What was the first adult literature you enjoyed?

[steve(thelil)]

This is slightly derivative of my earlier "what was the first adult TV show you were into" thread, but since I am not John Fogerty and my former record company doesn't own my earlier thread, I don't think I can get sued for plagiarizing myself.

Anyway, for me (and I'm betting many others) it was Catcher in the Rye.

Now I know young adolescents love it. but I still consider it a real novel as opposed to kids' literature.

My parents wanted me to read more and told me to read it. I was astonished that something that my parents wanted me to read was THAT good!

[sozamora]

The earliest actual grown up books I remember reading and enjoying were Hugo's 'Notre Dame De Paris' and Tolstoy's 'Resurrection'.

There are probably a bunch of technically 'adult' books that border the line before then, but those two were clearly grown-up books.

[stonemonkts]

Great Expectations

[Monte Smith]

I used to read anything I could get my hands on. Mad and Cracked magazine, superhero comics, Victor Appleton, Walter Farley, didn't matter. One day my dad says to me, "You should start reading the classics." So I picked up KING LEAR and liked it very much. From that moment on it was all Shakespeare and classics like Mad Magazine, superhero comics, Victor Appleton, etc.

[Tom Storer]

I was like Monte. From an early age I picked up the nearest book and read it. If it was too far above my reading or experience level, I dropped it and went on to the next, but I never really thought about whether it was adult or not.

I do remember page 23 of the paperback version of "The Godfather," however. Does anyone else?

[Douglas]

Too quickly got to Greene. Revisited recently and realised how much I missed.

[Chazro]

I've been a voracious reader since childhood. The 1st book I can remember that I'd consider 'adult' was The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.

I also read the Godfather back in the day but read it again decades later and enjoyed it so much more! Know what really blows?, every followup to the Godfather, by Puzo and especially those written by other writers!

Bur let's talk true adult!;) I remember as a kid (elementary school) always finding my Dad's and uncles stashes of Playboy! Wasn't 'til much later on that I realized there actually was some extraordinary stuff to actually READ in the magazine! As a kid I remember these porn novels we'd pass around amongst the gang. Don't laugh! I learned a lot from those!!;) Later on came Penthouse and farther down; Hustler! The pinnacle of my young depraved reading was the Rolling Stone newspaper-like Screw!

Alrighty than, From Kafka to Screw!

[BeBop]

The first one that really stuck with me - though I didn't fully understand it and still don't - was Voltaire's Candide. Beyond that, by early interests were Russian folk tales and Zola's stories...many about prostitutes.

[A. Kingstone]

I've been a voracious reader since childhood. The 1st book I can remember that I'd consider 'adult' was The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.
....

Really? I just bought my first bunch of Kafka. I'm 52!

[steve(thelil)]

I've been a voracious reader since childhood. The 1st book I can remember that I'd consider 'adult' was The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.
....

Really? I just bought my first bunch of Kafka. I'm 52!

I'm older and almost ready to start on some Kafka. When I was 52 I still thought it was an Israeli snack.

[Monte Smith]

I read THE CASTLE and THE TRIAL when I was 19 or so. Defining works for me? I'm not at liberty to say. I worry it wouldn't be right. Plus there's my case to consider.

[BeBop]

Metamorphosis and the Trial. Excellent!

Another peripherally related (to Metamorphosis, in my mind) is Edgar Allan Poe; I say related because they booth spooked me. "Scared" isn't really the right term. But I was upset/haunted.

[erwbol]

When I finally got around to reading Kafka's Metamorphosis I was sort of bored by it and couldn't be bothered after the first x pages.

[BeBop]

When I finally got around to reading Kafka's Metamorphosis I was sort of bored by it and couldn't be bothered after the first x pages.

On some level, I can relate to this reaction too. Once the plot is set, it just goes on. Not much dynamic to it. But I still enjoy it, stasis and all.

[sozamora]

I read THE CASTLE and THE TRIAL when I was 19 or so. Defining works for me? I'm not at liberty to say. I worry it wouldn't be right. Plus there's my case to consider.

I love The Trial, but I've never been able to finish The Castle for some reason. I should give it another try.

[Chazro]

Here's one I read as a teenager that got a lot of attention back in the day, my guess is that a few Jazz lovers around here read it also:

Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet

[tippy]

I wanna say Siddhartha for 10th grade World History, but I think there must have been something before that but couldn't have made anywhere near the same impression. I was completely overtaken. It shifted my brain a healthy let's say 90 degrees.

My first favorite book was Black Beauty. I wonder how that would sound as an adult.

[sozamora]

My first favorite book was Black Beauty. I wonder how that would sound as an adult.

My first favorite book was Jules Verne's 'Michael Strogoff'. I read about six or seven times in junior high. A couple of years ago I re-read it and for the first time in English. I was surprised how fun and exciting it still was.

[tippy]

Hey Serge. That's interesting, although I would think a Jules Verne book might have better teeth. I have really never thought about Black Beauty much at all these many, many years later until I was responding to this thread. But looking back I wonder that that book probably really shaped me too, my early thinking, because it is told from the horse's point of view and the concept that what we accept as normal can really be a thing of intense cruelty is very strong in that book.

[Tom Storer]

That's a coincidence, someone recently recommended "Michael Strogoff" specifically to my son (an adult). He chanced upon a cheap used paperback copy at a flea market and is now reading it.

[steve(thelil)]

That's a coincidence, someone recently recommended "Michael Strogoff" specifically to my son (an adult). He chanced upon a cheap used paperback copy at a flea market and is now reading it.

It also comes in beef.

[steve(thelil)]

That's a coincidence, someone recently recommended "Michael Strogoff" specifically to my son (an adult). He chanced upon a cheap used paperback copy at a flea market and is now reading it.

It also comes in beef.

[sozamora]

That's a coincidence, someone recently recommended "Michael Strogoff" specifically to my son (an adult). He chanced upon a cheap used paperback copy at a flea market and is now reading it.

It's a terrific adventure book, though I may be overrating it because I loved it so much as a kid. I tended to like Verne's straight adventures books more than the 'scientific romances'. But I was still surprised how much I enjoyed it as an adult*.

On a side note, I get the sense that Verne is less popular in the US than he is in Mexico. It might be because the first English translations were so heavily bowdlerized and abridged to make them more suitable for for kids.

* (as long as I overlooked the casual racism)

[drumsolo]

John Steinbeck's East of Eden; a pretty good place to start.

[Pete C]

Fanny Hill.