Top 10 Books Reading Challenge

So, there's been a "reading challenge" on facebook these last few weeks. You're supposed to post your top 10 most personally influential books with a cover photo. Well, I'm not going to spend space posting covers here, but here goes nothing. . ..

(Books presented in the order in which I read them.)

1. The Ten-Speed Babysitter, by Allison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali. This following one shouldn't be considered a "favorite," but it's the first novel I ever read. 3rd grade, maybe early 4th grade, I'm thinking. Previously, I had read non-fiction books about dogs and dinosaurs, but no fiction.
• Honorable mention: Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls. The Little Eddie series by Carolyn Haywood (4th grade). The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley (5th grade).
• I didn't read my first fantasy novel, Piers Anthony's A Spell for Chameleon, until maybe the summer between 5th grade & 6th, although now I'm less-than-proud to say I've read maybe 30 or 40 of his books in total.
2. The Belgariad, by David Eddings. I probably read these 5 books (and the subsequent 5 books in The Mallorean) 10 times a-piece while growing up. It's fair to say that they've done a lot to shape my general worldview and sense of humor, despite their flaws.
3. The Illearth War, by Stephen R. Donaldson. I first read this series in 7th grade but found it boring . . . then re-read it in high school, starting with this book (which is actually Bk 2) and couldn't put it down. Life changed.
• Honorable mention: SRD's Gap sequence.
4. The Black Company, by Glen Cook. Absolutely love Cook, although he's another one of those mid-list authors that isn't as well known as he deserves. Also another book I first read in highschool, but Cook became an obsession after I read his last 4 BC books (#6-10) in my early twenties. Also loved The Instrumentalities of the Night.
5. The Dark Border, by Paul Edwin Zimmer. My absolute favorite set of books for ages, up until I (re-)read Donaldson in highschool my senior year.
6. Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder, edited by David G. Hartwell. The first short story collection I ever read, which I bought for its beautiful green leather cover, and it made me love the form. And it introduced me to a whole host of new writers, including Ellison.
7. The Pastures of Heaven, by John Steinbeck. This isn't Steinbeck's most famous work by any means, but it's the first I read by him and the one that made me love him completely.
8. Bluebeard and Mother Night, by Kurt Vonnegut. Not the first books I read by KV, but certainly my favorites. I actually started out with Welcome to the Monkey House, and my mother then got me his complete works for Christmas -- I'm no longer quite sure why, but it worked out in the end. Managed to read all of Vonnegut my freshman year at Lycoming, I think it was.
9. The Essential Ellison, by Harlan Ellison. First read him as a teenager when I loved his "mouthy radical" vibe. Kinda worried that his fiction wouldn't hold up when I re-read it as an adult . . . but, except for a few wince-worthy bits, his kick-in-the-gonads type of fiction is still top notch. I picked this omnibus although his collection The Deathbird and Other Stories probably got to me first.
10. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin. The first novel I read by her, and still my favorite.
11. Faithless, by Joyce Carol Oates. Although it's hard to pick any ONE thing from her, I'll go with the following short story collection, which does have one of my favorite covers of all time.
12. Harry Potter, by J. K. Rowling. Need any more be said?
13. The Bull from the Sea, by Mary Renault. One of the best historical novelists ever-- and this is the first novel I read by her. And scrupulously detailed about ancient Greek life. 
• Honorable mention to The Incas by Daniel Peters, and The Egyptian by Mika Waltari.

Okay, okay, I cheated and listed thirteen books. Notably, the first six entries were all read (or re-read) by the time I finished high school. . . #7 was read during winter break from Lycoming College. . . proving that books affect you the most when young.

Afterwards, the other books were after adulthood. #9-#11 were all encountered during my "dark" time in my early 20s between dropping out of Lyco and re-enrolling at Kent State. During this time, a honorable mention must also go to Mika Waltari, a Finnish historical novelist. I first read The Roman by him, and then The Egyptian during my first year at Kent State main campus. A really sexist writer, I now realize, but very powerful for me at the time.

I discovered #12 during my MA at Ohio State -- actually took two weeks off from grad work just to read those books, and finished The Deathly Hallows in one marathon 14-hour reading session. HP is also the only fantasy to make this list after I graduated high school, although N. K. Jemisin's The Broken Earth trilogy could be a recent contender. Except for a few of my favorites like Donaldson and Cook, I basically stopped reading the fantasy genre for like 15 years after high school graduation. Just got bored with how formulaic the genre seemed to have gotten, and didn't really return to it, despite a dissertation on Tolkien (who doesn't make this list, btw), until a few years ago.

Anyway, last book . . . can't remember exactly when I first read #12, but it might be the only book to make this list after I turned 30. Basically, all her historical novels are pure gold.