What is the book that got you into reading/writing?
I feel like everybody has that one book or series which pushed them into falling in love with reading or even writing! For me, it was the Harry Potter series, I've considered reading a hobby since I was a child but it was this series that started my passion for books.
It has to be Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for me!!
I had always been a reader but reading this series was the first time I felt like I was transported to another world (and absolutely did not want to leave!).
It really got me into mythology as well which is why I started playing Age of Empires Mythology version back then.
Long story short, it caused me to go down the rabbit hole of content creation and I'm a game developer now! 😂
@MellowMusic Hey Mellow!
I have read the series and enjoyed it too. I even tried getting into the Heros series but after reading a book and a half I lost interest lol.
@AskTara
Oh I totally understand, I spent most of the first book of the Heroes series wondering where my boy Percy was and that made me reaaaaally impatient with it.
But I wanted to share a little joy, if you remember Calypso from the Percy Jackson series - she finally gets her happy ending in the Heroes series after all those years of being cursed!
@MellowMusic Hi MellowMusic! Percy Jackson, specifically the following Heros of Olympus series, were so pivotal to my love of reading. I remember loving how it expanded my eyes to cultures, the different point of views of people, and also strengthened my writing through Riodan's amazing writing voice and diverse cast of characters!
@Rach4 Hey Rach,
Same! It was Harry Potter for me as well. Though it wasn't my first read, it was definitely one of the books that got me into reading.
@Rach4:
For me it was the Boxcar Children series that my elementary school librarian read to me and the rest of my class in 2nd or 3rd grade that got me into reading. But comics and Goosebumps especially the Give Yourself versions are some of the books that kept me into reading.
As for writing, no book got me into writing. It was actually listening to music that got/kept me into writing.
@Rach4 Same! After I finished reading Deathly Hallows I couldn't let it go. It led me to first creating fanfic then I began to write my own tales :)
@Rach4 Samee!! It's still my comfort book to this day!
@QueenMione I love that! Is your username a nod to Hermione by chance? 😄
@Rach4 Of course it isss! 😄
@Rach4
to me, it would be Les Miserables. it got me into both reading and writing 🥰
@Rach4 Mine would maybe be Dr. Seuss books because idk about anyone else here but I was reading first when I was really young not when I was teenaged. By the time I was 15 I'd read almost every classic literature book ever written; War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, Machiavelli's the Prince, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, books by Robert Louise Stevenson, Nikoli Gogol, Washington Irving, and more...
@genericbeing Oh, wow! I wish I had the attention span to read all the classics, haha. I read a few pages of The Prince for my law class, but then dropped it :p
@AskTara The Prince is really interesting if you understand the time period, history, and politics of the era. You did law? I did too. I was going in to be a defense lawyer but I changed my mind later.
@genericbeing Wow, it sounds like by the end of your teen years you had an amazing palate and diverse layout of knowledge! I remember feeling ashamed when I was about 17 that I hadn't read more classics, only having a small handful under my belt. Later I learned to accept where I was in my reading (I loved reading, but never was super exposed to classic literature) and now I can both enjoy analyzing classics and newer novels without that guilt.
For me it has to be The Hunger Games series. It holds a special place in my heart and really showed me how reading can provide these different perspectives that you may not run into yourself :)
@nestlecrunch Hunger Games definitely gave to us cultural exposure at such a large level. There are so many deep themes about bravery, society, politics, and diversity within the series, that I remember walking away from it with such a heightened sense of empathy- specifically towards groups raised with and without awareness. This was one of the first series that got me into reading! :)
@Rach4
To be honest, I'm not sure 🤔 I come from a family of readers, and I've been reading since at least age 3. The earliest one I remember reading was a Garfield comic book. As for writing, the earliest book I can remember writing was a comic book with a joke similar to a Strongbad cartoon I watched (around age 8?), but I've also been writing almost as long as I can remember too!
I think my solo stories were most inspired by the stories I made with my sister, and those were inspired by Pokémon and our toys, as well as a variety of stories we read.
Short answer: I'm not sure!
@Rach4 The Maze Runner Series! This was definitely because of the community that came with it. In about 5th grade, I started to get into "Fandoms" on the internet, and the first "Book Fandom" I joined was for the series! It felt so connecting to be able to read all the discussion posts, memes, emotional responses, and just overall fanbase. From there, I discovered so many other book based fanbases, and would spend so much time reading, and eventually through my love of reading. Writing. :) I believe one of the greatest things that could come from an authors writing is a community.