What book got you into reading? Thousands of Reddit users shared the books that hooked them
Some discovered their love of books as kids. Others found it much later.
A thread on Reddit’s r/books blew up after someone asked a deceptively simple question: “What is the book that got you into reading?”
Thousands of readers started looking back at childhood favorites, teenage obsessions, and even books they discovered much later in life. And while plenty of titles were mentioned, certain books kept resurfacing.
Chances are, at least one of them was an early favorite of yours, too.
I’m an avid reader, but my taste is honestly all over the place. I’ll happily bounce from Pride and Prejudice or Anna Karenina to A Court of Thorns and Roses, then pick up something like Contact or A Gentleman in Moscow. I loved the latter enough that I even visited the real Metropol Hotel in Moscow and got to see the setting for myself.
More recently, I randomly picked up The Onassis Women and loved it, then grabbed Into the Gray Zone at the airport and have been enjoying that too. Basically, there’s no predicting what I’ll read next. (You can see a snapshot of my random reading lists on Amazon.)
What I can’t tell you is which book actually made me a reader. I don’t remember a before-and-after moment. I’ve just always liked books for as long as I can remember, going all the way back to reading and rereading The Rainbow Fish as a kid.
That’s probably why I found this Reddit thread so interesting. So many people could point to one specific book and say, “Yep, that was it.”
The Childhood Gateways
But for a lot of people, there wasn’t one magical book. It was a series that sucked them in.
Goosebumps was a major gateway for kids who grew up in the ’90s. More than a few readers followed a similar path: Goosebumps turned into Fear Street, which eventually turned into Stephen King at an age they now admit was probably a little questionable.
Roald Dahl was another big one. The BFG, Matilda, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were among the first books people remembered wanting to read, rather than reading because a teacher told them to. Several people specifically remembered hearing The BFG read aloud in class and realizing, somewhere along the way, that they actually liked books.
The Chronicles of Narnia inspired similar memories. One reader recalled a fifth-grade teacher reading the series aloud after recess to settle everyone down, then buying copies for students who wanted to follow along.
UK and Australian readers had another answer that appeared again and again: Enid Blyton. The Famous Five and The Secret Seven seem to have played much the same role there that Goosebumps did for plenty of American kids.
The Harry Potter Effect
Nothing in the thread inspired quite as many responses as Harry Potter.
It was mentioned more than 60 times, but what stood out were the memories attached to the books. People remembered midnight releases, racing their parents to finish the newest installment, carrying a copy everywhere, and rereading the series until the books were practically falling apart.
For a whole generation, Harry Potter wasn’t just something they read. Waiting for the next book became an event.
The Books Kids Chose for Themselves
One theme I noticed throughout the discussion was how often people remembered the first book they chose on their own.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen was one of those books. One reader remembered pretending to be asleep so they could keep reading after bedtime, while others said they had returned to it as adults and were pleasantly surprised by how well it held up.
Redwall by Brian Jacques had its own devoted fan club. Readers described it as “peak reading” for them at that age, and several still recommend the series to adults.
Then there was Island of the Blue Dolphins, which prompted one of my favorite memories in the thread:
“That was the first time I chose to read on a Saturday morning instead of watching cartoons. I was like, oh wait, does this mean I’m growing up?”
The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew also had plenty of fans. One person remembered stealing their dad’s flashlight to read Hardy Boys under the covers before eventually moving on to their sister’s Nancy Drew books and deciding Nancy was “way better, IMO.”
The YA Books That Hooked Reluctant Readers
Not everyone became a reader in elementary school. For some people, it took the right YA series years later.
Twilight was mentioned with absolutely no embarrassment. Readers talked about rereading the books obsessively, staying up all night to finish them, and even heading to the movie premiere alone because they didn’t want to miss it.
The Hunger Games had a similar pull, while Percy Jackson seemed especially important for people who had always thought of reading as schoolwork. One person called it “the series that got me into reading as a hobby rather than just doing it for school.”
Sometimes you don’t dislike reading. You just haven’t found the book that makes you forget you’re supposed to be asleep.
The Books That Brought Adults Back
A surprising number of readers didn’t discover, or rediscover, their love of books until adulthood.
Agatha Christie was a popular answer among people who had fallen out of the habit. Her mysteries are relatively short, move quickly, and give you the satisfaction of finishing a whole story without committing to a 700-page doorstop. One reader credited The Murder of Roger Ackroyd with starting what they called “my personal reading revolution” during their first winter break in college.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams brought other readers back after what one person called their “apathetic teen years.”
And then there was The Da Vinci Code. Whatever your opinion of Dan Brown, several people said that book reached them at exactly the right time, often in their early twenties, and reminded them that reading could be something they raced through for fun.
The Books People Never Quite Got Over
There’s also a difference between the book that made you a reader and the book that stayed with you.
The Giver was one of those titles. One person admitted they were nervous about rereading it because they didn’t want to ruin what the book meant to them in high school. Another replied that they reread it every seven years and find something different in it each time.
Flowers for Algernon left a similar mark. One reader said it had “left a lasting impression,” then immediately added that The Shining was actually the book that got them reading regularly.
I liked that answer because it gets at something the original question doesn’t quite capture. The book that moves you most deeply isn’t necessarily the same book that turns you into someone who always has another book waiting on the nightstand.
Where the Red Fern Grows and Bridge to Terabithia landed in that category too. Plenty of readers still remembered exactly how devastated those books made them as kids.
The Best Answers Were Really About the Memories
Some of my favorite responses had very little to do with famous books.
One person found Tom Sawyer in a garbage bin while dumpster diving and took it home. Another remembered being a first grader who wanted an SNES game for Christmas, got Calvin and Hobbes instead, and ended up reading the book so many times the spine wore out.
And once you have that book, you tend to remember it.
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I got into reading in early elementary school through these historical fiction books in the school library. They were all hardbacks with plain, black covers, so I assume they were part of a series or by the same publisher. I can’t for the life of me remember what they actually were.
A book called Hieros Journey when I was a kid!
My first book series was Little House on the Prairie
Sometimes you just need the right book to discover you love reading.
The Sesame Street hard cover books really sparked my interest in reading