Hello readers,
I just turned 30! I thought it would be a fun trip down memory lane to take a look at the books that helped shape who I am today and how my reading tastes changed over the years. This is a rather long post, but I am indulging myself this one time.
First I’ll start with my favorite childhood books! I’ve read a lot since I can remember, with my parents also being big readers and my little sister, too. We spent countless Summers at my grandmother’s house reading all the books we could put our dirty little hands on.
I was tending towards fantasy back then, which is still one of my favorite genres nowadays! I also read a lot of comics (hundreds of the Turma da Mônica, for sure).
Enter my teen years! This was the time when I discovered epic fantasy and mysteries/whodunits. I lost count of how many Agatha Christies I read on my teens (my favorite is Death on the Nile). I also read a lot of cute contemporaries since they were lying around the house a lot (?), but I hardly remember them.
I read a lot on my school library back then, which is how I got to some Brazilian classics like Pedro Bandeira’s books, O Menino do Dedo Verde and a few more. Ahmnat is a Brazilian fantasy book about a girl who makes a pact with death and, before she dies, she turns into Death herself. I loved this so much I emailed the author and he let me be a beta reader for his next book! My name is there and everything! Not shown above are all the other Artemis Fowl and Harry Potter books I read on my teens, too!
From 15 to 17 I got on a Classics mood and picked up every book I could find on my grandparents’ shelves. I did not like many, but I did really like Animal Farm by George Orwell! I also fell in love with Hilda Hilst poems at their place!
After starting University I stopped reading for a while, but it came back full force on somewhere on my early 20s again. My reading taste in this decade can be separated in two very distinct phases: early 20s and late 20s. My early 20s brought a re-discovery of my love for fantasy and I slowing dipped my toes into literary fiction, historical fiction and non-fiction. I also created my blog at 26!
I created this blog three and a half years ago – my reading stats sky-rocketed and I read a LOT of young adult, fantasy and contemporaries.
On my late 20s, I experimented a lot more with different genres and changed my taste in fiction considerably. The past 2 years or so have seen the most drastic change, with fantasy and sci-fi (especially YA) showing up less and less on my reading list and instead more non-fiction and literary fiction showing up. I still read a lot of fantasy, but I’m way pickier about it. I get the feeling I’ll be back on my fantasy mood pretty soon though (true love always comes back).
For my 30s, there is a lot I want to read, namely I would like to pick up more Classics again, more non-fiction and more Brazilian literature, perhaps fewer contemporaries. I don’t think my taste in books is set in stone and I’m curious to see where it will go!
Ah this was a lovely post! (happy birthday again!) Also, The Spook’s Apprentice, WHAT A THROWBACK
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Thank you!! I KNOW I loved these books but there were like 13??? so I stopped around 5 or 6. Did you also read Rangers?
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I don’t think so? I do not even remember how many of the Spook books I read in the series (probably only the ones that got translated here at the time)
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Muito legal esta retrospectiva! deve ter sido difícil selecionar quais livros iriam figurar na lista, mas tem uns que não poderiam ficar de fora!
Parabéns pelos 30 anos e veremos como o gosto literário vai se comportar daqui para frente! 🤩😍
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Obrigada! 😀 😀 animada para ver o que vem por aí!
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Happy Birthday! Some fab books on here, I really enjoyed The Butterfly Garden!
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Thank you! I never continued with The Butterfly Garden series… did you? I heard it’s pretty good and writing this post made me want to pick up the next books!
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I did read the 2nd book and I didn’t like it as much as I remember….but that was a long time ago!
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I love this! I also read a lot of classics in my late teens and early twenties. Some day I hope to read more older books again as well.
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Thank you!! I feel like a lot of us went through a classics phase… I’m getting into one again and will attempt Anna Karenina. What are some of your favorites??
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Oh, I liked Anna Karenina when I read it! MY absolute favourite Classic (with a capital C) is Faust by Goethe, but I also really like quite a few of the modernish German classics (everything I read by Christa Wolf, I also really like Heinrich Böll, Dürrenmatt is fun if you manage to catch it on stage); of the Russian Classics I like The Master and Margarita best and then I am very basic for loving Pride and Prejudice.
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What a lovely idea for a post! I hope you had a great birthday 😊
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Thank you! It was so lovely. There is still so much cake left omg
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Happy Birthday! Such a cool idea!
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Thank you! It was fun to write!
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Happy Birthday! Lots of great books here, including some of my favs (Wuthering Heights) and love to see Sophie Kinsella show up. I loved that book too, though I read it as as adult. Im a few months late but perhaps I’ll do this for my 40th!
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Thank you! This was really fun to write and I’d love to see a similar post for your 40th!!
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Happy Birthday! So interesting to see your influences and how your reading tastes have changed and developed and circled around. Hope you had a lovely birthday and welcome to your 30s!
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What a fun post, and a great way to celebrate thirty years of reading! I love seeing how reading habits change, and favorites throughout the years. I hope your next decades will be just as book-filled and exciting for you. 🙂
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Muito legal o post 😃 bem interessante a ideia… Achei divertido ver a ‘Turma da Mônica’ e a ‘Guerra do Cálculo’ na lista 😁 Feliz aniversário!!!
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