Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Top Ten "Gateway" Books/Authors in my Reading Journey

Quick note before I get this blog post rolling... I'm having a link up for monthly resolutions so be sure to check out this post and link up! It's just a fun but helpful way to make some goals for the month.

So... "gateway books/authors... difficult to think about. I never wasn't in any genre (except sci-fi I guess) I never fell out of reading and I really can't remember starting reading. However, I will attempt this.
  1. Dune by Frank Herbert... I guess you can say it got me into the sci-fi genre as it was the first sic-fi book I read. 
  2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen... It got me into reading Jane Austen's novels and really into the more adult classic novels. I read it when I was ten I think. I and already seen the 1995 film version multiple times as well as other film versions of Austen's novels so I wasn't unfamiliar with her works. 
  3. Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare... This was my first Shakespeare that I read that wasn't a children's or abridged version. Through it I began to ease myself into the world of Shakespeare. 
  4. Hickory, Dickory Death by Agatha Christie... My first Agatha Christie book and the book that introduced me to mystery novels. I love her books and I've read almost all of them now. 
  5. Redwall series by Brian Jaques... I remember reading a lot of those as a kid and I think they really got me going more into reading. They were also some of the earlier fantasy I read. 
  6. All books by G.A. Henty... I think I read The Cat of Bupastes first but I don't remember. They're really great historical fiction with Christian tones. Those are what first really got me interested in history. There was a time when I wanted to be a history professor because of those books. :)
  7. Jeeves and Wooster books by P.G. Wodehouse... Again I don't remember what the first one of those books I read was. They were the first books I read with British humor and I absolutely loved it! I can't recommend those quirky stories highly enough! 
  8. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling... These were the first "modern" books I read. Before that I'd read pretty much exclusively classics. Those books will always have a special place in my reading world. They aren't perfect books, and I do have problems with them, but they're still good books. 
  9. Bridge to Terebethia by by Katherine Paterson... As I mentioned in some previous post, this was the first book where a main character died. I'd never heard of such a thing! It is a good book though not despite of that but partially because of that. 
  10. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens... First Dickens I ever read and let me tell you reading one of those I feel like I should have earned a medal. While his books are very good.... they are also very loooooong. I didn't even much care for Great Expectations, Mrs. Havishman just freaked me out. However, this was my "gateway" into longer novels. Quite the shock to the system I will admit. However, once you can get through one you can tackle the rest. :) 
Linking up with Broke and Bookish.

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14 comments:

  1. Wahoo, another fellow Pride & Prejudice and Harry Potter fan! Also, I'm loving the amount of Shakespeare I'm seeing around, it's really interesting that everyone is picking a different play! Nice list :) I never read the Red Wall series but I saw it everywhere!

    Check out my Top Ten Tuesday List

    Katrina @ Chased By My Imagination

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! Yep! Prife and Zprejudice is my favorite book (closely followed by LOTR).

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  2. Dune! If I had more room on my list I would have definitely have added it; Dune was one of the first sci-fi novels I read and still one of my favourites <3

    Re-reading Pride and Prejudice about a year or two after I read it for school definitely launched me off to reading the big classics :)

    Great list! My TTT

    p.s. Did you do a layout change recently? I love it! :)

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  3. Pride and Prejudice is a great choice! Nice to see some Agatha Christie love too, should have put her on my list!

    My TTT

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    1. So many books it's hard to chose! Christie's books will always have a special place in my heart though.

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  4. Harry Potter is on my list as well! I also love Pride and Prejudice and Much Ado About Nothing.

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    1. Thsnks for stopping by! They are definitely some of my favorites. :)

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  5. I'm always happy to meet another Austen fan. I also like Much Ado About Nothing, though I'm a particular fan of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Thank you for stopping by my blog today!

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    1. I'm not as familiar with Midsummer Night's Dream... I remember going through the "play" that is performed in it with my Shakespeare club and I really enjoyed that.

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  6. Pride and Prejudice is the only Jane Austen book that I have read. I've tried to read the others, but I couldn't get into them. I think it's only because I love the movie :/ I have heard a lot about Dune though. My dad is a big fan so I might have to check that one out.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! Pride and Prejudice is definitely the best with the best movie version. The others are harder to get into but in my opinion great as well. I would recommend Dune. Not a super easy read but if you can handle LOTR you can handle it just fine. :)

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  7. I LOVE HARRY POTTER AND PRIDE AND PREJUDICE! :) Are you into classics and fiction too? I love these two genres! Both books are one of my favourites! :D Thanks for sharing!!

    by the way, I just started a book blog myself. Could you please check it out? If you want to follow each other, please let me know so I could do it immediately! Thanks again!! xx

    MY BLOG: jilliansbooks.blogspot.com

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    1. I'm following you now. :) I checked out your blog and it looks great! I look forward to reading more. :)
      Yes I'm definitely into classics and fiction. :)

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