Young Adult Giveaway Hop January 27th to 31st
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I Am A Reader, Not A Writer
and Down the Rabbit Hole
I'll never forget it. It was June of 2007: the first night of my master's elementary education class "Teaching Reading and Writing". The professor asked us to stand up and introduce ourselves one by one and while doing so, tell our favorite book or author. After half of the class had already had their turn, having mentioned books and authors I didn't recognize, I stood up, said my name, and then decided to be bluntly honest...I said that I didn't really like reading and just preferred to see the movie.
After a moment of dead silence, I heard a giggle from the right, saw a few hidden smiles from others twisting away from me, and the professor's speechlessness was priceless. And it was the truth...at the time I thought reading was nauseatingly boring, a complete waste of time. That class was my turning point. We were assigned to read 60 books - some picture books but mostly chapter books and novels, including The Giver, Harry Potter, and A Wrinkle in Time...all the books I never wanted to pick up as a kid. Here I was at 27 and reading children's lit...and found that I absolutely LOVED the genre. Its playfulness, its wild ideas, and its just plain fun side were what turned me into a reader. When the class was over, I devoured the Harry Potter series, then fell in love with the Twilight series, the Mortal Instruments series...and then the Hunger Games and more. Due to a class I thought I would despise, I fell in love with children's and young adult literature and I've never looked back.
That's why I'm super duper excited to participate in this blog hop. I'm giving away not just one, but FIVE books! Here's what's up for grabs:
- Impossible by Nancy Werlin
- If I Stay by Gayle Forman
- When it Happens by Susane Colasanti
- Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz
- Prism by Faye & Aliza Kellerman
To enter for your chance to win one of these five awesome YA books, follow the directions on the rafflecopter widget below! And good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
52 comments:
Thats amazing how you remember in such detail. I am not too sure what got me into YA fantasy. I just know I had always love fantasy books and even though I had trouble reading at first I would carry them around with me.
I am not going to lie....it was the Twilight series. I have always been a big reader, but just with being a mother had but my love of reading to the side, because of my busy life....but now they are 10 and 15...i can finally have more me time to read and I am loving it.
Because of Harry Potter!
GFC Christina Kit.
My dad and grandad were both big sci-fi/fantasy junkies, so when I was 11 I received my first young adult fantasy novel as a birthday present. It was A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony. I devoured all the books in the set. Then I moved on to Anne McCaffrey's novels. I never looked back. :)
aprilgilbertson(at)gmail(dot)com
I start with twilight, I saw the movie first and then read the books and thats how I start with YA.
thanks for the giveaway.
flaka.077 at gmail dot com
My interest in YA all started when I read Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. Then the same year I read that the first Harry Potter book came out and my love of books all spiraled from there. I am now 22 and books are what I love. In face most of my pay check goes to pay for my habit :)
I actually had only read the Harry Potter series (loved them) and wasn't interested in YA until my husband worked on the set of Twilight as security. So I read that series and have been addicted ever since!
I have always wanted to write and discover the YA scene and I was hooked! So I was hoping one to write one soon.
I desperately wish I could say Harry Potter because they were the books I read growing up but I'm an English major so I prefer the classics (and Stephen King plus a few other adult writers) to modern literature. It wasn't until the crazy-obsession with Twilight happened that I started reading the YA books.
It's very heartbreaking for me to say that Twilight was the jumping point for me because I hate Twilight. I started reading modern YA lit because I could not believe that Twilight had such a following. And I needed to reassure myself that books from my generation were not that badly written. Thank god some are not badly written. There is hope.
I don't mean to offend any Twilight fans.
I'm not new to the YA scene. I've been reading it ever since I was a young adult of course!
There was a brief period when I turned 18 where I tried to cross over to adult fiction. I thought I was obligated to. But, I just didn't click with the books. So, back to YA I went, and I've stuck with YA books ever since.
The biggest reason is that I love to read & always have - I usually read a little of every type of genre. YA just seems to be the best.
I am also a teacher & reading specialist. I must admit that Children't Lit was my favorite course!!!
Became an avid reader as a teen and stayed within the genre. Like that it's clean, safe, and not pornographic in nature, plus now I can share the books with my kids :)
I've always been a big reader even when I was a kid I pretty much read what I find interesting & although it doesn't have to be YA its just what I usually gravitate to.
I was the same way. I did not like reading. I would just read what I had to for school but that is it. About 4 years ago my sister introduced me to the Twilight Saga and I fell completely in love with that series. It is my favorite. Now almost 300 books that I have read mostly YA (which are my favorite) I can't stop reading. This is my first year doing the goodreads challenge. My goal is to read 75 books. I think I will surely pass that since I have read 8 books already and am on my ninth and it is still January. I even started a book collection. It's small but keeps growing and growing.
