Top Ten Tuesday: April 1, 2014 – Top Ten Gateway Books/Authors

TTT

It’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the wonderful blog at The Broke and the Bookish! This week’s topic: 
Top Ten “Gateway” Books/Authors In My Reading Journey

I LOVE this topic. I have quite a few “gateway” books that led me to where I am today and I am so thankful that I found these authors and their books! I am MORE than happy to do this Top Ten Tuesday!

readingtimeline

1990 – 1991: Gateway to reading: Dick and Jane books: Yes, very cliche but I started reading with Dick & Jane books too!

1999: Gateway to reading for fun: J.K. Rowling/Harry Potter: My 7th grade teacher read Harry Potter to us in class and at the time, I thought I was too old for it! How silly since I was the exact same age as Harry. Anyway… I finally came around and obviously loved it. Obviously I read various other books from the time I started reading up until this point but I think this was the point where I really thirsted for books and wanted to read on my own.

2000: Gateway to dystopian: Lois Lowry/The Giver: I first read THE GIVER in 7th grade and I was instantly fascinated. It was my very first dystopian book and really opened my eyes to the genre although I didn’t pick anything up and start devouring it until years later.

2006(ish): Gateway to reading after I hated reading: Meg Cabot/Heather WellsHigh school was a hard time for me. I read plenty but there was SO much required reading that I was not interested in that I had a hard time picking up books to read for FUN. I started getting back into read when I borrowed the Heather Wells series from my sister. I had so much fun with them and instantly began reading as many Meg Cabot books (all adult, actually) and even more fun adult contemporary fiction!

2007 (I think): Gateway to YA: Stephenie Meyer/Twilight: My friend and (future at the time) college roommate Alison introduced me to Twilight. Her younger sister actually got to read it for summer reading for high school (say WHAT) and loved it so I picked up the books on Alison’s recommendation. It was my first foray into the YA section and felt awkward there which is also silly considering I was technically still a teenager (19, but still)! That was what first got me into YA. (And actually the book was on a end cap, not even IN the YA section so I stood there for several minutes looking haha.)

November 2010: Gateway to reading more than watching TV: Stieg Laarson/The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: I read a few more books in between 2007 and 2010 but THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO was recommended to me by my friend Lisa and that kind of started up our hunger for reading and picking up more and more books. I picked up a lot of books based on her recommendations for a few years and that’s what got me back into reading to the point where i wanted to do that more than watch TV.

February 2011: Gateway to cozy mysteries: Janet Evanovich/Stephanie Plum: I had a long streak of cozy mysteries, to the point where that was almost all I read for a while. Stephanie Plum headed it up and I read ONE FOR THE MONEY on a snow day back in February 2011!

May 2011: Gateway to a YA dystopian: Suzanne Collins/The Hunger Games: This was a recommendation from Lisa as well so I guess I have her to thank for my YA obsession! I devoured THE HUNGER GAMES and then CATCHING FIRE and MOCKINGJAY back to back that late spring/early summer. After I finished that series, I immediately picked up MATCHED and DELIRIUM, needing more and more and more dystopian because I just loved the genre.

February 2012: Gateway to my YA obsession: Richelle Mead/Vampire Academy: This was…. also a recommendation from Lisa haha! Obviosuly it was billed as a similar book to TWILIGHT (because, you know, vampires) and I really started enjoying this series too. This opened up the gates of YA and I pretty much haven’t turned back.

May 2012: Gateway to Contemporary YA: Gayle Forman/If I Stay: I don’t remember how I decided to choose IF I STAY first… Maybe a blogger recommendation? But it was love at first read. I was deep into dystopian and decided to try contemporary when I was at the library… It all snowballed from there!

June 2012: Gateway to eGalleys: Kristina McBride/One Moment: ONE MOMENT was a “read now” and the first book I read with Netgalley. I was so excited to be able to request free advanced copies! I loved the book and started my Netgalley obsession.

