(Danielle has not had a chance to post yesterday's topic yet so I am just going to forge on ahead and hope she catches up with both posts tonight, though this next one is sure to be hard for both of us to make a choice on.)

A picture of your favorite book.

My favorite book huh? That's a hard one. I love so many books. There are tons and tons of writers that I absolutely adore like Anthony Horowitz (I'm an Alex Rider junkie) and D. J. MacHale. I think, of all the books I love, I will have to go with Harry Potter.

It was J. K. Rowling that broke me out of the norm book wise. When I was younger I mostly read horse books. It ranged from Pony Pals to more literary pieces like Black Beauty and the Black Stallion. I even delved into a book about Man-O-War and ate it up. King of the Wind was pretty much my favorite book ever and Misty of Chincoteague followed closely behind. As good as those books are, Harry Potter opened up my mind and heart to a whole new world of literature.

The interesting thing about my journey with Harry is that it didn't start at the very beginning. When I was in 7th grade, there was an announcement made over the intercom that all four Harry Potter books  had now been made available to borrow in the library. Amidst the cheers of all my classmates, I found myself saying "What is Harry Potter?" I had never heard of J.K. Rowling's amazing series. The next time we got our usual packet of Scholastic book orders, I leafed through them in search of the mysterious books.

Unfortunately, the only one available was the second one. So, I bought it. I read The Chamber of Secrets first and, once I'd fallen in love, my mom bought me the first and third one as well. I proceeded to start from the beginning and read the first one, then the second one, then the third one. From then on I always got the Harry Potter books as soon as they came out and I read them all in a day (sometimes two if I had school). I was hooked.

Young Adult science fiction and fantasy became my favorite genre to read and now it has become the genre I write. Without Harry Potter, I would not be who I am today. I mean...I listen to Wizard Rock for heavens sake.