This is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, and I absolutely love it! It gives me a chance to geek out about books that I loved and provides a platform to get to know other awesome bloggers out there. This week’s topic is:
Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Was A Blogger
I’m going to modify this one a bit to: Top Ten Favorites Before I Became a Bookseller because I think it would be fun to highlight the books I was reading before I became immersed in the book world.
- Homeland by R.A. Salvatore
- The Aware by Glenda Larke
- The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
- Magician Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist
- Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
- The Last Dragonlord by Joanne Bertin
- The Wayfarer Redemption by Sara Douglass
- Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind
- The Heart of Myrial by Maggie Furey
- Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans
#1 Homeland: Lent to me by a high school buddy, this has long been a series that I’ve been known to reread despite my busy reading schedule – particularly the Dark Elf Trilogy. Detailed sword fights, dynamic characters, and loads of adventure are just fractions of what this book has to offer! (Read full review)
#2 The Aware: Larke is one of the best I’ve ever read at world-building, and I loved every moment of this series (and all the ones she’s written since). She’s so unheard of that I have a difficult time hand-selling her titles, but they are well worth your time!
#3 The Sword of Shannara: The first time I read it, I didnt’ remember anything about it (age 12). The second time I read it, I appreciated it for the epic journey and the feeling like I was on a grand adventure (I read this one before LOTR).
#4 Magician Apprentice: The first fantasy book I ever picked up, this is a family favorite that sparked my love of the genre. (Read full review)
#5 Dragonlance: An epic adventure with a great cast of characters that no fantasy buff should be without. This series is an adventure, and one I often recommend for younger readers trying to graduate to adult fantasy.
#6 The Last Dragonlord: I stole this from my mom after she ordered it from a book club magazine and waited years to find out how the series ends. Thankfully, the conclusion was just released last November, but now I can’t remember a single thing…
#7 Wayfarer Redemption: I admit, I picked this one up solely because Luis Royo did the cover art for the entire series. A relatively stupid reason, but it gave me one of the most memorable series I’ve ever read.
#8 Wizard’s First Rule: Having recently gone back for a reread, I now realize just how repetitive and wordy Goodkind is. The first time through, I was so absorbed with the story that I didn’t notice it at all until I got to “The Naked Empire” (which was blatantly repetitive). In any case, this series struck me profoundly.
#9 The Heart of Myrial: My all-time favorite book, I don’t even remember how I found this one but I’ve been itching for a reread for years now. I loved the world, the flow, the characters, and the momentum of the story – it was fabulous!
#10 Dragon Weather: This is my favorite dragon book, and one that frankly I can’t understand why it didn’t make its way into mainstream. It’s incredibly well-written and the storyline left me reeling for years!
There you have it! What I was reading before I made books my life. I’m actually surprised at the mix of mainstream and unheard of authors because I thought it would be skewed towards the former. Notice I didn’t have any young adult or urban fantasy – those are the two categories I branched out into over the years and probably read more of now than anything else. In any case, I hope you enjoyed my list! :)
Love all of these books. You were a smart reader even before you became a bookseller. :-)
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Ahh! I love The Sword of Shannara series. And I actually have a copy of Homeland… which I’ve never read since I bought it probably 5 years ago. Gonna have to fix that, obviously!
Thanks for visiting my Top Ten! :)
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I know how you feel – there are SOOOO many books in my TBR pile that I’ve owned for years!! Too little time. :)
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