July 2012: Gateway to fantasy: Kristen Cashore/Graceling: I was hesitant about fantasy. Besides Harry Potter, I hadn’t really read any fantasy at all (well, tried and mostly failed with Lord of the Rings) so I was scared to try it! But Graceling — another blogger rec — did not let me down. I absolutely loved it and I started finding the fantasy that I liked to read!

September 2012: Gateway to Audiobooks: Ally Carter/Heist Society: HEIST SOCIETY was the first book I listened to on audio and I was so scared I wasn’t going to enjoy audiobooks. Turned out I had a great time listening to it! I didn’t love all audiobooks I tried, but this was a great way to start out!

2013 – present I’ve been trying more and more books! Not so many more gateway books since I’ve dabbled into most of the genres by now but absolutely loving trying new things still! I guess I did miss a gateway to historical fiction… Maybe Grave Mercy or Code Name Verity? So excited to see what the future holds and what kind of new gateway books I can find! 

Hi, I'm Brittany!
Hi, I'm Brittany!

I'm an avid reader, candle-maker, and audiobook lover! Here you'll find book reviews, fun blog posts, and my other loves of photography & craft beer!

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12 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: April 1, 2014 – Top Ten Gateway Books/Authors

  1. Stephanie H.

    I love your timeline!!! You are so creative!!! Great list of books! I also remember the “Required Reading Years” and not getting much of what I wanted to read done during those years. And I hate that most of those books, I ended up not really liking.
    You book list is great. I can’t believe I forgot to include Meg Cabot on my list. I absolutely love her books and she has been a big influence on my love of books.
    I love how you have several different gateways to certain genres and formats. 😀

  2. Rebecca @ The Library Canary

    It makes me so happy to see Twilight on so many lists this week. It’s on my list as well as the book that got me back into reading after a few years of not reading anything. The book gets so much hate which makes me sad because I really think that it helped a lot of people discover YA and also rediscover their love for reading.

  3. Anne @ Lovely Literature

    This is amazing! And the required reading years was a great void for me. I watched a lot of Netflix in college, not so much reading for fun going on those days. I think the books that really started me on a reading path again was the Black Jewels series recommended to me by my sister in law.

  4. acps927

    I love that you did this as a timeline! And I think a lot of us lost our way during the vortex of “the required reading years”!

  5. Stormy

    I love the way you laid this out and your timeline!
    The Giver was definitely a gateway book for me too. Even though I didn’t read another Dystopia for several years after The Giver, it stuck with me in my mind and was just a really powerful book. When I started reading YA Dystopia it definitely reflected back to The Giver for me!
    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo! Sometimes I forget how much I actually enjoyed that book(though I still haven’t read the last one. . .) It wasn’t exactly a gateway book for me but it definitely busted a reading slump! I remember when reading those books I hadn’t picked up a fiction book in MONTHS for fun. I had to read for classes and I was in an epic reading slump. I ended up reading it junior year of college when I moved into my new apartment before everyone else came back to campus–I just sat on the couch and read the first two books in two days!(In my defense, I had also just gotten over an illness, so I had an excuse to do nothing but lay on the couch, but still. . . . )

  6. Becky

    Wow this is so much better than my post, and yet very similar to my gateway books. I love the infographic, makes it much easier to see than reading a long wordy post. It’s strange to see that there are certain books that keep appearing as gateway books for folk, such as The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and such.

    Great post anyway, always interesting to see how books have influenced others reading direction.

  7. Christianna

    First off you need to read Code Name Verity! It’s actually on my list, which isn’t very conventional. Bahaha. I love you’re list of books, I’ve been trying to get into more adult fiction lately and recently picked up The Queen of Babble, which I can’t wait to read. Great list and I loved the timeline!

    1. Brittany Post author

      Oh don’t worry! I’ve read it! Just forgot to include historical fiction in my list 🙂

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