Thanks for this great giveaway!
My sister-in-law convinced me to read The Hunger Games. It took me forever to do so; now I am hooked on YA lit. I'm even a high school librarian now and get to talk about books all day long. Its the best!
When I was a Junior in High School way back in 2006 everyone was reading Twilight but it was kind of a hush-hush thing at the time so I ended up sneaking to Borders and bought a copy. Since then I have found many books much better then Twilight and have become completely addicted to the genre!
I had to see what all the fuss was about with the Harry Potter books, which I loved. Then came Twilight, and I was hooked!
I've always been interested in YA books! When I was in elementary school I read those Sweet Valley High books! They were my first YA books but I don't think they were called YA then!
Chen Chang
i can't remember a time when i didn't read ya books. i think pretty much since maybe middle school that's most of what i've read. i love ya books :)
I've always loved to read. I used to volunteer to work in the cafeteria in elementary school so I would get free lunch, just so I could pocket my lunch money to buy books from the book order slips, and book mobile lol. I almost always had a book with me. So the YA genre is/was not new to me. I started reading YA novels when I was in the 5th grade. I know I stepped away from YA novels for a long time after I became an adult. Reading only adult novels, and then eventually I stopped reading. I have no clue why or how I managed to go on so long without my books! But I've started reading again, and now pick up the ocassional YA book. I'd like to get back into the genre a little more though.
couponcookie at gmail dot com
Forgot to add that I'm Nikki Marie on the rafflecopter form.
I've always enjoyed to read. However, I had the same experiences in graduate school. My children's lit. class hooked me!
The Twilight genre was so fun and addictive it made me fall in love with YA all over again.
I've never really gotten out of the YA phase. I've been reading since I was in 5th grade (I'm 20 now), and even though I have and will read books that aren't YA...they're always my go-to. Every time I go to the library it's the first place I go to look for new books. I pretty much just went from MG to YA and never strayed too far. I don't know if I'll ever stop reading YA, even though I feel silly sometimes when I buy books and the recommended reading ages are like "14 and up!" :)
I had always been reading, but I think I started reading YA when Uglies series came out.
I jumped on to YA with Twilight and loved it... Then went to House of Night and love it also...
I was like you I would watch the movie instead of reading. But that all changed in the 80's when my x-husband was in the US Air Force and was gone alot. So living away from family and lonely I decided one day to go to the library and check out a book. The books I picked was the Little House on The Piarie series. Now I read all kind of books and love it. Thank you for this awesome giveaway. :) Jeanne, jeannebates_t@yahoo.com
Even though I am 30 I read YA because they are usually much cleaner reads than adult fiction.
lexie.bookbug at gmail dot com
I got bored with the same old story being repeated in the adult book section. I picked up my little sister's copy of Twilight and quickly plowed through her copies of the entire series. After that I wanted more, so I got on Amazon and order a bunch of YA books. I became hooked. The stories were faster paced and the plots were much better developed then most adult books being released currently. I've been hooked on YA books ever since.
Email: sreis1987@gmail.com
GFC: Sarah Walker (sreis87)
I don't really remember, I want to say it was during my YA class for school but it is more likely from working in the Circulation desk at the library and seeing the things that were popular on the hold shelf.
Latoya
I've just always been into YA books, ever since I was younger, what brought me back, was the Sword of Truth series, and the Twlight series.
I got interested in reading ya books since i was in 6th grade when i first read twilight by stephenie meyer . I loved her books and i decided to read more ya paranormal romance books.
At first I hated YA. I thought all they were were sappy books about girls who don't get the boys of their dreams. My friends read a lot of comtemp YA when we were younger but then I tried a book. (Gosh, don't ask me which one, I can't remember.) I realized that it's not all about girls and guys falling in and out of love. I realized that it's about life. It's about the trials and triumphs that young adults may or may not face. Every story teaches us something that connects with us in a way that's so much more realistic than the Big Bad Wolf eating Gramdmother.
i have loved books and reading for a while now and i have always liked YA. but i started reading it more when me and some friends started passing books around.
I've been a reader, oh since Kindergarten. And I'm 23 now, and my bookshelves are filled with everything from picture books about Dinosaurs, to Harry Potter, to Jane Eyre and Dracula, and even cheap novels I found at the dollar store. I'm a book hoarder. And proud.
Thanks for the giveaway :)
I'm an eclectic reader and read genres according to my mood. I pick books based on various criteria:
. Blurb
. Author
. Cover
. Reviews
well i am a young adult and and heard about it from a friend! :)
I got interested in reading YA books when a friend gave me one to read. We pass books and make suggestions for each other.
