Top Ten “Gateway” Books/Authors in my Reading Journey

It’s not one of my usual posting days, but I’ve been wanting to participate in The Broke and the Bookish “Top Ten Tuesday” for a while now. So this is just an extra post this week, and I might be doing it more often because I love lists!

Today’s topic is Top Ten “Gateway” Books/Authors in my Reading Journey. Let’s get to it! This is no particular order, by the way.

1 – The Harry Potter series

This won’t come as a surprise to the people who know me, or those who’ve been following me on here for a while now (and have read my About Me page). I’ve grown up on reading about Harry’s adventures and the world of magic, and if I would have to name my one all time favourite book (or, well, series in this case) it would be Harry Potter. I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember, but J.K. Rowling had a very big role in making me feel passionate about books and reading, and this series will always have a special place in my heart

2 – Elizabeth George

Elizabeth George’s novels about Inspector Lynley got me into reading crime fiction. My parents have all the books at home and took an Inspector Lynley mystery with them on pretty much every summer holiday, so I’d kind of always been intrigued by them. A few years ago I finally started the series, and I absolutely love it. I also love the fact that I’ve still got a ton of them to go, since this series is huuuge.

3 – Jill Mansell

A couple of years ago, Jill Mansell’s novels were almost all I read for a while. I loved the lightness and fluffiness of all of her stories, and I devoured the ones I could get my hands on (yay for cheap pockets). I stopped reading them right about the time I started university, but picked up one of her novels a few weeks ago and found out I still adore them. The reason why Jill Mansell is featured in this list, however, is because she made me want to write my own novel, which I consequently did (time frame: this was the summer of 2011). It’s still a first draft, but I did it, and I’m proud!

4 – John Green/The Fault in Our Stars

Because of my studies (for those of you that don’t know – I’m an English major) I hardly read anything for fun anymore outside of the summer holidays for a while, and John Green got me excited about reading for fun again. I read TFiOS this summer, and it made me decide to start to read more, and that had as its consequence that I started this blog. Thanks, John!

5 – Roald Dahl’s Matilda

I love-love-loved Matilda as a child. It was one of my favourite books while growing up and I practically knew it by heart. I think it’s pretty high up there with the Harry Potter series when it comes to books tha got me passionate about reading. Being Dutch, however, means I’ve only ever read it in Dutch, so now I’m thinking I should definitely buy an English version and read it again!

6 – Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights

This is one of my all time favourite books, and I think it was also the first non-contemporary novel I read (although I’m not one hundred percent sure about that). I read Wuthering Heights well before starting university, and it was one of the books that got me really excited about English literature. Although, I have to say, I never enjoyed reading any other non-contemporary English novel as much as I did this one.

7 – Francine Oomen’s Hoe Overleef Ik series

This is a Dutch series for young girls I grew up on. The books are about a girl called Rosa who goes through all the stages of puberty, with a few extra complications along the way. I don’t even really know how many books this series had after its completion. I haven’t read all of them because I outgrew the series eventually, but for a while these were my favourite books. They were a real comfort for me at times, which is why they’re in this list.

8 – Ann Brashares’ Sisterhood series

This one basically has the same story as number 7, I think, although I read these books a bit later during puberty. I’m also pretty sure I’d still thoroughly enjoy them! In fact, I kind of feel like reading them again — they were so lovely. It just always cheered me up to read about a friendship as strong as the one Carmen, Tibby, Lena and Bridget have in the series. Plus, these books made me even more determined to want to become a writer.

9 – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight/Le Morte D’Arthur

And now for something completely different… These two are on the list because they strengthened my interest in the Arthurian legend. I’ve always been fascinated by it, and I followed a course dedicated to these legends about a year and a half ago. It was my favourite course to date. Too bad I had a black out during the first exam, and was sleep deprived because of nerves during the resit, which resulted in me only getting a 6.

10 – Art Spiegelman’s Maus

I had to read Maus for the very first literature course at university, and it absolutely blew my mind. It surprised me that we had to read a graphic novel for a university level literature course, but Maus made me realise that graphic novels can be Literature with a big L as well. Although, to be honest, I haven’t read any graphic novels since. Still, though!

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And that’s my top ten for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday! Let me know if you enjoyed it! I really did, so I’m pretty sure there’ll be more of these to come, just as an extra blog post throughout the week every once in a while (or more often, who knows).

Have a lovely week!