The Boxcar Children was one of my first books, too. I think it had been my mother's book. I only ended up reading it was because it was there.

Another of the first books I read was my dad's book from his childhood. It was called Fun With Dick and Jane, which is also a part of a series.

The only other books that I read on my own before that were various Dr. Seuss books. We had a huge collection of those, but my mom eventually gave all of them away.