Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday: The Ones That Started It All




Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the awesome ladies at The Broke and the Bookish. Apparently, they are overly fond of list-making and love to share their bookish lists with the rest of us book nerds.  =) We're game.







This week's list features the Top Ten "Gateway" Books/Authors In My Reading Journey. So your list could be a mix of a books that got you into reading, an author that got you into reading a genre you never thought you'd read, a book that brought you BACK into reading.


April's picks:

Anna and the French Kissharry potterTwilightOn the IslandThe Sky is Everywhere


Anna and the French Kiss was my first YA Contemporary. I've been reading them ever since. 

Harry Potter,  I read all of them while I was pregnant. My friend Suzanne lent me her set and insisted I read them all. So I did. I then went on to read the Percy Jackson books. Harry Potter opened my eyes to Middle Grade.

Twilight... *sigh*. I know, I know, but before Twilight I didn't even know what Young Adult was. 

On The Island...When I first started blogging, I kept seeing review policies that said they would not accept self published books. So from the start, I had a bad taste in my mouth about them. I avoided them, but then I signed up for a blog tour featuring On The Island. Everything about the description screamed that I would love it, and I did. It's no longer self published, it was snatched up pretty quickly by a publisher, but I read the original. I will never look at self pubs the same again. Yeah, a lot of them are shit, but there is always a chance you'll read something amazing.

They Sky is Everywhere is a newbie for me! I've tried Audio books in the past, but I think I was just trying the wrong kinds. This was the first full audio book I ever listened to, and now I'm addicted. :o) 


Jen's picks:

His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3)My Life Next Door (My Life Next Door, #1)Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1)Losing It (Losing It, #1)Torched

The His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman was what I picked up to read when I was pregnant with Katie. I'd always been a reader, but I became a voracious reader once again when I had little else to do but sit around, waiting for Katie to join the world.

The first strictly contemporary novel I read since my tween years -- when that's all I read -- was My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick, and it's still a favorite. I had pretty much sworn off contemporary and anything close to realistic fiction, in favor of supernatural beings, but I'm finding myself gravitating to contemporary books more and more these days.

Thanks to SYNC's summer program, my first ever audiobook was a freebie of Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I'd already read the book, so I knew I liked it and was fairly certain I'd enjoy the audio. I did. And I went on to pick up Linger and get myself an Audible account. (We'll be promoting SYNC's program again this summer. As soon as we have details, we'll pass them along. But if you click on the link above, you'll see the list of audiobooks for this year's program.)

- My first foray into New Adult was Losing It by Cora Carmack. That was such a fun book, and I went on to read the rest of the series -- and plenty more New Adult -- though I'm still rather picky about which ones I read. (You can read how April and I feel about New Adult novels in this post.)

- The first indie/self-published book I read that made me think I shouldn't discount them all simply because they weren't published traditionally was Torched by Andrea Colt. I'd read a couple others prior to this, but they just didn't grab me like this one. I've read several more now that have gone on to be traditionally published because of their popularity as self-published titles.


So, which were your gateway books or authors? :)  Share the link to you TTT post so we can visit!


11 comments:

  1. I love that My Life Next Door and Anna and the French Kiss were the books that got you guys into contemporary. They're definitely 2 of my favorites!!

    My TTT

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  2. I love your TTT list, Harry Potter made mine too and I forgot all about Twilight which I loved at the time I don't care what people say if you like a book or not it's not for others to judge. Great list!
    Here's my TTT post
    -Kimberly @ Turning the Pages

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  3. Ohhh, love your picks! I'm such a fan of all things Maggie Stiefvater! Shiver/Linger/Forever were really my first intro to paranormal....aaaand, I was pretty hooked. ;) Anna and the French Kiss was just so sweet! And I'm enjoying reading HP for the first time. I guess one of the series to really get me hooked on books was Narnia. Yeah I tried the back of my wardrobe. No luck. XD

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  4. I loved Shiver, it made me want to read more wolf stories! I had to have Twilight on my list too! Great picks :)

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  5. Some fabulous books. I really need to read some Maggie Stiefvater. I've heard such wonderful things about her writing.

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  6. Awesome picks! I loved Anna and the French Kiss and My Life Next Door.
    here's our TTT

    Janhvi @ The Readdicts

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  7. Ok I really need to read Shiver, or just some Maggie Stiefvater in general. I've heard too many good things about these books! Great list!

    Katrina @ Chased By My Imagination

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  8. I love how you divided into categories! I still haven't found the audiobook that makes me want to listen to more audiobooks; I've got a short attention span! I also haven't read too much New Adult, at least, not ones that have made me eager to find more. I actually had a lot of luck with self-published books in the past, but I made a point to become very selective with which ones I'll agree to review, since there is a lot of crap to sort through sometimes! Haha

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  9. I think Anna and the French Kiss got me started on YA contemporary too! Love it!

    I didn't manage a TTT today, but I did post a review of an amazing book that I think everyone should read - check it out here.

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  10. I loved Anna and the French Kiss and My Life Next Door. On the Island is another really great book. Awesome TTT.

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  11. I also love your approach to this week's TTT topic! So neat! :)

    Though I haven't finished the HP series, I do think of it as a gateway book. I was introduced to HP in the 5th grade. My teacher started reading the series to us, a few chapters a day for a few months. We got through the first 3 installments together (might've been because only 3 were out at the time, not sure). But those books made me fall in love with the idea of reading for fun -- you know outside of Accelerated Reader points and prizes. :P I later went on to re-read the first 3 installments + the 4th in middle school. My Mom bought me the boxed set, which I meticulously took care of! NO CRACKED SPINES OR DENTS! WOO! :D I really need to finish this series though. I'll have to start from the beginning, and that's perfectly fine. :)

    Great post, ladies!

    Marlene @ The Flyleaf Review

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