Top Ten Tuesday: Gateway Books

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke & The Bookish. Each week they host a different top ten topic.

This weeks topic is a brilliant one. It's about sharing the books that led you to something else. A book that got you into reading or one that got you reading a genre that you never used to read. I have so many that I could put down so narrowing it down will be really hard.
I'm just going to name books and not authors - because there is always that one piece of an authors work that is the 'gateway' book because it led you to them.

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

This has to be number one because it's the gateway book of gateway books. It is the first series that really sucked me in, I grew up with these books and they will never leave me. This is a series that I will still be rereading when I am old and grey if I live that long. This led me to everything else, it led to me loving series and wanting to follow something all the way to the end. It's the first book series where I became a real fan. The series that I had to have the next book at midnight on the very minute it was released and had to beg my parents to take me to get it. The first books where I sat up until the early hours of the morning reading it because I couldn't put it down. I really believe that Harry Potter led me to become the huge bookworm that I am today. 

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

I think I may have discovered this book before or just as I was discovering Harry Potter. It blew child me away and captured my imagination so much. I still to this day want my own daemon because life is clearly not complete without one. If anyone asks me to recommend books to them this is always one of the first books I think of after Harry Potter. It's an amazing fantasy series and I can't fault the book at all. If you have never read the series you have to give it a try. This series was different to anything I had read up until that point and it made me start to push myself as a reader. It led me to finding more books that were unlike anything I usually read and pushing myself out of my comfort zone.

The Noughts & Crosses Series by Malorie Blackman
This was the probably one of the most thought-provoking books that I read as a kid. It really got me thinking about the world around me and issues that, as an eleven year old, I hadn't really thought about before. This, Harry Potter & His Dark Materials are the three series that I have probably recommended the most in my life. The love story in this totally got to me and I root for Callum and Sephy the whole time. This led me to finding more books that challenged me as a reader and really made me think. It also showed me that books didn't need magic or wizards for me to love them.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games introduced me to dystopian novels and I have never looked back. It's probably my favourite genre to read now and I can't get enough of it. The Hunger Games is the ultimate one in my eyes because of how many wonderful books and series it has led me to since. I hunted down as many dystopian as I could after reading it and I found some amazing books that way.

The Sight by David Clement Davies
I picked this up in a book shop as a kid and devoured a large chunk of it before my parents found me. I couldn't put it down and thankfully my parents got the book for me and I read it the whole way home. This book led me to David Clement-Davies who writes some of the greatest books I have read and who is greatly under-appreciated. This book is told from the perspective of wolves and I have never cared about a pack of animals more. This book still makes me sob now that I am an adult and that's how I know it's a favourite. I have this book to thank for leading me to David Clement-Davies and for making me hunt down as many books told from the perspective of animals as I could find.

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
This book led me to challenge myself as a reader and my own quick judgements. This is the story of a brother and sister who fall in love, something I wouldn't have really considered reading. But I saw so many amazing 5* reviews for it that I decided that I would give it a go. I am so glad I did because it was incredible, completely blew me away and left me with feeling so many emotions that I was thinking about the book non-stop for weeks. It's led me to read books that I usually wouldn't consider, it's made me pick up more books that handle taboo subjects. It's led me to push myself more as a reader and not always stick within my comfort zone when it comes to reading books. And it's made me look like a weirdo as I keep thrusting a book about incest at people and demanding they read it. 

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
This made me look at chick-lit in a whole other light. I hated chick-lit before this and had steered well clear of it. It always seemed to be the same gushy, romantic nonsense where you see the ending coming from the very beginning. But an advert for the movie made me really want to give this a go and it was worth it. It completely surprised me and I ended up loving it. After I finished it I knew I wanted to try more of the genre and I have this book to thank for any chick-lit I have read since.

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
The first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series is definitely a gateway book for me. Before it I hadn't really read any epic fantasy series - I'm thinking LOTR and others. I was always put off by the length, the amount of characters, character names and a whole host of reasons. But after absolutely loving the TV series, I decided I had to give the first book a go and I am glad I did. I will be reading the rest of the series when I can find the time but also when the next book releases probably because I am impatient. This book will lead me to more epic fantasy series!

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
This led me to read every single thing Jodi Picoult had ever written and then following her books from then on. It got me reading a lot more adult fiction because before that I read mostly young adult. It led me to author authors similar to her, the wonderful Diane Chamberlain in particular.

Alienated by Melissa Landers
I was never really interested in alien books, especially not ones where the alien was the love interest. But my interest was peaked by this one and I decided to give it a go. It became one of my top reads of 2013 and an instant favourite. It also led me to try and hunt down more alien books and it was how I came to start the Lux series, which is amazing!

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover: Review 5/5
The Summer I Found You by Jolene Perry: Review 3/5
Five Friday Favourites: Book Covers
My Weekly Book Haul
What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick: Review 3/5

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