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

[Antarcticant]

Inspired by a comment on the 'Rather Dated' thread.

What was the first book you read that wasn't written for children? How old were you and what did you think of it? Did it become a favourite?

Mine was 'Animal Farm' and I was eight. I think it had been mentioned on Radio 4. I was fascinated by it. Orwell went on to become an author I love. I read 1984 in the year in question when I was 10 (everyone was going on about 1984 in 1984!) and gradually worked my way through my mum's collection of Orwell novels.

I also read 'Jane Eyre' around this time and was bowled over by it. I continued to like it well into my 20s, but later become disillusioned with it when it crossed my mind that Rochester wasn't really a very heroic man.

The Hobbit is a children's book.

So glad there's some Flowers in the Attic among the classics here. The first novel I read that wasn't aimed at children was the novelisation of the film Fame, I loved the TV series (which was suitable for children). I was 11 and it was the first book I read with drug taking and a sex scene. Like PPs I loved

Flowers in the Attic and all the bonkbusters like Lace. I read some decent stuff as a young teenager as well, To Kill a Mockingbird was my favourite book for as a teenager and I loved The Color Purple as well. Didn't really read your typical Victorian classics until I was at University though.

Orwell for me to. My dad bought me a set of 6 Orwell books for my 15th birthday. I started with Down and out in Paris and London and then worked my way through the rest. He is a great to author to cut your teeth on

Dickens too

Yes - my mum's Mills and Boone! She liked the Dr/nurse ones and they didn't really seem much different to my favourite Sue Barton stories! I was probably about 11.

First adult - probably The Thorn Birds. I also read all the A J Cronin books, R F Delderfield (another Diana fan!) - A Horseman Riding by trilogy and The Swann family saga. Not sure how old I was, but all between the ages of about 13-17 I guess.

No idea but certainly in High School we were reading adult books in S1 so about age 12. Shakespeare, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, the war poets etc.

I'm must have read other adult books before then but it was a long time ago.

Read Forever by Judy Blume in last year of primary school, so possibly a little young for that! Read Lace when I was 13/14 and oh lord yes the Flowers in the Attic series, they were disturbing even then! Also read Ambition by Julie Birchall when I was mid teens and that was quite an eye opener! 🤣

Twopence to Cross The Mersey and I must have been about 12.

@Antarcticant i was told a whore was a bad woman of girl.

got the tea towel across my legs when I called my sister a little wore a week later.

We read loads in school if course like Great expectations, Lord of the flies. For fun I remember reading Flowers in the Attic and Jane Eyre. Not sure I really understood Jane Eyre though! I also read Empire of the Sun which I saved up for ages with those book tokens you used to stick in a card. Those were the days (80s/early 90s)

The Kontiki Expedition by Thor Heyerdahl, I was 9.

Mine was Memoires of a Geisha - I loved it

Flowers in the attic for me too, I think I was about 12.

LOTR/ Hobbit/ Jane Eyre/ Wuthering Heights/ Jane Austen/ John Wyndham all in Y5/6. First Stephen King (Pet cemetery ) when I was about 12.

Carrie at 13

Unless you count books about people's experience of unexplained things like ghosts, aliens etc that I was reading at about 10

My older DSis let me read her copy of Forever by Judy Blume when I was about 11, it was quite graphic for that age!
I read Stephen King as a young teen.

'Forever' was much talked about at my school in the 80s.

"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov at about 13. Got it out of the school library. I've always felt it was a really sad story.

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.

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 😂.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Odessa File at 9.