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The Modern Rifle by Jim Carmichel

The Red Badge of Courage was a good one. Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Black Stallion, Little Britches, Farmer Boy, The Hardy Boys, to name a few more.

Bingo. Read The Walking Drum at my grandma’s house one summer, and was a L’Amour fiend after that. Got a lot of my code from such reading.

Read encyclopedias as well, and a huge stack of National Geographic magazines from the 60’s my maternal grandfather gave me. Plus a lot of outdoor, camping and survival books, too.

I read all of James Fenimore Coopers books. does anyone remember this one by the Annixters?


https://www.amazon.com/Horns-Plenty-Jane-Annixter/dp/B0007DW0IK

My Side of the Mountain, Scouting for Boys, anything Jack London and when I was older New England Grouse Shooting by W H Foster. Later I got into Ray Bradbury books, mainly Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles and the Illustrated Man.
The book that finely got my reluctant son to start reading was Hatchet by Gary Paulson.

I see many more mentions of reading the encyclopedia than I would have expected. I thought I was the only one.

From the third grade on, I went to the book shelf and pulled down a random volume of an encyclopedia and thumbed through until I found an interesting article.

All the rest of the class was outside on the playground at recess, and I was sitting on the floor of the classroom reading the encyclopedia.

By the time I reached 7'th grade it was Audel's books on electronics, automobiles, and building trades.

But I have to credit Robert A Heinlein with much of my political leaning. While his stories are fiction, the problems created by oppressive governments and a citizen's response to those problems are very real.

I read "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" in the third or fourth grade. It was my first exposure to Science Fiction, and for me was akin to a shot of crystal meth. I was immediately addicted and have been for life.

Heinlein led to Asimov, Clark, Le Guin, Bradbury, Frank Herbert (Oh my, DUNE), Niven, Vonnegut, Huxley, L R Hubbard, Anne McAffrey, Frederick Pohl, Zelazny, and Michael Crichton. Which of course led to J R R Tolkein, and Terry Brooks, and finally to several years of voraciously devouring anything written by Piers Anthony.

The Loghtning and the Sun
Mein Kampf
March of the Titans
This Time the World

I didn't really start reading meaningful stuff until the 8th grade or so, but have made up for lost time by going at it pretty hard.

Goodnight Moon

Books by Jim Kjelgaard and Louis Lamour impacted me as a kid, along with My Side of the Mountain, Where the Red Fern Grows, Old Yeller, and the Little House series.

My side of the mountain; Where the Red Fern Grows, Crazy Horse, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Down the Long Hills, Big Red, treasure island,Old Yeller, at about age 8. Later various Hemingway and Jim Corbett, A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. Laughing Boy, Lord Grizzly, When the Legends Die, Call of the Wild, Death in the Long Grass. The Deep. Lonesome Dove. Body Count. Several Joseph Wambaugh books, the Foxfire series. Charles Askins. Jeff Cooper.

One that I just remembered is Space Station Seventh Grade.


It depicts a 7th graders transition to young adulthood to a T.


I recall it being a hilarious book.

Martin Eden by Jack London

I forgot about Big Red also. I read that a few times.


The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton was a very good read as well. Much better than the movie.

Same kind of readers as I am. Boy's Life, Camping et al.

My first LL was the Day Breakers. Orrin and Ty's "going west" portion of the Sackett story. I have read them all and own them all in the Leather Collector set I bought about 10 years ago at which time I read them all again top to bottom. The Walking Drum is truly one of the best.

I also read a lot of Alistar Maclean before I was allowed to ever see such movies! Parents thought it was so great that I read all of the time. I read all of the WW2 classics like Doolittle's Raid, Flying Tigers and later Leon Uris' Battle Cry and such.

Probably these right here.
Pictorial Encyclopedia of American History
Each volume covers a different era or event of American History, with big illustrations and a description of each event per page. They were bought for my older brother, but as a kid, I devoured them. The illustrations captured my imagination, drawing me into reading the stories.
Most probably the reason I’m a History Nerd now, although Dad certainly influenced my development. American History was a passion of his as well.
That led to this,
Golden Book of the Civil War
Dad bought me this at the Gettysburg Cyclorama book shop when I was 8, in 1973! I plum wore the thing out, but found another copy a a used book sale recently. It’ll go to my first grandchild.
Probably oughtta mention Jack O’Conner’s “Rifles and Shotguns” . That fueled my enthusiasm towards things that go BANG, which has been another passion of mine.
7mm

Had to hunt for it
Jack O’Conners Rifles & Shotguns
I had this book as an adult too, and Ben wore it out. Probably destroyed his future like it did mine!
I’m gonna order another copy to put with the others for my grandchildren! Gotta start them young!
7mm

I read that cover to cover about 6 times, I was 12 years old. Great book by Jack O'Conner.

It was this childhood book, that led to my military career as a Naval Aviator . . .

+1

Read One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich way back in hi school about 1972. Later read The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Both made a BIG impression on me.

Good books!