# NF's what were your favourite books as children/adult?



## Entelechy (Dec 5, 2009)

Childhood

"Where the Wild Things Are"
Encyclopedia Brown books
Movie novelizations
Choose Your Adventure Books

Adulthood

Haruki Murakami books ("Kafka on the Shore", "Norwegian Wood")
"The Stranger"
"Nausea" by Jean Paul Sartre
"The Denial of Death"
"Dubliners" by James Joyce


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## Darity (Dec 17, 2009)

Highschool Pariah said:


> Bartimaous(?) Trilogy


you mean like:









?
They were very entertaining 

In my childhood I was quite into Enid Blyton. The secret series and the adventure series were so much more interesting than anything else back then. With about 13-14 I was fascinated by stephen king.

Nowadays I spend my reading time with Paulo Coelho, whatever my friends recommend (that's either geniusly intellectual or plain fantasy entertainment for the most part) and from time to time a random pick in the book store. I tend to pick to good ones like the Bartimäus trilogy roud:


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## Mandarin (Nov 22, 2009)

Mmm, I remember really like the Ramona books and the Boxcar Children series in early grade school. Middle school: "The Giver", "A Wrinkle in Time", "Number the Stars", "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle", Chronicles of Narnia, and the Animorphs series.
High school: "The Things They Carried", "The Alchemist", the Harry Potter series (which I still love), this is when I was introduced to The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit...
I still read avidly when I can. I've been into the fantasy stuff lately: the Crossroad series, rereading LotR, starting the Wheel of Time series, etc. I'll also go back and reread favorites from childhood fairly often when I'm in a mood. It's amazing the stuff you get out of children's books when you're older.


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## Kaipa (Dec 22, 2009)

As a child:
A Little Princess by F. H. Burnett
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Famous Five by Enid Blyton
Sweet Valley Kids / Twins.

Now:
A Little Princess by F. H. Burnett
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Crime and Punishment by Feodor Dostoyevski
Fear and Trembling by S. Kierkegaard
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

There are many books that I still haven't read that I know I'm going to love...


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## Wanderling (Dec 27, 2009)

*As a child:*
The chronicles of Narnia (CS Lewis)
Paddington bear (Michael Bond)
Bilbo the Hobbit (JR Tolkien)
The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas)
The Count of Monté Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
The Harry Potter series (JK Rowling)

*As an adult:*
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
Les Fleurs du Mal (Charles Baudelaire)
The Portrait of an Artist as a Young man (James Joyce)
Lilith (George MacDonald)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
Vanity Fair (William Thackeray)
The poems of Emily Dickinson
The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
The Jungle (Upton Sinclair)
Mary Barton (Elizabeth Gaskell)
La Peau de Chagrin (Honoré de Balzac)
Candide (Voltaire)
Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)
The Big Money (John dos Passos)
Sula (Toni Morrison)


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## cardinalfire (Dec 10, 2009)

I wrote this on another thread without knowing about this one, so perhaps the child / adult thing is an INFP thing.

Here is the post I wrote:

Are books like Alice In Wonderland common among INFP's?

I usually fall between an ISFP and INFP. I used to really like the Alice books, and I still do. I wonder if I type some books I loved as a kid and what I'm reading now, whether someone would tell me if they are INFP or more of another temperament.

As a kid I liked:
Alice
Wizard of OZ
Paul Jennings "Un" series like Unbelievable etc (the guy who was the inspiration for round the twist show)
Dante Divine Comedy (love Gustav Dores etchings)
Walker Bear books (a collection set, they had extracts from different kids books)

Now:
I'm reading Shakespeare
Still going through the classics and I like some poetry, not all of it, some of it is crap in my view. Though I suppose it takes someone who has read more than the average person to know that!
I read a lot of philosophy for my social sciences/sociology degree course at Uni. Is Philosophy a INFP thing? Or perhaps specific writers? I wouldn't say all philosophers were INFP's. Machiavelli or Sartre an Idealist? hmm I doubt it.
The manual of the warrior of light and Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
Arabian Nights (which I might not finish because it is boring)
Gullivers Travels (which I stand more chance of finishing then the last one)
Metamorphosis Kafka
Maupassant short stories,
these are some of the books I am reading or have read recently.

