A Book That Impacted Me As a Young Reader

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld was probably the book that most impacted me in that it was the first book that I obsessed over. Before, I liked to read occasionally but I never made a conscious decision to read. The books I read Before were school related. My class I was in required us to read a book a month or something like that. Unlike most of my peers, I was cool with that. But outside of class, I didn't read.

And then I read Uglies.

For those of you who don't know, Uglies is about a girl in a society that makes people perfect. At the age of 16, Tally is ready to have her surgery to come a "Pretty" but then meets Shay, a girl who wants to escape to a place called The Smoke. Adventure and danger ensues.

It wasn't my first time reading Uglies or the sequels. I read them a year or so before then, but I guess my little brain hadn't made enough connections to fully grasp the storyline. It was the seventh or eighth grade when I re-read the entire trilogy. Once. Twice. Three times.

I became obsessed.

For two weeks straight I stayed in my bed and just read this trilogy. Over and over and over again. I was fascinated by the world and the characters and the transitions that occurred over the course of the trilogy. I loved the escape from my reality.

Eventually I stopped reading Uglies and read other books. As embarrassing as it is to admit, I did the same thing with the Twilight Saga right before the first movie came out on DVD. After those two series, I loved reading. I wanted to read. I needed to read.

It's now 7 or 8 years after I read Uglies, and I'm still reading young adult literature. I don't know if I'll ever stop.