The 10 Books I Love Most.

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The 10 books which throughout my 22 years of life have been the most memorable. In pretty much all cases the books belong to a series.

I chose The Enchanted Woods as this was a series of books my mother bought to read to me when i was 6, but instead these books wound up teaching me to read at a more advanced level. If i had not read Enid Blytons books i would have never read the Hobbit, which is a classic. In turn without that i would of never read "When the Wind Blows" by James Patterson about a winged angel named Max who is part of a cruel experiment on children. After reading the start of this series, i tried Patterson's other books about Alex Cross, which have been a constant series for me over the past 7+ years at least. (I picked Roses are Red on the list as i feel it is the peak of the series)

Hearts in Atlantis and Warlock make it onto the list because they are amazing books also. I only read these books by mistake, i was about 14, on holiday with my parents. The only reading material i had was a few magazines, but my parents had bought a library along with them and so i began to borrow their books while they were out site seeing. I read Hearts in Atlantis in 2 days, the first time in my life id ever wanted to read something non stop. My parents had told me it wasn't really worth the read and so i did not expect to find it very interesting, but for some reason i was captivated by it.

After reading this and making it halfway through Rainbow Six before deciding it was a lost cause, i began reading Warlock by Wilbur Smith. I always like Egyptian themed stories, and am a huge Stargate fan as a result, so reading Warlock, a story about ancient Egypt, magic and faros etc was absolutely amazing. I have always said i would read the rest of the series and to date still have not! All of these stories eventually lead me to wanting something better, i wanted a saga, an epic tale and something that would take me a while to get through, and even longer to get over.
A friend suggested i try Steven Kings "The Dark Tower" and i had seen it in a few stores so figured it might be worth while since i enjoyed Hearts in Atlantis. I found Costco were selling the first 4 books in a box set for the price of a dvd, and figured why not? My first read of "The Gunslinger" was not the most awe inspiring read of my life, i found it quite arduous and drawn out for the first two thirds of the book, then suddenly something caught me in the book, i became hooked to it and had the first 4 books finished by the end of the next week. Fortunately for me King had released the 5th book and the 6th was due soon with the 7th book not far behind.
I think reading it all in one go made it all the more better, i would have hated being one of the people who had only read books 1-4 when King had his car accident, and i can imagine there were a huge number of fans who's wish was for King to survive purely so they could finish the quest, as twould of been a crime if he hadn't! Fortunately he did survive of course, and in my eyes he has created a masterpiece, definitely his crowning achievement, and why not? That was his aim after all, to epitomize his career in one long epic tale which he began as a 19 year old aspiring writer (releasing it in 1982 after years of stopping and starting (twas his first novel)) and finishing it middle aged (the final book was released in 2004). This series is the most inspiring one iv read to date, im not saying it is going to be everyones idea of an epic book, or that it is a book that will stand the ages like Shakespeare or Dickens, but i think there is a spark in this tale, and il make sure my kids read it.

When i finished the Dark Tower i felt fulfilled, like id read one of the greats, the only trouble iv found since is, where do i go from there?!