I am a huge bookworm. A dream of mine is to have a library in my future home full of books and a nice comfy arm chair for me to read on. My love for reading had to come from somewhere, right. There has to be a book that REALLY started my path to being a bookworm, so I decided to write a blog post on the books that made me fall in love with reading. So… here you go.
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//Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne
I read the Magic Tree House books in third grade. They were one of the first series I really followed. They were the perfect mix of fiction and nonfiction for me because I really liked learning stuff from fiction books. The stories make certain facts memorable. Magic Tree House was also the first series that I asked my parents to buy in bulk. Remember when you’d get little pamphlets from the Scholastic book fair, where you’d order books. There was a Magic Tree House pact with 10 books, and I asked my mom to get them for me. I gave arguments about how summer was coming and that I needed books to read, but looking back, she probably would’ve bought them anyway.
//The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
I read this book in 4th grade. It was one of the novels that my third grade teacher recommended. It was one of the longest books I had ever read at the time and I was really proud. I read it really quickly too.
//Ramona Series by Beverly Cleary
This is the series where I finally started considering myself a bookworm. I read all the Beverly Cleary books (Not just the Ramona series) at our school library in less than 3 months. That was when I realized that I am a huge book nerd. Before, I thought that I read as much as a regular person, but that was not the case. The Ramona books are what started me on my bookworm-y path.
//Matilda by Roald Dahl
I have also read all the Roald Dahl books. Matilda is the book that got me into his work. Our third-grade teacher read a little bit of the book out loud to us every day, but after two days, I checked out the book and read it myself. I was eight.
//The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
I read this series when I was 10 or 11. I love this series. There were so many twists and turns. There were 13 books in the series and I would wait for the books to come to our school library. It didn’t have the second book, which irked me to no end because I HATE skipping books when I read a series, but for this one, I had to.
//Arthur by Marc Brown
I’m talking about both the kid’s books and the chapter books. These books sort of fostered my transition to reading chapter books. They were also really fun to read. I still watch the show sometimes, and I’m eighteen, now!
//Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Come on. I had to put this in. I have noticed that nerds are either obsessed with the fandom or adamant against ever being a part of it. They seriously refuse to read the books. I am obviously on the other side of the spectrum. I LOVED these books. I read them when I was 11. They last few books were the longest books I had ever read at the time (870 for the 5th book). It was also my first encounter with books that divided readers into different groups associated with characters. (I’m a Ravenclaw, according to Pottermore, unsurprisingly). This became more and more common as I read more books, but Harry Potter was the first.
//Berenstain Bears Series by Jan Berenstain
This is much like the Arthur because this also fostered my transition to chapter books back when I was 7. The thing I enjoyed about this series a bit more than Arthur is that it showed things that happen in real life. The small kid’s books showed Brother and Sister having childish problems, but the chapter books went into peer pressure, smoking, gangs, etc. It was a nice change from the sunshine and rainbows fiction books for people my age were used to. The books didn’t corrupt me or anything because in America they do teach us about avoiding drugs and reporting sexual abuse at a much younger age (Granted, they could teach it better, but that’s not the point!). Basically, what I’m saying is that those chapter books didn’t corrupt me.
//The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I tried to only put books from Elementary School that harbored my love for reading, but I had to include this one. It was the first book that I stayed up all night reading. I read it in sixth grade (So not too far off from Elementary School) before it was really popular. I stayed up ALL night reading it. I couldn’t fangirl about it either because that word didn’t exist at the time (Not really the reason, but I had to put that point in) and most of my friends hadn’t read it! I still have the first copy I read. The pages are all brown and dirty because I passed it around for everyone to read, but I love that it’s worn that way.
//Unknown Book I Read as a Kid
I know. Great description, huh? I remember everything that happened in this book, but I CANNOT for the life of me, remember the title!!! I was 6. It was the first book I read with 100 pages (102 to be exact). I was so proud of myself! I may not remember the title, but at least I remember how pleased I was that I did that. This book was the beginning of my love for reading. It wasn’t even the number of pages or the number of points I’d get in class for reading it. I genuinely enjoyed this book. Even though I can’t remember the title, I know that this is what kick-started my love for reading (Which led to my love of writing, which leads to this blog being here now.)
What book made you love to read? I would love to hear about it in the comments.