Top Ten Tuesday (55)



Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists

 

This weeks topic is Top Ten "Gateway" Books/Authors In My Reading Journey. This is actually pretty perfect because I'm currently rereading one of my favorite series and it got me thinking about what was so special about the books that I read when I first got into reading. So let's take a walk down memory lane-bookish edition.

• The Twilight Series-This is kind of a given. I'm sure this isn't the first time you've seen this on the Top Ten's this week. If it weren't for my mother making me read the book before I saw the movie, I wouldn't be the reader I am now. These books make me love reading.
• The Harry Potter series-Another given. I didn't get the experience of reading this as I grew up like a lot of people did, but this was still one of the first series I read. I have fond and vivid memories of binge reading them. This series taught me how to appreciate a long, epic, and incredibly well written series. Oh, and I still ship Ron and Hermione, thank you very much.
• The Percy Jackson series-This series is dear to me because I first read it when I got into reading and I'm still reading it. The characters feel like some of my best friends. This series made me obsessed with Greek mythology and showed me how important it is to make readers laugh during hard times.
• The Mortal Instruments series-I'm rereading this right now and it's made me realize why these books stuck with me. The way Cassandra Clare writes her characters and the situations she puts them in make it hard for you not to connect with them. These books (and her other series, don't even get me started) really made me feel something real for the characters-even if it was mostly pain. Characters are so much realer for me now.
• Stephanie Perkins books-Before Anna and the French Kiss I don't remember ever reading contemporary. I was a paranormal girl and didn't know where to even start with another genre. Even though it wasn't this epic saga, I still loved it so much. Now that contemporary is one of my favorite genres, these books are still what made fall in love with it in the first place.
• Katie McGarrys books-On the opposite end of contemporary are these books. While Anna and Lola are my favorites for more sentimental reasons, these books come incredibly close to topping them. I could go on and on about them. These books made me love contemporary that wasn't all cutesy and fluff; they're hard hitting and dark and despite that I love them to bits. 
• The Hunger Games trilogy-These were probably the first dystopian books I read. I still think about the characters all the time. While dystopian isn't my favorite genre, a number of my favorite books or series are in it and I would never have read them if I hadn't first read this. It also made me really thankful for the world that I live in.
• The Wicked Lovely series-Am I the only person who thinks that there aren't enough faerie books out there? This series made me obsessed with them and I don't get to read about them enough. They are always different and these kind are beautiful but twisted and that makes them so interesting to read about. Now I want to read about them again.
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green-While this book certainly didn't make me want to read more like it (why would I ever do that to myself?) it still affected my reading. It made me a crybaby. But I'm thankful, because the books that make me cry are usually the ones I love the most.
• Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater-While I suspect Twilight was to blame for my prejudice towards werewolves, I know this series is to blame for me now loving them. Or it might just be because it's pretty much impossible not to love Sam Roth.

Those are my picks for this week. What about you? Are any of ours the same? Let me know in the comments and don't forget to leave links to your TTT!