Top Ten Tuesday – Top Ten Gateway Books/Authors In My Reading Journey

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!  This weeks top 10 are “Top Ten Gateway” Books/Authors In My Reading Journey”

You can see my “Gateway” Books/Authors In My Reading Journey” below, in no particular order.

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1. JRR Tolkien

I read The Hobbit with my dad when I was very young and this absolutely hooked me on epic fantasy.  When I was in elementary school I started reading the Lord of the Rings series as well.

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2. Robin McKinley

I got her book The Hero and the Crown for a reward for volunteering at the library when I was in 6th or 7th grade. I absolutely fell in love with that book, I think I’ve read it eight or nine times. This was my first venture into young adult fantasy, I am obviously, hooked for life.

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3. L. Frank Baum

Again, I read Baum’s Wizard of Oz series when I was very young with my mom. This totally hooked me on fantasy.

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4. John Green

I was never a big fan of contemporary fiction until I read John Green. The first book I read by him was Paper Towns and I got it for review. Since then I have read a number of other young adult contemporary authors (David Levithan, Gayle Forman)…but he was the first.

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5. Douglas Adams

Douglas Adam’s Hitchehicker’s Guide to the Galaxy was my first foray into science fiction recommended to me by my dad. I loved it and it encouraged me to pick up other science fiction books.

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6. William Shakespeare

I remember reading Romeo and Juliet as well as Hamlet in high school. I loved this and was absolutely entranced. I ended up taking some special Shakespeare course in college where I got to read a number of other of his plays.  He encouraged me to pick up other plays and poetic works and since then I have read Milton’s Lost in Paradise and Spenser’s The Faerie Queen. It even inspired me to take a theater course in college where I read a number of other famous playwrights.

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7. Robert Jordan

Aside from Tolkien, Jordan was my first foray into more contemporary epic fantasy. I started reading his Wheel of Time series in high school and is shaped and added to a big part of my life and some of my friends lives. When he died it was very sad and a shock.

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8. Dr. Seuss

This wonderful man wrote the very first book I ever read on my own “Hop on Pop”. His books were a huge part of my life as a child and the reason I started reading period…they were so much fun to read. Now I read his books to my son and my son loves them as well.

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9. Shel Silverstein

His was the first poetry I ever read and I loved it when I was a kid.  Again he was a huge part of the reason why I got into reading poetry.

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10. The Babysitter’s Club series by Ann M. Martin.

I am almost embarrassed to admit I read these, but they were very popular when I was in elementary school. This was really the first serial type of of series I ever read. They were some of the first books that I read with my friends and some of the first books that I was actually able to discuss with people (there weren’t really any other 6th graders reading Lord of the Rings while I was) so this was a great series that opened up the world of social reading to me.

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