Five Books that Helped me Fall in Love with Reading

I love books.

I love to collect them, read them, research them, analyze them, review them and recommend them. Books are my addiction, my love and my Achilles heel. 

But I didn't always feel this way.

As a child I wasn't a great reader, in fact I was a terrible reader. I had a very hard time reading in general and comprehending what I was reading was also a problem. I went to special reading classes from kindergarten until 5th grade. I was the kid who had crippling anxiety every time we took turns reading aloud in class. I would constantly count the kids ahead of me and count out what paragraph I would be called onto read. Then, instead of listening to the story, I would practice reading my paragraph over and over again. Like I said, I wasn't a strong reader, and being forced to read aloud and show everyone my insecurities made me despise reading, especially reading aloud. "Popcorn" reading was especially traumatic. 

Although I did read assigned books in high school, most of them I didn't read fully. I tried to skim them to get the gist of the story so I could somewhat follow what was going on in class. (Read more about which books those were in this post.) Looking back, I now understand what a huge waste of time that all was. 

It's funny, the one book I vividly remember my junior year of high school was The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and that book has remained my favorite book for the last 20 years. Listened to the audiobook version of this book read by Jake Gyllenhaal and it was wonderful! 5 Stars! Highly recommended!

It wasn't until I was 21 years old that I finally fell in love with reading. I had always loved to collect books and I'd tell myself I'd read them eventually, but eventually never came. It wasn't until I read a book that changed everything. I remember picking up this book from the thrift store because it's title and cover intrigued me. What is this book I'm talking about? The Girl in the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. It was an easy read, and it was so engaging! This was the first book that I just sat and read in a weekend! This was a huge step for me. Warning: I tried watching the movie after reading the book, as I often do, and I thought the movie was absolutely terrible.

Side note: As I'm writing this post, I'm noticing that both of these books have eyes on the cover looking directly at the reader. I wonder if, subconsciously, I was drawn to The Girl in the Pearl Earring because it reminded me of The Great Gatsby. 

After discovering that I really did love reading, I began dipping my toes and I read some great books. During that time, as a "young" reader, I really enjoyed Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, The Help by Kathyrn Stockett, and The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant.

I've enjoyed many other great books over the years, too many to mention in one post. 

Stay tuned for more posts about books I've loved over the years!

Note: I've provided links to some of the items mentioned in this post and these are things, (or similar items) that I have used and enjoyed. If you choose to purchase these items from Amazon, that's great, but just know that I do not expect you do. I buy most of my items second-hand and I hope you can do the same. I've included links to certain items so you can gather more information about the products I'm referring to or you may purchase them new if you wish. Rest assured; I do not earn any commission from your purchases on Amazon for the items I've provided links to.