Top Ten Books and Authors I Am Thankful For

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created over at The Broke and the Bookish which I adore and therefore chose to adopt into my weekly blog posts!

L. Frank Baum and The Wizard of Oz series – To give me a fantasy land to escape to before Harry Potter, you will always be my first love.

J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series – Without a doubt this is the number one series I am thankful for in my life. Let me just say that I had a pretty…rough… childhood and Harry and I were alike in quite a few ways. I think I was 12 when Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets came out and it was at that point that I randomly happened upon book 1. My grandmother asked me if I was interested and I kind of shrugged. You see, I was a creature of habit and at that point I was obsessively re-reading both The Wizard of Oz series and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Fast forward a few days (or hours) to me curled up in my chair in my tiny room crying over Harry receiving his Hogwarts letter. Seriously. Years later I was lucky enough to work at Barnes & Noble and I was working the midnight release party for HP7. I remember getting home after 1am and reading until I fell asleep. I finished the book that day and though I was overjoyed at having another piece of Harry’s life in my hands, I cried and cried. I cried because it was over but I also cried because we both prevailed over the terrible circumstances in our lives, Harry and I. I cried because in fact, “happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

Patricia C. Wrede and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles – Ahh the first “no nonsense” princess I ever fell in love with and the first character I can remember relating to as a young reader.

Juliet Marillier – You all saw this coming, didn’t you? Marillier was the first “adult” author that I read as a “young adult” and it was the first time I can remember becoming so engrossed in a story that I could shut out anything and everything going on around me. There are a few books and a few series that I can re-read over and over but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I realized just how much I love this author. Of course I knew that she was my favorite but I had forgotten just how strongly I react to her words. I am re-reading Daughter of the Forest (and the rest of the Sevenwaters series) to prepare for Flame of Sevenwaters and I am having all of these FEELINGS that are nearly impossible to describe. You’re all book people though, you get it, right?!

Neil Gaiman – I was lucky enough to read Neil Gaiman for the first time this year and I just love everything about him. The more I read the more I love. Mostly, I am thankful for his amazing storytelling skills because I LOVE the audio books that he narrates. You know what, just go read this post because really it is all about my adoration for the man.

Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games Trilogy – For getting so many “non-readers” to read! Also for being one of the first books my beau read before me and ADORED.

Christopher Healy and The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom – For reminding me how fun it is to read and for proving to me that MG novels are worth it.

Bram Stoker and Dracula – For being the first vampire I ever loved.

Gertrude Chandler Warner and The Boxcar Children – For making me feel like less of an orphan.

The Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen – Just because.