Favorite books

A friend on FB posed a great question - what was the first "grown-up" book that you read. I'm not sure how I would answer that. I remember reading lots of animal books and I still think about them often, especially now that Cal is reading books on his own.

As a kid, I was obsessed with The Black Stallion and the whole series of horse books by Walter Farley and Lad, a Dog and the whole series of dog books by Albert Payson Terhune. I don't know if those really count as grown-up books, but I must have read dozens of them.

I also remember reading Call of the Wild and other books by Jack London - I just loved those adventure stories. I would imagine myself in one while I walked home from school or tooled around "the woods" near our house on the weekends.

I don't remember reading the more typical girl-oriented authors like Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters until I got assigned them in school. Though I adored, still adore, The Secret Garden and The Little Princess by Frances Hodges Burnett, but those are not considered grown-up books of course.

I remember reading Peyton Place when I was fairly young (too young I'm sure). I was appropriately shocked, though it's mild stuff compared to what young teens and pre-teens read these days.