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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

DISCUSSION POST: What book(s) were the catalyst for your book obsession?

After many inquiries through email from other bloggers and readers, I decided to start a discussion post about a book or series of books that influenced your reading obsession.  For me, it is very easy to narrow this down. Let me give you a little background history first.

After high school, I was done with anything that involved opening a book.  Like any teen who leaves the world of school behind, I was happy to never have to read a "required reading" anytime soon.  You see, I didn't go to college after high school -- at least not right away.  I wanted to focus on family and love first.  I had children at a young age and married young as well.  The only thing I read was books to my children and magazines that I had picked up at the store.  I was determined not to step foot in a library as well.

As my children grew, and my oldest daughter became a teen, I noticed that she loved to read.  I never discouraged reading to my children.  If they wanted a book to read, I bought it for them.  Just because I had lost interest in reading didn't mean I was going to keep it from children.  When my oldest daughter came to me asking for the Twilight series, I purchased it for her.  She was constantly telling me that I just had to read them! I was getting recaps of this story each night from her.  I kept putting her off and didn't read them as they came out.  Finally I caved and read them but not until Breaking Dawn was already on the shelves at stores.


I started Twilight after the kids went to school one morning, and needless to say I forgot to pick my children up from school that day.  I was in awe of the story and couldn't put it down.  I couldn't believe reading a book could be so enjoyable!  I quickly finished the whole series within a matter of 2 days.  Afterward, I needed more books to devour.  The Twilight Series corrupted me.

I now own more than 2000 books with an entire room in my house filled with 8 bookcases! Each one has rows of books stacked twice on it and I still need more! When I am asked what  I want for a gift, I always say either books or gift cards to buy more books!

"Hello, my name is Amy.  I am addicted to books.  No I do not plan to get help."

My questions for you is this--- What book or series of books started your obsession of reading? Have you always enjoyed reading or did it take a certain authors work to spark it again?

25 Comments:

Blogger La Coccinelle said...

I've always enjoyed reading. There was a lull during high school where I didn't read much for enjoyment, but I started again in university. It was actually the classics that got me reading again. I read all sorts of books by various authors like Louisa May Alcott, Jack London, L.M. Montgomery, L. Frank Baum, Willa Cather, Mark Twain, and Lewis Carroll.

The YA book market then wasn't what it is now, so my love for that genre came a bit later. Twilight didn't start my obsession with YA fiction, though; I was already reading quite a bit of YA stuff when the first book came out. I'm actually lucky that the Twilight series didn't put me off YA fiction altogether! (I'm not a fan.)

I haven't read many classics lately, but maybe I should start doing so. They're what helped rekindle my interest in reading after years of boring books (classics, ironically) in high school.

December 21, 2010 at 2:25 PM  
Blogger Beth said...

I have always been a lover of books...even as a kid. There was a time in university when I didn't read for pleasure because I was an English major and had to read 5 books a week for my courses. Not enough time for anything else.

Now I read all the time but my tastes have really started to become more definite- lots of historical fiction, fantasy and YA.

December 21, 2010 at 2:27 PM  
Blogger Linda said...

I've loved to read since I was a child. I started book blogging because I love talking about books. There wasn't one book that started it. More of a realization that I love books and I wanted to talk to them.

December 21, 2010 at 2:29 PM  
Blogger Stormi said...

I guess you could say I am just a plain book nerd. I can't remember any book ever sparking my love for reading because I have been a reader since I was a kid. My mother loved to read so I guess I got my love of reading form her.

My taste in books might have changed from time to time but I have always been a reader.

December 21, 2010 at 2:32 PM  
Blogger BNM said...

it started with harry potter when i was in school but the twilight series totally blew me out of the water! amazing story I just recently finished breaking dawn and that is the best series of stories ive ever read the love story is impeccable! I want to read them over and over again. its easy to get wrapped up in them especially when your imagination is going crazy with images! Love LOVE love that series!

December 21, 2010 at 2:33 PM  
Blogger Amy J said...

I also love the images your mind can bring out from reading the book! Its like a mini movie in your brain as you flip the page! I am not a big fan of one certain genre either. The Twilight Series sparked my interest again, but I am not set on just YA books.(as you can tell by the various reviews I post) I love romance, YA, paranormal and I even recently have dipped my toe in the UF realm!

December 21, 2010 at 3:16 PM  
Blogger Anna said...

For me it was the Harry Potter series & the Sookie Stackhouse series. I know totally two opposite series, but they were what started my book addiction. :)

While I was reading before these two series caught my interest, It was very tame. I had one bookshelf and it didn't even hold books. Now I have 6. LOL!

December 21, 2010 at 3:38 PM  
Blogger Eleni said...

I agree Amy! Twilight reeled me in this crazy world of YA. :)

December 21, 2010 at 3:39 PM  
Blogger Megan Mack said...

Hmm...I don't think I've ever had a lull. My obsession started as a really young child with getting to pick out books for my mother to read to me before I went to bed and once I hit grade school I was reading on my own.

My Paranormal Romance binge started with the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. I read those before I read Twilight, I believe.

December 21, 2010 at 3:54 PM  
Blogger Eden said...

I started reading in 7th grade but it excelled fast when I read Twilight!

December 21, 2010 at 5:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I didn't start reading until my early 20s. Harry Potter started it all. Then I went thru a Dean Koontz phase. Then I discovered Nicholas Sparks. And Twilight was my gateway to vampires.

December 21, 2010 at 7:05 PM  
Blogger Katherine said...

I used to read books so often as a child that my parents weren't sure whether I could read or if I had just memorized the story to the pictures.
I have scarcely stopped reading throughout my life, although there are some books that drew me along.
My lifelong love of witches was spawned in books. I began with Dory, the little witch with mismatched socks, then went on to the Worst Witch, a brief stopover in Harry Potter didn't interest me, and then I found my Witches again in Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
You might make a joke about a spell at this time.

