallows & Amazons, followed quickly by Hornblower series of books, then Alistair MacLean and Harold Robbins by age 11.

HumphreyCobbler - DH read the Willard Price books too; apparently loved them.

ABetaDad - Harold Robbins at 11 - eek!

Jennings, Just William. Not sure what else.

My DS is 7 and loves Harry Potter, Horrid Henry, some Roald Dahl, Borrowers, and The Beano.

Sorry, posted and ran last night

These are all great suggestions, thank you. Agree that Jennings is way better than the Enid Blytons and Chalet Schools. I think they were out of print for a time in my childhood as I couldn't get hold of them easily. Might treat myself DS1 for Xmas.

Not heard of Willard Price, so definitely one to look for.

I agree that reading is not essential for boys, btw. I've asked all my male friends about their boyhood reading and a few didn't at all. Including one who now has a Cambridge PhD in English Literature.

I read The Virgin Soldiers when I was 12!

I blame my Grandad who had cupboards full paperbacks.

Right then. Here we go on the full "jumpers for goalposts, Paynes Peppermint Poppets, Sinclair Spectrum Loading Sounds Saturday Superstore nostalgia ride....":

Age 4-6 Buttons comic. Reading scheme things at school (BORING!). Ladybird Read-it-Yourselfs. The easier Enid Blytons. Rupert Bear strips cut out of Daily Express by Grandmother. Bobby Brewster. Jeremy James. Dr Suess. Alice in Wonderland / Alice Through the Looking Glass. Illustrated Children's Bible (my parents laughed at my pronounciation of the Eggy-puttians). Charlotte's Web.

Age 7-9 The Beano. The Dandy. Buster. Whizzer and Chips (never bought it but seemed to be the favourite of wet playtimes at school) Roy of the Rovers. The Mail on Sunday Cartoons. Football results in the Mail on Sunday. Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl ad nauseam. Great Expectations (perhaps a mistake, I think I got through it but never voluntarily touched Dickens again). Choose Your own Adventures. The Iron Man. Joke Books. The more practical Ladybird books. The Guinness Book of Records. The Guinness Book of Answers. Children's Encyclopedias. Whatever the 1980s equivalent of Horrid Henry was. A lot of things I must have forgotten.

Age 10-12 Oink! comic. All of the Mail on Sunday. Agatha Christie. The Chronicles of Narnia. The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings. The Earthsea Trilogy. Joan Aiken. Animal Farm. Three Men in a Boat. Asterix (but never TinTin). The Time Machine. War of the Worlds. The Invisible Man. Day of the Triffids. The Chrysalids. The Midwich Cuckoos. Your Sinclair Magaazine. The Machine Gunners. The Call of the Wild. White Fang.

Age 13-16 Viz! Private Eye. The Sunday Times (father switched papers). Barry McKenzie. Tom Sharpe. Flashman. NineteenEightyFour. Brave New World. Scoop. Reginald Perrin. Hard Times (for GCSE). Adolf Hitler my Part in His Downfall. Puckoon. The Gormenghast Trilogy.

Clearly not a very comprehensive list, but what I could think of off the top of my head.

If anyone wants me to, I can try to add to this stream of conciousness rambling.

It seems that DH mostly read Biggles. And Tintin.
He reads quite widely now, however.

DH read nothing that wasn't about cars or planes. Or Airfix instructions. He really doesn't seem to have voluntarily read fiction until he met me (in his thirties) and I mocked him for it.

Tim and the Hidden People, The rats of nymph and lots of 'graphic novels' (posh comics to me) and some Judy Blume