I suppose I just never really stopped. I grew up reading it and now in my mid twenties I still am. Some of the characters are still closer to my age than characters in a lot of contemporary adult literature anyway. I like the genre because the characters usually stand up for the things they believe in and anything seems possible. That's why I keep reading.
I always loved YA growing up. I eventually got annoyed with most of the adult books I was reading and turned back to YA. I don't miss adult at all.
I loved it growing up, but the current trend of YA wasn't really around when I was growing up. I seem to remember it was babysitter's club and Christopher Pike and that was about it. For the modern era, the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix, Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl by Colfer and the Morganville series by Rachel Caine were my gateways back into the genre.
Thank you for sharing your story and I'm so glad that you wound up reading as a result of that class!
I became interested in the YA genre because I became a teen and started reading Meg Cabot and Anne Brashare's books :) Thanks for the amazing giveaway!
I originally started skimming the books my kids brought home from the library and then Harry Potter arrived on the scene. I got thoroughly hooked on this series and was preordered every book as soon as possible. Once all my fav adult writers started their YA lines there was just no turning back.
My daughter got me interested first to read the Harry Potter books, then Twilight. Then I got her interested in reading the Mortal Instruments series.
how did you get interested in the young adult genre?
Hmmm lets see well I think it was before the 2nd movie of Twilight came out. A family friend was reading them and told me that I should read them. I didn't think much of it so I was just like "sure ok why not" I mean they where huge at that point so yeah. I wasn't at all a reader at that point but I kept seeing people at school with the books so I guess that kind of triggered me into reading them. After I read them I was addicted in to Twilight but not yet reading into YA (I didn't even know what YA was). I din't think there was any other book like Twilight out there (boy was I wrong). It wasn't until Vampire Academy. One day I went over to my friend's house and she was done reading them and she was like "OMG Gaby you Have to read this series" I didn't think much of it but said ok sure because she was buggin me about reading the series and after that I was hooked. I found out about all types of book and found out which genre I loved (Teen Romance) also within by search I founf out about blogs and giveaways and here I am entering a giveaway now :D
I got into the Harry Potter series the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college (2000) because my brother, who was in high school, had just started reading them and I needed something to read. Besides that, I didn't read any YA until quite a few years later. In April 2008 I went to visit my niece, who was about to have a baby. On the way there my connecting flight was delayed due to weather and I was stuck in the airport for 6 hours. I had read my book and my backup book while stuck at the airport. My other niece told me about a series she was obsesed with, the Twilight series. I bought the first book while I was there and read it before I got home, but I couldn't get into it like she was. I did finish out the series, but it was nothing spectacular. Fast forward to last year. I started to read book blogs. There are a lot of YA book blogs. I didn't think YA was something I would be interested in, but I started to win some books and buy a few. But I never got around to reading them. Then, in December, I was stuck somewhere with nothing to do and no book. I turned to the Kindle app on my phone and remembered I had purchased the Hunger Games. I knew the movie was coming out soon and I always read the book before the movie. I started to read and I was hooked. I read Catching Fire not too long after, and now I am reading Mockingjay (all on the Kindle). I also just finished reading paperback copies of the first three books in the Mortal Instruments series. Like you, I can't believe that I am this old (31) and enjoying YA so much. I just can't get enough! I am slowly getting my TBR pile ready to devour first all the dystopian books I have (dystopian is already a genre I enjoyed in adult literature) and next I want to explore steampunk. Sorry for the long post, but I am interested in reading your future post about people discovering YA.
the imagine tree at aol dot com
I started as a young kid. I progressed from coloring books to children books to middle grade books and I'm currently in my YA book phrase. Alas, youth doesn't last forever since now I'm starting to get older than my characters but I'm still young at heart ^____^
I read Harry Potter when I was 7 and I was hooked <333
I've always been interested in the YA genre, pretty much. There was just a small stretch where I fell out of reading as much as I normally do and/or I was more interested in adult books of the urban fantasy and paranormal type, which is pretty much mostly what I read in YA fiction these days. I've been trying to branch out though, I hate to say this now given how I now feel towards the series, but the one that really brought me back to reading was the Twilight series and then I started gobbling up more and more of various YA fiction books.
Suz @ A Soul Unsung
susanhaugland@att.net
I first found Paperbackswap.com where I could trade books easily online with other book lovers. Through that website I found a group of YA readers who inspired me to try it. And I have been hooked ever since.
Shanan
http://thebookaddictnet.blogspot.com
I got interested in YA after complaining to a friend about adult genres being so hit and miss, particularly with language and other content. She said that was why she always just stuck to YA to avoid most of those things. I've been reading mostly YA ever since.
I think it was the summer reading program at my local library. the more pgs the books had the more clues you got to slove the mystery and win prizes.
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