Top Ten Tuesday – Nine People Who Have Inspired Me as a Reader

Posted 24 November 2020 by Katie in Top Ten Tuesday / 5 Comments

Happy Tuesday, reading friends. It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday post, thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl. As it’s Thanksgiving this week for all my US friends, this week’s topic is a Thanksgiving freebie, so I thought I’d say thanks to the people who have inspired me most as a reader, both in my love for reading and in my reading choices. I’ve even organised the list somewhat chronologically!

1. My mum

Of all the people I should thank for my love of reading, my mum tops the list. She read to me from birth, and some of my fondest childhood memories are of stories she used to read to my sisters and me as kids.

2. Mrs Cronin (first grade teacher)

Mrs Cronin introduced me to the wonderful world of the Faraway Tree, and I remember sitting enraptured each afternoon that she read a chapter to us. I actually didn’t want the school day to end!

3. Mrs Creswick (third grade teacher)

Mrs Creswick introduced me to the Chronicles of Narnia when she read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian to our class. Little did she know what a love that would spawn! I have since read those books (and watched the BBC mini-series) countless times!

4. Mr Tindall (fourth grade teacher)

I actually had Mr Tindall in both fourth grade and sixth grade, and there are a number of books he read to us over that time, but The Hobbit is the one I remember most vividly. Oh, how I lived for that reading time! I was utterly enraptured by the story, and as with The Chronicles of Narnia, have read it many times in the years since.

5. School and public library

Shout out to all the librarians out there! You fueled my Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys addictions and introduced me to a whole lot of authors I otherwise mightn’t have found (and at very little cost, library fines excepted )

6. Ruth Minter (friend)

Ruth has the distinction of having introduced me to both Georgette Heyer and Mary Stewart, who represent two of my favourite authors in two of my favourite genres: historical romance and romantic suspense respectively. She was also the person who first encouraged me to read Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Dickens, two classic authors I really enjoy.

7. Rel Mollet (friend and fellow blogger)

You know those friends who you feel like you’ve known forever, even if it’s only been a few years? That’s Rel, who has a fantastic book blog at RelzReviewz. We have very similar reading tastes, so if one of us really enjoys a book, it’s a pretty good bet the other will too. And then we can gush about them together afterwards!

8. Amanda Stevens (friend and author)

As well as having reader friends who have similar tastes to me, I love having reader friends who have different tastes to me, particularly genre-wise. Amanda has introduced me to books that would possibly never have made a blip on my radar (eg Owen Wister’s The Virginian) and broadened my reading diet, and I love that.

9. Rachel McMillan (friend and author)

I don’t think I know anyone who reads as widely and voraciously as Rachel, nor anyone who is so wonderfully active in promoting other authors’ books and loving on her favourites. And that means she’s ALWAYS bringing new books to my attention, including several authors who have become personal favourites (hello, Mimi Matthews!).