A lot of the same for me, down to reading silly non-fiction books just to read something as a child. This has become nearly vestigial as I've gotten older.
Books like Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, Brave New World, 1984, Animal House, Treasure Island, The Lord of the Flies, The Old Man and the Sea, etc. made much more sense to me than any of the Judy Bloom style books that are so prevalent. The last of those books I enjoyed was "How to Eat Fried Worms," and then, that only resonated with me because we were forced to participate in a school book dressup day and I realized I could coat crunchy chinese noodles with chocolate and bring them to class.
I was a kid of the 80s and 90s. I grew up outside. I played rough and got hurt and then played rough again. I explored. My parents existed to feed me, clothe me, and yell at me for not achieving enough. Any book depicting a parent who sat their child down to give them sage advice about life was completely foreign to my experience.
I am not sure if you've already experienced-and-disliked his work, but may I recommend Neal Stephenson? I have always appreciated his style of prose, and the way he describes characters. He writes in a nerdy way that I can't quite explain, and I always trust that he will weave separate-seeming narratives together in a way that is satisfying (even if I am often dissatisfied at the _endings_ of his books).
Everyone points to Snow Crash (which I liked too), but recently I also really enjoyed REAMDE and the first half of Termination Shock (I haven't finished it yet). I love the way he describes things. I'd like to say that I could read + enjoy anything he writes on any subject, but for some reason I didn't like his Baroque Cycle books (but don't understand why not).
Also big recommendation for Terry Pratchett. The books all seem silly on the surface but usually have some incisive commentary on wider social issues, as well as being filled with references and humor, subtle and un-subtle. Bonus, they are also a lot shorter than Stephenson's. ;)
> I was a kid of the 80s and 90s. I grew up outside. I played rough and got hurt and then played rough again. I explored. My parents existed to feed me, clothe me, and yell at me for not achieving enough. Any book depicting a parent who sat their child down to give them sage advice about life was completely foreign to my experience.
You might like Cormac McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses" [0]. The prose style is idiosyncratic, but also arguably his most accessible. It's about a 16 year old crossing over into Mexico and with little else but the clothes on his back and love for horses, but not "juvenile" --- if anything the author elevates the teen's stumbles into love, adventure, and heartbreak, into a grand vision of the American frontier.
I was a kid of the 80s and 90s. I grew up outside. I played rough and got hurt and then played rough again. I explored. My parents existed to feed me, clothe me, and yell at me for not achieving enough. Any book depicting a parent who sat their child down to give them sage advice about life was completely foreign to my experience.