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.

#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! :)