Although Alberoni claims he was a model student and real perfectionist at school, he admits he did not like the military-like discipline imposed on schoolchildren by the Fascist regime. According to his autobiography he was a born leader, who always invented games and adventures for the group of boys who usually gathered around him. Because there weren't any books in his house, he discovered the pleasures of reading only after the end of Second World War in 1945. Reading took most of his afternoons at the City Library, his favoured subjects being history and philosophy.