December 21, 2010 at 7:14 PM  
Blogger Amy J said...

Now see, I couldn't get into the Harry Potter books. My daughter loves them, but they just weren't my cup of tea so to speak. Same with the Hunger Games. I couldn't get into the first one enough to finish reading the series.

December 21, 2010 at 8:12 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I have always loved to read even as a child. But my obbessive non-stop talk about books that is all due to the wonderful no one in her genera compares to her J.K. Rowling. With Harry Potter.

December 21, 2010 at 8:24 PM  
Blogger Pixie said...

I could have almost written that post. I had not read a "chapter book" since I left high school. Married and had children at a young age. I was shopping for a book for my 7 yr old daughter when I noticed Twilight on the shelf, and decided to give it a try... 5 yrs later here I am, still addicted and still reading.

December 21, 2010 at 9:51 PM  
Blogger BLHmistress said...

Being an only child and an army brat , books were my best friend growing up but I did break away for awhile in my early 20's - you know fun and partying stage but then I slipped back into it with Historical Romance- Cassie Edwards and Madeline Baker/aka Amanda Ashley not full time though.

It wasn't til my niece handed me Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series did I did reeled in and hopelessly hooked to reading again.

December 21, 2010 at 11:38 PM  
Blogger Kim - Bookishly Me said...

I loved to read as a child and you could always find me the library. When I was about 20 I kinda stopped reading novels and I read more informative books and it wasn't till last year when I discovered Twilight (yeah I know) that I started reading novels again.

December 22, 2010 at 12:16 AM  
Blogger Noemi M. said...

The first books that started my obsession with reading was Harry Potter after that I started reading like crazy and I haven't stopped.

December 22, 2010 at 5:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I never was interested in reading books until seventh grade...up until then I read fanfiction of my favorite tv shows. But in seventh grade we had to read a million words as some requirement and I decided to pick up the biggest book I knew of - Harry Potter.

As soon as I was finished with the series which was near the end of eighth grade - I became obsessed with werewolves (I don't know why I just did). And began reading books that I later noticed had at least one werewolf in them...and now I have two 5-shelf bookcases in my room jam packed with books.

December 22, 2010 at 7:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amy ~ I am completely and totally jealous...my goal in life (well one of the many goals) is to have a library of my own! I want to own all of the books that I love the most and have a room dedicated to a library! :-) You already have that started so that is why I am jealous.

One other thing before I get to the discussion, I found your site through Julie (Yummymenandkickasschicks) and I already enjoy reading your posts!

As for the answer to the discussion question...this one is hard for me. I have always enjoyed reading even some of the books we had to read for school. So my obsession started a while ago. I'd have to say a few that really caught my eye when I was younger would have been Harry Potter, Of Mice and Men, The Great Gatsby and Lurlene McDaniel's books (man I need to look into a few more of those, they are wonderful YA books). So that is how I got started reading and I haven't stopped even through college, I just have less time to read while classes are in session.

December 22, 2010 at 8:32 AM  
Blogger Jessica K. said...

GOOSEBUMPS was what started me on my path to Nerdom...then Jude Deveraux was my thing, the along and TWILIGHT to reignite that passion for books a few years back. Each collection threw gas on the flames of passion. Ahh...sweet books, how I love thee...

December 22, 2010 at 10:09 AM  
Blogger Curling up by the Fire said...

I was always obssessed with reading for as long as I can remember. My mom jokes that I should have been born with a book in my hands. I do remember books being a catalyst to 'genres' obssession, rather than reading obssession, though. For instance, The Chrysalids introduced me to a lifelong interest in dystopian literature and The Fionavar Tapestry hooked me on fantasy series and I read them passionately for years although lately I really haven't had a chance to read what I call true fantasy (sword and sorcery). I also went through a period of Harlequin Romance where I read every one I could find in the house (and that was no easy feat as my mom is a book hoarder). And I also remember going through a period of reading Gothic romance due to Wuthering Heights. I've always read historical fiction though. I have always been an eclectic reader and go through phases, reading whatever catches the eye. What I do not like reading are westerns for some reason. I even went through a Classics stages and read everything I could until I got bored and needed a new stage. One of my students once asked me how many hundred of books I have read and I remember telling them it's more like in the thousands, not hundreds. I have always been fascinated by the supernatural and remember reading books about witches and ghosts for as far back as I can remember. I still remember sleeping with the light on when I was seven years old because I read a ghost story that scared me so badly I couldn't go to sleep. I never did tell my mom about it because I thought she might take my night reading privileges away.

December 22, 2010 at 12:14 PM  
Blogger CHRISTIE said...

I was always a reader but Twilight bridged the way from me reading strictly adult fiction to trying YA as an adult. Before that I read lots of Nora Roberts, James Patterson, Jonathan Kellerman, and Nicholas Sparks. I had no idea how awesome YA had become.

December 22, 2010 at 1:17 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I was already reading when I started school so I've pretty much never been without my books.

I would say that "King Arthur and His Knights" was an absolute favorite (and still is, I must admit). I still have my mom's battered copy that was my first. I treasure it.

I am also jealous of your library. I dream of a house that has a room just for books and reading with floor to ceiling shelves.

December 22, 2010 at 6:00 PM  
Blogger Bev Hankins said...

I can't remember a time that I didn't love books. But I blame Nancy Drew for my addiction. I loved those mysteries and I HAD to own them all (at least all of the original hardback stories--never cared much for the ones that came after and put Nancy in leather miniskirts). Now I HAVE to own books...to the tune of over 2000 of my own as well.

December 24, 2010 at 12:45 PM  

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