I don't really have a specific story, but I loved Catcher in the Rye in high school and it was the first book I read that it felt like it was written specifically for me as a teenager in a private school.

Weird. Glad it does though. Thanks.

bagger05 said:

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I remember reading it as a kid and getting so bored with Malcom's soliloquies. Like "come on, let's get back to the dinosaurs!"

I re-read it recently and I wasn't BORED with the dinosaur stuff, but I was always excited when we got back to Malcom waxing philosophically.

11 year old me read Nedry getting eaten at least 100 times.

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I didn't remember his name was Nedry, but I remember everything else about the moment when I read that scene thirty years ago. I read Jurassic Park twice and Timeline three times. It may be time to do Jurassic Park again.

Garrelli 5000 said:

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By the time I was in 4th grade I already loved reading. It was motivation to finish assignments quickly so that I could spend the rest of the period reading whatever book I had at the time.

Only a couple of other students did the same.

When the first dog diedin Where the Red Fern Grows I couldn't get out of the classroom fast enough. I knew I wasn't going to be able to withhold the tears and I also knew the teasing would be relentless. Most kids are mouth breathers at that age. My mom was teaching next door and my teacher let me sneak out to get her.

As much as I loved reading up to that point, I never could have comprehended the power a good well written story yields. I still remember crying in the hallway hugging my mom, praying the kids on the other side of the door couldn't hear. The pain from the book overwhelmed the fear of ridicule.

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I never read the book, but the movie had the same effect on me. I sobbed... and continued to be hit with emotion for a long time afterward. I was maybe 7 at the time.

Too many to count. Some of the imagery in the Illiad set fire to my imagination.

I think one of the best moments was reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and understanding the importance of TANSTAAFL in life. Everything worth having in life has that cost. You see that ethic in Heinleins other works too.

Cold Mountain, when Inman is killed.

I threw the book and yelled "No!!!"

Another one for me was getting to the end of A Game of Thrones.

When Ned got beheaded I was at the airport. I called up my buddy who recommended it and I was like "DUDE WTF?!?!"

He told me "It only gets worse. Don't get attached to anyone."

Seems silly to do spoiler prevention on GOT at this point but just in case.

Glad you did. I've read all the published books, but I'm keeping myself in the dark for everything after

Went with friends to the midnight release of the 6th Harry Potter book. Went home and started reading. It just kept getting better, so I read all night. Was shocked that Dumbledore died. Finished in the early morning hours and texted a friend. She replied right away and said "Almost done. Will call you." We then chatted about everything for a bit before crashing and sleeping all day.

I can also perfectly remember browsing through the sci-fi/fantasy section of my school's library in 5th/6th grade. Those were the years I read my first few books in each genre, and they've stuck with me ever since.

For whatever reason I can't recall any significant reading moments. However, whenever we went to the mall as a kid I spent my entire time at the mall in Waldenbooks. I would park in front of the Sci-fi/Fantasy section and not leave until my parents came looking for me and forced me to leave.

I remember reading Dracula in high school. The scene where Jonathan sees Dracula crawling down the wall stuck out to me. At that moment, he realized he was trapped. It was terrifying.

"What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature, is it in the semblance of man? I feel the dread of this horrible place overpowering me. I am in fear, in awful fear, and there is no escape for me. I am encompassed about with terrors that I dare not think of."

All these comments about Jurassic Park are striking a chord with me. I read it on a family trip to London in fifth grade, and I still have an indelible memory of the little hotel in the city where we stayed and the tiny bed where I read the Nedry death scene.

My sister and I would reread that a million times. It was page 197 of our paperback copy.

Jurassic Park for sure...the prologue had me hooked. Something about the helicopter coming in through the pouring rain, the mauled guy sitting up and projectile puking blood, the Doctor realizing the wounds couldn't be from heavy machinery, looking up the translation of 'hupia'. I was completely hooked

The lawyer was an absolute badass in the Jurassic Park book.

Garrelli 5000 said:

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By the time I was in 4th grade I already loved reading. It was motivation to finish assignments quickly so that I could spend the rest of the period reading whatever book I had at the time.

Only a couple of other students did the same.

When the first dog diedin Where the Red Fern Grows I couldn't get out of the classroom fast enough. I knew I wasn't going to be able to withhold the tears and I also knew the teasing would be relentless. Most kids are mouth breathers at that age. My mom was teaching next door and my teacher let me sneak out to get her.

As much as I loved reading up to that point, I never could have comprehended the power a good well written story yields. I still remember crying in the hallway hugging my mom, praying the kids on the other side of the door couldn't hear. The pain from the book overwhelmed the fear of ridicule.

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This may be one of the best and impactful books I have ever read. It just stays with you. I have not read it in 35+ years, but still remember it. I don't know that I could bring myself to read it again. Just incredible literature.

"I found her lying on her stomach, her hind legs stretched out straight, and her front feet folded back under her chest. She had laid her head on his grave. I saw the trail where she had dragged herself through the leaves. The way she lay there, I thought she was alive. I called her name. She made no movement. With the last ounce of strength in her body, she had dragged herself to the grave of Old Dan."

No Country for Old Men. So many scenes from the movie were basically EXACTLY how I envisioned and felt those parts of the book at that time. So much of that book has stuck with me. It's an incredible work of art imo.

The Perfect Storm might be a close second for me. Will never forget the detailed account of what drowning IRL was like. But that book is another hall of famer to me.

Disclaimer, I don't read a ton and am not a genius or anything.

