Five Books That Changed My Life

As a blogger, I have read more books than I would ever like to try and calculate. Because of this, some books get forgotten or become a vague memory of enjoyment. But there are also those that will always stick out in my memory, not just because of how good they, but because of how they have affected me. Lucy of Queen of Contemporary did it. Then Gracie of Almost Amazing Grace did it. So I thought I'd join them, and talk you through five books that changed my life. Without these books, I wouldn't be who I am today, or be doing the things I do.


Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Yes, Twilight. It gets a whole lot of grief, but I really enjoyed this series. Not just that, but it opened my eyes to both urban fantasy/paranormal romance, and to YA.

Before Twilight, I was reading high fantasy exclusively. You wouldn't catch me reading anything else. But when I took a module in Young Adult Fictions at uni, Twilight was one of the books on our recommending reading list. I read it, and fell in love. Maybe a bit too in love, because I bought the next two books in the series, New Moon and Eclipse, and for a several months, they were the only things I read, over and over.

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Author Appreciation Week: Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer



When I first became a reader, I was only a fantasy reader for such a long time. Most of my reading consisted of adult or cross-over high fantasy, such as books by David Eddings, Raymond E Feist, and Robin Hobb. Other than the Harry Potter novels and the occasional - but very rare - romance, that was all I read.

Then in 2008, I took a Writing for Children class, where we had to analyse various young adult novels and write an essay answering the question "What is young adult fiction?" It was such an interesting class, but most of the books I read were mainly ok. Nothing really grabbed me - until we had to read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. When our tutor spoke to us about it, I was actually pretty warey - a book with vampires? That has got to me a horror. Obviously, I was wrong, and you know what? I fell in love.

I know there are a fair amount of people who don't like the Twilight series, and that's fine. But after spending years reading books about quests, magic, good vs evil, gods, knights, sorcerers, royalty, etc, the Twilight saga wasn't anything like I had come across before in fantasy. There was romance, there was danger, there were real life places and ordinary humans - but also the wonderful paranormal. It was just incredible. Obviously, I went on from Twilight to New Moon, to Eclipse, reading them over and over, because I couldn't get enough of this beautiful paranormal romance. After a while however, I started looking for other novels. Amazon gave me some recommendations because of liking Twilight, and I discovered other YA urban fantasy novels and adult ones too. From other YA urban fantasies came an interest in other YA, which eventually lead to the creation of Once Upon a Bookcase.

There are so many amazing books, adult and YA, fantasy and non, that I would never have even considered if it wasn't for Stephenie Meyer and her Twiligh saga. As I've said before, there are a fair amount of people who aren't fans, but surely each and every one of those people have to at least respect Stephenie Meyer if she is broadening the horizons of readers, or getting people to start reading in the first place. This series will always be one of my favourites, and I have so much to be thankful for because of this series. I think that earns Meyer my appreciation, and she has it in bucket loads.

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