Top Ten Tuesday (78)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.

This Tuesday's theme is...

Top Ten Gateway Books/Authors
 In My Reading Journey

This week's topic is a bit of a head scratcher. I'm not sure if it's because I'm having troubles thinking of ten gateway books and/or authors, or because I just don't know what to say. So I attempted to come up with ten categories and put books into them!

my biggest inspiration

Say all you want about this series (TWIHARD FOREVER), but I LOVE these books and I don't know if I'd be a reader and aspiring author if I hadn't read this book.

ooh, maybe I DO like fantasy

I think my like for the fantasy genre started to blossom with Jodi Meadows's Incarnate, but I believe (at the top of my head) the boom started with this book, and then Susan Ee's Angelfall. I used to be kind of meh about fantasy books, but now? LET ME READ MORE!

okay, maybe not ALL history is boring

I was on the fence about this book, since history isn't really my thang, but I'd heard many good things about it. And I'm sure this isn't the FIRST historical fiction novel I've read, but I quite liked it. Now I'm open to reading more historical fiction!

long series can be awesome

This is one of my absolute most favorite series EVER. And, yes, it's fifteen books long. But oh my gosh, it could never end and I'd be SO HAPPY. I'm so grateful I found this series. When I read these books and enter this world and hang out with these characters, it's kind of like I'm home.

i heart contemporaries

Soon after I read Twilight and wanted to read ALL THE BOOKS,  I was told this book was good. And it was. Thus a contemporary lover (and Sarah Dessen fangirl) was born.

animals are forever

I started this series through the Scholastic book order when I was in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL and I have thirty-nine of the books and a bunch of the dog figurines and I loved this series. And made/makes me reaaally want to have my own kennel for animals. Also, FYI, at least one of these books will totally make you cry.

go yellow fever!

I told you earlier that history isn't my thang. But I read this book in sixth grade (too long ago) and quite liked it. So now, when/if I have/had to do a history project, if I could use Yellow Fever as my topic, I so totally did/do.

oh hai, peter pan

First off, if you haven't read this book, DISHONOR ON YOUR WHOLE FAMILY. This book made me a biig fan of all things Peter Pan. And with the way it's told, it made me want--no, need--to read more books like it and to be even more into the idea of retellings.

not all school books are a bore

I chose this to read for a book report in tenth grade and, surprisingly, loved it. I was also a fan of lots of assigned books in high school, like To Kill A Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Hamlet, 1984, and The Great Gatsby. Despite the stereotype and overall instinct to hate them, school assigned novels and classics can actually be really, really good.

books can actually kill you

I don't understand how people can say books are crap or mean nothing and this and that when I've read books (like the two above, especially--and super especially the bottom one) that have hit me so hard emotionally that at the time you can't help but wonder if you'll ever not feel so hurt and empty again. Books are amazing, but they also HURT. And I'm not gonna lie: I am very, very wary of books that make me feel Not Good (even if they're good books).