Thankful Thursday: Books that Made a difference

Books are a part of every writer's life.  Most of us grew up begging for books for our birthdays, unbirthdays, and Holidays.  We'd spend hours in bookstores and libraries.  If you were like me you were jonesing for another book shortly after finishing one.  We carry books or e-readers in our purses or pockets.   But for each of us there was THAT book that said, "You need to write."  

Since the characters we were thankful for last week have a book they came from, I decided to take a look at the books we're thankful for.

AE said, "The one book series I am grateful for has to be the House of Night. I learned so much about what did and didn't work for me, what I loved and, sadly, have grown to dislike in a series. The pacing and tone throughout, is awesome. Very little down time. In the beginning, probably the first three books, I LOVED Zoe--the characterization made me love and/or hate the characters in this series with equal relish. Then, the authors started tinkering with a formula that had me reading their books like literary crack. They introduced secondary characters POVs, which I'm sure was meant to broadened the scope of the over-all story arc, but for me just watered things down. I found myself skimming some secondaries, searching for the MC's voice again. I felt as though they were shoving certain characters down my throat. Honestly, I haven't even picked up the recently released sequel."

Nikki said, "I'm going to go with Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss, because it's the first book I remember loving as a child.  I've been an avid reader since I was very little, and I recall going to the library during the summer, checking out ten books (which was the maximum I could check out), and reading at least one on the way home in the car!  I used to read a book while riding my bike home from middle school (yes, I was a multi-tasker even back then).

Jessie said, "I'm going to reach way back into my reading memory and pick The Mummy or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice.  This was one of the first books I remember just gushing over because the love story wrapped around me so completely.  It was a paranormal romance novel before its time and it embedded a love for the genre in me.  I have to be grateful for any book that led me, consciously or not, to the dark, mystical and beautiful world of YA paranormal romance."

Sheri said, "This is a hard one for me. I have to admit; I wasn't an avid reader as a kid. I was in the studio dancing or the sports field pretty much all of the time. I did read, but never let anything grab me. I did, however, read DANCING ON MY GRAVE at a younger age and it resonated with me. I'm not a big nonfiction or biography buff, but Gelsey Kirkland's true life is one a storymaker would dream to write. It's poignantly written, revealing the true sacrifice of a dancer and her personal struggles with life and her two loves--dance and Mikhail Baryshnikov."

And me, I'm choosing Twilight, because when I first started reading it, it made me go, "I can write better than this." (I didn't like it very much in the beginning, but about 3 chapters in I couldn't put it down.).  While my thoughts on the book changed and I loved it, for many reasons, not least of which is Ms. Meyers' ability to tug on the emotional strings of her readers, it got the ball rolling on making me want write for more than just my friends, family and the drawer in my desk.