I have always really been attracted to fantasy movies like Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton style films. Are these INFP things?
I would rather watch a Narnia or the Tim Burton Alice or a Marvel Heroes movie than a thriller or something more 'realistic'.

----------------------------------------------------------------

And I totally loved the Arthur legends too, as mentioned in the first post. I may be more INFP then ISFP by the way things are going.


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## Wanderling (Dec 27, 2009)

cardinalfire said:


> Are books like Alice In Wonderland common among INFP's?
> 
> I usually fall between an ISFP and INFP. I used to really like the Alice books, and I still do. I wonder if I type some books I loved as a kid and what I'm reading now, whether someone would tell me if they are INFP or more of another temperament.


I'm sure they are! Alice in Wonderland probably attracts many NFs as it deals a lot with childhood, dreams, loss of/search for identity, re-interpreting "reality" through your own imagination, etc. (Though funy enough Lewis Caroll was a mathematician, and I usually associate mathematicians with S or T more than N or F. Maybe I'm wrong!)



cardinalfire said:


> Philosophy a INFP thing? Or perhaps specific writers? I wouldn't say all philosophers were INFP's. Machiavelli or Sartre an Idealist? hmm I doubt it.


As you say, I can't imagine Sartre or Machiavelli being Idealists! Plato strongly criticised poets because they weren't telling the "truth", in his view. Kicking the poets out of the city? Not a very NF thing to do... Philosophy is such a wide field that I don't think you can identify it with any one personality type. But I guess a large proportion of INFPs (me included) are interested in Philosophy or Metaphysics or wondering WTF are we doing here? or looking for an answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything (the answer is 42, by the way), or whatever you want to call it.



cardinalfire said:


> I have always really been attracted to fantasy movies like Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton style films. Are these INFP things?
> I would rather watch a Narnia or the Tim Burton Alice or a Marvel Heroes movie than a thriller or something more 'realistic'.


They probably _are _more NF things, which doesn't mean that other personality types don't enjoy them. All the emo kids (*sigh* where have all the goths gone?) claim to love Tim Burton but I don't think all of them are actually NF—unless the proportion of NFs in society has drastically increased. It's maybe part of the emo fashion trend (Jack Skellington t-shirts) and the emo subculture orthodoxy.

By the way, can't wait for Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland movie...


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## cardinalfire (Dec 10, 2009)

GroovyShamrock said:


> They probably _are _more NF things, which doesn't mean that other personality types don't enjoy them. All the emo kids (*sigh* where have all the goths gone?) claim to love Tim Burton but I don't think all of them are actually NF—unless the proportion of NFs in society has drastically increased. It's maybe part of the emo fashion trend (Jack Skellington t-shirts) and the emo subculture orthodoxy.
> 
> By the way, can't wait for Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland movie...


Possibly. I am not part of this subculture though I do see the point you are making. Perhaps there isn't an influx of INFPs, just a large number of kids looking for answers and going through some existential angst, as most people do between the beginning of puberty to about the early twenties. That may also account for why there are more threads within the NF section (specifically INFP) than the others. Which I find surprising because I would imagine that most people were guardians or artisans, I don't meet a princess Diana (INFP type) or Bill Gates (NT) type everyday. 

To stop this seeming like a thread steal... I also am looking forward to that movie!


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## Danse Macabre (Oct 30, 2009)

GroovyShamrock said:


> They probably _are _more NF things, which doesn't mean that other personality types don't enjoy them. All the emo kids (*sigh* where have all the goths gone?) claim to love Tim Burton but I don't think all of them are actually NF—unless the proportion of NFs in society has drastically increased. It's maybe part of the emo fashion trend (Jack Skellington t-shirts) and the emo subculture orthodoxy.


Emo kids..... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I could go on _such_ a rant. All the goths all died when Peter Murphy signed on to do a cameo in the "Twilight" series!!! GOD NO, WHY!?!?!? *stab* ...heh... 
It really does make me sad. But I have to laugh xD


Anyway =D

I don't read much fiction because in general I like to read up on history and philosophy. And biographies. One Fourteenth of an Elephant was an especially good auto biographical work. 
But when I was a kid, I loved Harry Potter. Actually, I still really like it. 
I loved the "Famous Five" series by Enid Blyton. 

