Oh! I loooooove this question! When I was younger, Harry Potter is what really got me to love reading! I used to haaaaate reading before I got pulled into HP! Recently, I've found that I often make excuses not to read because graduate school has me doing enough reading on its own.

Around this time last year though, I decided to try doing more reading because there wasn't much else to do due to quarantining lol and after that, I decided that this coming year I want to make a habit of reading often! It helps having reading challenges to motivate me, but I also LOVE finding books that reignite the excitement of it all.

Most recently, I just finished reading Anxious People by Fredrik Backman and immediately afterwards (actually, lol, even WHILE I was reading it), it gave me this BIG desire to want to read TONS more. I feel like I have a new hunger for books now??? It just reminded me of how much I enjoy reading. Like sometimes I get a little self conscious and read what I feel like I'm supposed to read (i.e. The Classics), but books like Anxious People, remind me that reading something because you actually enjoy it is ???? so much more fun ??? and will keep me motivated to continue wanting to read more??? in the future???

The first book EVER that made me love reading was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom in kindergarten. DO YOU GUYS REMEMBER PICTURE BOOKS? We should discuss OUR FAVES sometime.

I also loved these Zoo books and animal books in second grade... and these Henry and Mudge books in second grade... I'm super dating myself here because bruh the 90s were great. Magic Treehouse was alright too, but sometime around then I also loved all these historical fiction I was on the Titanic type of books. Edit: The series was Dear America. LOL. Lissy, did you ever read those? I feel like you'd have liked them too, since I know you love history?

BUT yes, it was around fourth grade that I got into reading these Harry Potter books (have you heard of them, lol). Because I loved the humor and characters so much, I definitely started diving into larger books then, and I had to WAIT FOREVER for the fourth book to come out once I'd read the first three. I also became a bit of a Hermione Granger/competitive reader (is that a thing? lmao). I remember in middle school, for SSR time in seventh grade, it would be like me vs. my crush as to who was luggng around the largest tome. FYI, I'm pretty sure i won, since I was reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (hardback edition, of course) and he was reading....... something easier.

Honestly the last few years I've realized that I don't really CARE what I read as long as I enjoy it! I had that idea too that I should try and read all these different genres and the "popular" books and I realized that science fiction books (that often times aren't the BEST quality not gonna lie lol) are just so much more fun. So that's what I'm gonna read! So keep reading books you WANT to read and you'll keep that motivation up!

CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM YAAAAAAS. That was a CLASSIC. And definitely read The Magic Treehouse books! I also really liked those books that were like "Unicorns Don't Pull Sleighs" you know??? Man, we really had it great growing up in elementary school, no wonder some of us lost interest as we got older, nothing could compare

I've always been pretty big on reading but I've definitely gone through phases. The first book that I have strong memories of, and probably read when I was between 8-10, is Fairy Treasure by Gwenyth Rees. It was so magical to me and I wanted to be the girl in the story! As a pre-teen, my favourite books were Cathy Cassidy books, particularly Ginger Snaps, Dizzy and Scarlett. Then I used to read a loooooot as a teenager - predominantly YA fantasy - and these are the two series that stick out to me most: The Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine and The Shades of London series by Maureen Johnson. I still reread these from time to time and I'm sTILL WAITING FOR MAUREEN JOHNSON TO RELEASE THE NEXT/LAST BOOK IN THAT SERIES. It's quite literally been over a decade but I'm patient *eye twitch* but yeah... those two series mean a lot to me. They're the kind of books that feel real to me.

In my later teenage years, when in struggling more in school/life, I can't remember reading much if at all. But that all changed when I went to uni and discovered BookTube (aka the bookish side of YouTube)! I dived deeeeeeeep into videos, built up a catalogue of books I wanted to read, and got started. I wouldn't say there was a particular book that reignited my love for reading at that time. However, I did find a lot of new favourites, including my current favourite series: An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir.

Strangely, for me, Harry Potter was never something that got me into reading or watching films. It has kind of always lived outside the mediums for me, like a concept/world of its own more than anything else, which makes sense I guess, considering how big it's become and the fact we have characters of our own that live within that world. Buuuut I'm super happy what it got you and so many others into reading!

AHHHHHH! It makes me so happy that you now have the desire to read more!

I can't wait to hear about what you read in the future because I looooove hearing your thoughts on books, and we wouldn't have read A Man Called Ove if it wasn't for you! I've even added Anxious People to my list of books I want to read because of you. Hehe.

Heheheh. You knooooow, you could always make a discussion of your own about picture books. But YES, I DO REMEMBER THEM. Kind of. I remember The Hungry Caterpillar aaaand this one about a rainbow fish?? I can't remember what it was called. I'm sure there are others, too, that are buried deep, deeeeep in my memory.

Hmm, I haven't heard of most of those, although I don't know whether that's an age thing or an American vs. British thing. I have heard of the Henry and Mudge books, although I can't remember if I ever read them or anything about them. But I do remember The Magic Treehouse books!!!!! I remember my mother reading them to me and later reading them myself. I still have a bind-up of some of those books actually. I should definitely reread them at some point for the ~nostalgia~

Lmaooooooooo. First of all, Harry Potter? Never heard of it. Secondly, I love that story. Your crush never stood a chance!

Growing up in a small town of third-world country, I didn't really have access for reading aside of children magazine that my dad subscribed and occasionally trip to bookstore at the city for comics so what ignites me to reading (in general) is the local child magazine and some Japanese child comics. Then around Elementary school I started reading short novels like Goosebumps (translated version) and etc, but I can say Harry Potter made me enjoyed reading books with more than 200 pages lol so yeah...

But for reading in English well... I did try reading Harry Potter and the Deathly hallows in English back in middle school since my best friend owned it but we gave up since our English level were mediocre. On my first year in high school, we did have an assignment for reading and reviewing English book but since I live in small town and it was 2008, we couldn't find many English books so our options were limited to English classics like Dracula and the Picture of Dorian Gray. The first English novel that I successfully finished was... The Devil Wears Prada but I can say that's how I started reading books in English until now.

I didn't touch any book around 2019 so the first book I read and that makes me back to reading is Love Simon (because I got this a couple of years ago and didn't remember whether or not I had read it).