When did you read your first “real” book?

You know what type I’m talking about. Your first step up from the board & chapter books of your youth. The book that only has pictures every 20-30 pages, if it has one at all. A book that you chose yourself rather than the stuff your teachers & parents made you read.

For me that first book will always be the book version of ‘The Gnomemobile’ in the first grade. (Prior to this I did read about 10-20 pages of ‘IT’ before my mom wisely moved her copy to a new location. Since I was prone to freaking out after every horror movie, she figured that me reading a book about a monstrous child killer was probably a bad idea.) I remember being so proud of it since it was the first book I’d read that didn’t have cartoonish characters on the inside. I’ll admit… part of me did kind of long for lots of colorful pictures every now & again.

So I can’t help but wonder what those books were for other people. What was your first “real” book?