Whenever I consider my love of reading I always fully contribute it to A Series Of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I was obsessed with these books as a kid, the mystery, the dark comedy, the illustrations. It was just so witty and unique. I wish I hadn’t given most of my copies away, I’d honestly love to give them a re-read cause I still think they’d hold up. I read quite a few other popular book series as a kid, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson etc etc.. But A Series Of Unfortunate Events was what truly ignited my love of reading and weirder literature. Watching the TV show a few years later was a pleasant ride down memory lane.
What books were the most influential to you as a child? Or what books truly sparked your love of reading (wether you were a child or not when that happened).
by According_Bat_8150
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Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White because it was one of few books i liked as kid, i still blame this for causing my addiction of books
From the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. It taught me that kids could think critically.
After I burned through Goosebumps, I started looking for harder stuff, which led to Stephen King. Then, following some of King’s sources of inspiration opened a whole wide world of reading
A series of unfortunate events was pretty influential to me too, tho Harry Potter was more so. Before Harry Potter I had no interest in reading, after I couldn’t stop.
I used to have mostly encyclopedias in my house. I remember small books where each one talked about specific themes like Egypt or physics, and other for kids that had experiments, short stories and stuff like that. I also had encyclopedias on dragonolgy (The study of dragons) that, while fictional, talked about the mysteries of the world, of researchers going to dangerous places and looking for magical beasts. I still remember those books and, besides actually learning a lot of random stuff, I think they sparked my curiosity in the world and in sciences. I almost end studying biology and be like those researchers of dragons, traveling the world researching animals, but I ended deciding that wasn’t for me in the end.
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, Half Magic by Edward Eager (and a bunch of his books), the Howard Pyle versions of Robin Hood and King Arthur… Witches by Roald Dahl. I am sure there were more, really depends on what age we are talking about. Earlier than that the Lorax by Seuss and Where the Sidewalk Ends by Silverstein, older and we’re talking the Three Musketeers by Dumas and the Sword of Shannara by Brooks.
Christopher Pike teen horror books. I read all of them I could find.
I also read a lot of Stephen King and old school classics (lmao) by VC Andrews.
It’s funny because I almost never read horror now, though I still like the genre.
The Babysitters Club
Phantom tollbooth, chronicles of Narnia and I read every book the school library had on mythologies while in elementary and middle
Judy Blume’s books like Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret, are the first books I remember loving and making me really interested in reading!
Just reading about other girls my age, going through the same things I was, but who were also different from me in a lot of ways and had different experiences really drew me in. I still have my copies that I read when I was just a little pre-teen ☺️
Goosebumps and Earthsea series were my gateway drugs to horror and fantasy.
Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne and the American Girl Doll historical books. I’m now a graduate student in history.
The HP series ignited my love of reading. Peter Dickinson’s “The Kin” was a huge influence on me and ignited my love of Anthropology, which I later got a degree in.
It makes me sad because I don’t remember the name but in my artistic expression I credit this one book so much! It had a unicorn on the cover and it just had so much historical and fantastical imagery in it. I wouldn’t be the same person without that art.
I was in 7th grade when the movie The Hunt for Red October came out. I loved the movie, so I tried to read the book. It was the first time I realized books weren’t like the movies. In this case, I was too immature to appreciate the book. But it at least got me interested in Tom Clancy. I read Red Storm Rising and really enjoyed it. It’s almost spooky how many things he wrote as victim that seemed to predict future events. I’ve since moved up and on from him. But he’s a big reason I’m an avid reader today.
A lot of Jaqueline Wilsons books, the secret garden, a little princess, Alice in wonderland, the jungle book, Darren shan, cherub series and the one that started it all winnie the pooh.
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Three Investigators series probably started my love of mysteries.