So, in the spirit of my recent blog statistics I decided I wanted to write a blog post in reflection of this recent accomplishment for mylittlebookblog. I know I say this a lot but I never expected to keep this blog going a year let alone making it this far. I think confidence in my writing played a big part and I think a deep panic that people wouldn’t enjoy my writing was another. Skip forward, nineteen months (that is such a long time) and this blog is my second job. I spend all my time thinking about reading, and books, new authors, who I owe reviews, who I can do guest posts with. I read on the bus, in the bath, on the train, in the morning, evening, I spend days reading at the weekend, my life is spent with my head in a book. I remember once when I was younger I told myself I needed to throw myself into the real world and stop being so obsessed with the fantasy world. I am a terrible daydreamer and as a child I used to just drift off imagining pretend events and happenings. I must admit I did get a bit of a reputation as a ditsy airhead but it was because I lived in a different world, one that I now as an adult find in all the books that I read.

I wanted to talk about books that meant a lot to me when I first discovered reading. There were lots to choose from and I conclude that there were four writers that ultimately made me the reader I am.

1) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes made my childhood. I was a big reader but I was made to read comprehensive texts which were incredibly boring and made me very sulky. When I could finally pick my own books to read I stumbled across the Hound of the Baskervilles and a number of other texts by this wonderful author. It’s fair to say I was hooked, even now I can say he is the founder of my desperation to find more books like his. Sherlock Holmes is also my ultimate book crush; he is the most wonderfully in-depth and exciting character and if I could spend one day, no just one hour with a character from a book, it would be him. We would get coffee in London and people watch as the clouds blustered by. We would talk about life and love and death and I would fall completely in love with him. It would be terribly British and it would be my pleasure. Sometimes I take a minute to wonder what my life would be life if I hadn’t let curiosity get the better of me and begged my year six teacher to let me read it. Let’s maybe not think about that!

2) Jacqueline Wilson: Now I’m older I’m not a big fan of Wilson’s work, but as a child her books really spoke to me. I loved how she spoke about more taboo issues and real life events. She didn’t shy away from it and in the bubble of nice children’s books they spoke to me on another level. I wasn’t a shy child but I found her characters incredibly relatable and the way she wrote was easy for me learn from. I learnt from her that books could speak of feelings and pain in a deeper way than I had read before, although it may have also been because my mother was not to happy about me reading her books and getting the wrong idea! Now I know that her books don’t touch on the words that other authors do, but at the age that her books became a permanent feature in my life I learnt a lot. I even had a little Sylvanian Families Rabbit that I used to carry around just like Andrea did in The Suitcase Kid

3) Roald Dahl: Roald Dahl I’m sure is a big one for lots of readers of all ages. Mine came in the form of the book ‘The Witches.’ My dad used to read to me all the time and Roald Dahl was always a favourite; his stories were magnificently wicked for children’s books and I fell for them like you would not believe. It wasn’t until we read The Witches together that I realised what a hold books could have over people. It is not an overreaction to say I was terrified of the witches; I was so scared that I didn’t sleep for weeks and weeks. We used have to get up early before school to read it, or after school because if we read in the evening there would be tears at bedtime. Roald Dahl taught me that books could make you feel things that you hadn’t experienced before and even now when I see The Witches on a bookshelf or in the library I feel my heart beat a little faster

4) J.K Rowling: This author is one that I continue to go back to whenever I can and I will forever be a loyal fan. Harry Potter I am sure is a big part of a lot peoples childhoods and the fan base of this series is ridiculous but for every single reader it means something different. It started an unstoppable love of reading. I stayed up all night and I would fight my Dad for the chance to read the book. When people ruined the books for me for me by spoiling it by telling me bits that had happened before I had to chance to read them, I howled; it changed reading from a hobby to everything for me. I put it off for so many years, and when I sat down I realised that books are pretty much everything for me. I love all of her books and will remain a dedicated fan for probably all of my reading life. Her writing is wonderful but it’s where she came from and her refusal to give up that has continued my drive to get my foot into the publishing industry.

So there you go; a little bit of me and where my love of reading started. I will be a reader for the rest of my life and I will forever be incredibly proud of that: Always