And some fiction books I've gotten around to reading and have enjoyed are basically everything by Chuck Palahniuk, everything by Ray Bradbury, One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest.... Yeah, not many really. I prefer non fiction in general because it's more difficult to find something completely terrible xD


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## Jack Rabid (Aug 6, 2009)

As a child my favorite book was "The Wump World" it was about a little lush planet with these horse like creatures inhabiting it .. Then their planet was colonized by a race known as the "Pollutants" who destroyed their world..

Wumps










Pollutants










I also loved Curious George Books..


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## Lilsnowy (Sep 9, 2009)

Way before your time, but mysteries like Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys. Also The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, anything on ghosts and the erotic fiction books my dad hid under his bed.


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## Wanderling (Dec 27, 2009)

Lilsnowy said:


> Way before your time, but mysteries like Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys. Also The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, anything on ghosts and the erotic fiction books my dad hid under his bed.


The Hardy Boys were class. Although I don't know those books as well as the Brit equivalent (by Enid Blyton: especially the Secret Seven and the Famous Five), which I used to read as wee kid.
I learned to read English with the Narnia books...I loved them, and I still do.


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## Rustang (Dec 31, 2009)

this will date me but.........




















can anyone name that one?


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## Kurlyjew (Nov 25, 2013)

My ALL TIME favorite: Jane Eyre. I love escaping into her mind, watching her thought process. I've found we are much alike, and where there are differences, they are complimentary. Honestly, she's like a friend. I'm almost afraid to devour her story once again, because I don't want to wear it out! But the terrific language used, the ethical dilemmas, the poignant storyline, not to mention Jane's strong morals and sense of compassion, her self certainty and keen perception, and her quiet, diligent ways contrasting with her feminism, independence and insistence on emotional/intellectual equality with Edward Rochester... I absolutely adore her! Is Jane Eyre an INFJ? That would explain my strong connection with her!


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## Kurlyjew (Nov 25, 2013)

Planet of the Damned? I read a few chapters...


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## justjay (Dec 2, 2013)

I used to love Goosebumps and Animorphs when I was in second and third grade. In my teens I liked Cyrano de Bergerac and still do. Now I mostly read classics and mystery novels.


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## question my existence (Sep 18, 2013)

Serendipity books 
The Pit Dragon Chronicles 
American Girl
Babysitters Club
Goosebumps
Fear Street

{all of these as a kid and many more. I loved/love reading.}


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## raintree (Dec 30, 2013)

I read a lot of Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl as a kid. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was my absolute favorite. I also loved Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. As a teen till I was about 20, I went through a period of classics. Books I really loved were The Count of Monte Cristo, Jane Eyre and Gone with the Wind. Now I read more non fictions, but I really liked the Harry Potter series and The Time Traveller's Wife. I would really like to go back to classics again.


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## ValliLoves (Jan 10, 2014)

As a kid: Charlottes Webb, Indian In The Cupboard, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Hatchett, Andromeda Strain, 1984, Sheila The Great, Of Mice and Men, Goosebumps, Babysitters Club, Readers Digest, and It. Anything Mary Higgins Clark. 

As an adult: Only non-fiction


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## DustyWind (Dec 18, 2013)

As a child: _Harry Potter_, _Winnie the Pooh_, _Wind in the Willows_, ... can't think of other books. I read a lot of X-Men comic books and Garfield, because that was the only thing available at the time. Steven King, as well, I adored him (still love the first 3/4 of _The Shining_.)

As an teenager/adult: Steinbeck, Shakespeare, Roald Dahl's short stories, _To Kill a Mockingbird_, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Edgar Allan Poe, Anthony Burgess, William S. Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, James Joyce, Allan Moore, Kurt Vonnegut, Samuel Beckett, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Tennessee Williams, Franz Kafka, George Orwell,_ Calvin and Hobbes_, and I should shut up now. I had phases.


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