We read Where the Red Fern grows as a class in fourth grade. Even though the teachers read it every year to their class, they still cried every year. And we all cried along with them.

My other memory is when I was 14 and had my first real job. It was at my dad's office but it was still a job and I felt very grown up. I read Jane Eyre that summer during lunchtime. I ate by myself because everybody was old and I guess I thought reading a classic would make me seem mature. I loved that book so much.

The last weird memory was when I was in Costa Rica. We were staying in a shack that we paid extra for electricity on top of a mountain. (Electricity=one light bulb). I was reading American Psycho and together with the creepiness of the dark jungle made it very scary.

I was reading A Dance With Dragons and my young son who was learning to read when he came over and sounded out the word Dragons on the cover. I get excited that he wants to read so I go grab a book his age. I get Goodnight Moon, it's a classic right? Except every other weird in that book isn't a word a new reader can sound out. Stupid English language.

Another one that really sticks out to me is Lonesome Dove...Deets and Gus' deaths hit me hard. I couldn't belive they killed off Gus the first time I read it

Thunder18 said:

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Another one that really sticks out to me is Lonesome Dove...Deets and Gus' deaths hit me hard. I couldn't belive they killed off Gus the first time I read it

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Deets hit me worst. I had to re-read it several days times before it sunk in.

Lame by comparison, but I was reading Stephen King's The Tommyknockers in college one night when, just as I read the rhyme, "Late last night and the night before, Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers knocking at my door," someone DID knock on my door.

The book wound up across the room.

The last sentence in the last book of Stephen King's The Gunslinger series. It was an ending that was completely unexpected.

Barbell Buddha: The Collected Writings of Chris Moore. May be my favorite book ever. I was working offshore thousands of miles from home. To say I was homesick would be an understatement. This book lifted me up.

First Stephen King novel was pet cemetery…scared the hell out of me.

I remember reading Martin Chuzzlewit many years ago and being absolutely sick to my stomach with the pacing and character development. Horrible novel

I'm going to check that out based on your post and that passage. I know about being homesick intimately and getting caught up in your head. I was given a somewhat illustrious position at a new company recently and I have just had the feeling that I cant do the job or that it is bigger than me or that I have successfully faked it and have now made it and I will be found out and lose it all. I actually have my final external vetting here in about an hour and although I know through my training i am capable, I still get in my head that I am not. I dont think there is even a real reason to have those thoughts because all of the folks I've trained with have given me good evaluations, yet here we are.

Quad Dog said:

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Definitely Where the Red Fern Grows making me cry. I've thought about giving it to my kids, but it also seems mean.

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Why would it be mean? It's the best book ever to show empathy. Well there's Charlottes Web.

The book was not scary.

Edit to add movie was.

I remember visiting my sister for Easter and saw that she had this book called Eragon. Ended up reading the entire book in one sitting. Got me hooked on the series.

I was and now am a slow reader, but taking a Sci-Fi English class in 1986-1987 at A&M with my girlfriend then/wife now; we were assigned reading of The Mote in God's Eye. The book's story was more engrossing than anything I have ever experienced before. I remember to this day my abject anger as the Moties were being brought aboard the ship. I was beside myself thinking, WTH is wrong with you? Like Paul Riser wanting to take the Aliens back to Earth. Are you NUTS! I may have actually thrown the book, I was so angry.

I really needed great Sci-fi to help me to learn to read better.

One reading memory that sticks out to me is finishing the 7th Harry Potter book sometime the morning after it came out. I remember getting Sorcerers Stone from the scholastic bookfair as a 4th grader, devouring it and then immediately checking out the Chamber of Secrets from the library. From then on, I purchased all of the books the day they released and even picked them up at midnight for the last 3. When the 7th book released, I had just finished high school and I cried when it was over because not only was it the end of Harry Potter, but for me it made the fact that I was no longer a child really sink in.

I wouldn't say anything was really "powerful", but I definitely have great memories of certain books. I remember going to the midnight release of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I took my brother, who had broken his leg playing hockey. They ended up having half of us go to the other side of the store at midnight to get our copies, and I was speed walking through the store yelling at him because he was struggling after me on crutches. I was yelling, "keep up ya gimp!"

Picked it up and read most of the night, slept for a few hours, then got up and read the rest of it in one sitting.

I also have great memories of being very young and reading the Chronicles of Narnia for the first time.

Maybe not a single specific moment, but reading "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" in the tenth grade greatly influenced my political outlook, as did John Steinbeck's "The Moon is Down". I still read the latter book every few years.

I also distinctly remember my excitement when my parents decided that I was old enough to read Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles and David Eddings's Belgariad.

This is a great topic. It is neat to read everyone's responses

For me, a few come to mind initially:

- I was reading The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr, I believe near the end of high school or so. It is the sequel to The Alienist, and I really liked both books. One cool feature about the sequel was that it was written from a different POV, even though the protagonist in the 1st book was still around and a part of the story. The 2nd book protagonist has a love interest that is a down and out girl who's had a really rough life. She dies in the book and it was very memorable. When I think back to it, I think of, depressingly, the hopelessness that people feel in certain stations, and the lives that they live because of it.

- The Eye of the World. I still remember the early book section when the Trollocs attack the al'Thor farm and Rand gets away. My favorite book series ever, so many great scenes and sequences. I wish I remembered more off of the top of my head! I hope to reread it all one day because of how formative the whole series was to me. Read them between ages 15 and 22 or so.

- Others come to mind with more thought, but these were my automatic ones.