It’s Tuesday once more, and the first day of April to boot. The theme for this week, as provided by The Broke and the Bookish, is Top 10 ‘Gateway’ books/authors.
This one is another difficult post for me. I never really thought about gateway books or authors. There are certain books and authors who made me crazy love reading, and most of them are people who I read when I was younger, especially my teen years. SO a lot of this will be YA books.
1. JK Rowling: This was an obvious choice really. I distinctly remember being on holiday when I was about eight years old. I do not know where I had gone on holiday but I was on holiday with my nan and my brother, as we did every year when I was a kid. My nan had bought my brother the first two Harry Potter books as presents for him to read whilst we were away. He read them and enjoyed them and put them to the side. I was intrigued and wanted to read them too, as I was at that age where I wanted to do everything my big brother did, even if that meant reading boys books. I devoured those books. I think I may have read those books in a day or two. I was hooked. We came home form that holiday with me insisting my mom get the third book in the series for me and as each book was released I had my reread of them where I experienced the joy of Harry Potter all over again.
2. Sarra Manning: I read Guitar Girl when I was kid, and adored it. It was my absolute favourite book for years, I wanted to play guitar because of that book, and dreamt about having pink hair. I read everything she wrote until I felt I had grown out of teen books and reading fell by the wayside for me. Then, when I was at uni, I discovered she had published some adult books. I bought them out of nostalgia. It was Unsticky and You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, and they were wonderful. The books featured protagonists in their early twenties, which I could relate to, and they were essentially like her YA books, but with slightly more mature themes. Those books were what triggered me to buy a kindle and they were what got me back into reading, I think. Or, at least, they helped me on my way.
3. This is hard. I think The Song of Fire of Ice series was a major series which got me reading again during uni. I spent a lot of time not 
reading because I felt like that was all I did, but when Game of Thrones came out it really motivated me to get back into it, after all, I love reading.
reading because I felt like that was all I did, but when Game of Thrones came out it really motivated me to get back into it, after all, I love reading.
4. Sarah Dessen: All of her books are amazing, I am always eager for a new to come out. I think her books helped keep me interested in reading as a teenager. I may have enjoyed reading a bit too much actually, but her books were just so wonderful I don’t care if I didn’t have many friends as everyone else. I also liked how she would have subtle hints to her other books. A cameo appearance from past characters, or have it set in the same place as another one, to have that flash of another boo was great, it gave life beyond the books to the characters, which was nice.
5. The Mediator series by Meg Cabot. This series was a gateway book, of sorts. I think this series is how I truly got to know one of my best friends. Before we were friends who lived close to each other and talked on our walk home, but we became true friends when we discovered we both loved reading, and we both loved this series. We must have been fourteen years old and we both loved it, she got the last couple of books ordered from America and let me borrow them as they didn’t appear to be released in the UK at the time. What I remember of my time at school is talking books with Jess, and this series began our book chats.
6. Throne of Glass – Sarah J Maas: This is the book series which truly introduced me to the world of book blogging. I had read the occasional book blog before, but I read this and I needed more. I had to read everything I could about them, find out where I could get the next one. Read any rumours about the books. It was a slippery slope from there.
7. Old Kingdom trilogy Garth Nix: I think this is a major series which introduced me to fantasy writing I think. I mean, I’d read Harry Potter, which is fantasy, but this was proper fantasy writing for me. I fell in love with fantasy novels from here. I must have been thirteen and 
checking the library every weekend to get the next book. I even went out of my way to buy the third book because I never seemed to be able to get it at the library.
checking the library every weekend to get the next book. I even went out of my way to buy the third book because I never seemed to be able to get it at the library.
8. The Fault in Our Stars – John Green: This introduced me to the world of the internet and book fandoms. I had not experienced book fandoms outside of Harry Potter, so to see the absolute love experienced by others was great. It also introduced me to John Green, who is a fantastic author, and Hank Green, who is a fantastic person. So it all worked in my favour.
9. Stephanie Plum series – Janet Evanovich: I know, this one does not fit in with this whole list at all, I know. But, this series made me so passionate about reading, it is untrue. It was a series I read obsessively and made me feel like I could be a real grown up who read real grown up books. It also made me realise that I like 
mystery crime type books, which I had not known before this point. Mostly, because I had been obsessed with YA books, which I knew as teen books back then, and because I had not ventured from my love at that point.
mystery crime type books, which I had not known before this point. Mostly, because I had been obsessed with YA books, which I knew as teen books back then, and because I had not ventured from my love at that point.
10. The Secret Circle – LJ Smith: This is the series which introduced me to more urban fantasy type novels. It was my go to series at my local library. They were comfort reading for me. I could finish the series in a couple of days and feel like I’d gone and seen and old friend or something. They were wonderful books which I absolutely adored. When they did the TV series on the The CW I expected great things, but then they went and changed everything, and I was heartbroken. I still love this series though
That’s all from me. All these books seem to be from when I was a teenager, but oh well. And there are a lot of series, which goes to shoe what I read. Does anyone have any books that changed things for them?
Posts
Social Icons