Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten “Gateway” Books/Authors In My Reading Journey – April 1, 2014

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Top Ten “Gateway” Books/Authors In My Reading Journey

   Rose’s List of Top “Gateway” Books/Authors In Her Reading Journey:

1.   The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. This book really got me back into reading during winter break of my sophomore year of college. Of course, this is also a book that got me thinking about breaking up with my boyfriend (a decidedly good thing).
2.   Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. This book got me thinking differently about the classics, the ones written by women especially. I read this during summer vacation in high school and was so surprised that I loved the book soooo much. I had previously always thought books written that long ago were bound to be boring and dull and difficuly to decipher. Not the case with this book. The language was plain and the love story was superb. 
3.   A Horse Called Wonder by Joanna Campbell. This book was what actually made me a reader. My grandmother bought this, the first in the Thoroughbred Series, and she also bought me the second and third book as well. I tore through them! Never before had I been so enthralled with a book. I was in third grade and sort of a slow reader. These books changed everything. I re-read them countless times. I even would read them aloud and practice character voices. This inadvertently made me a much better reader in the classroom, where teachers always made students read aloud to the rest of the class.
4.   The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. This is the book that made me begin my YA For Adults Book Club. I was blown away by this book and really wanted to share it and discuss it with other book lovers.
5.   Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I know it is super chic now to hate on this book, but honestly, after I saw this movie accidently I went and read all the book. Well the first three anyways. I had to wait on the fourth book to come out. While I was not as impressed with the books as I was with the movie, I loved them! And it really got me reading again after years of being out of college.

   Julie’s List of Top “Gateway” Books/Authors In Her Reading Journey: 

1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. YES, Twilight. When I finally got around to reading it a handful of years ago, it really got me back into reading. You see, I was an avid reader as a kid. I loved to read before bed each night. But then school got all schooly and made us read all this stuff and analyze it to death, and so my love of reading went into hiding. Finally after being done with all the school stuff, starting my life with my career and finding free time again, I picked up Twilight to see what all the fuss was about. And then I remembered, hey, reading, this thing I used to do, turns out I still like it. Let’s do this thing I like. So I became a reader again.
2.    The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. OK so I put off reading THG for a while because it sounded awful – children being forced to kill other children? What? But when I finally did read it, I became addicted to the genre. I love the YA Dystopia genre and I keep looking for more amazingly written and plotted books to read in the genre.
3.    Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. Hopeless was really a gateway drug… er… book for me because it got me reading more contemporary books, it got me addicted to CoHo’s writing, and it helped Rose and I come up with a title for our blog! 
4.    Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.  This was the first audio book that I absolutely loved, and it really got me into wanting to listen to more books. I’m now addicted to audio books, so I say it was a pretty good gateway.
5.    The Thirteenth Tale by Dianne Setterfield. I think this was the first book club selection that I read specifically for book club (and not a book that I previously read and I decided to attend that meeting) that I absolutely enjoyed. At this point the idea of book clubs just clicked with me, and I kept joining more. I love my book clubs!

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