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Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and Dini @DiniPandaReads! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.

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PROMPT: March is Women’s History Month and March 8 is also International Women’s Day. In honour of this month celebrating women, let’s talk about the women who’ve shaped our reading lives. Was there (or is there)  a woman in your life who sparked your love for reading? Who was the first woman author you remember loving? Do you tend to read more books by women authors and do you think that’s for a reason?

I really love this topic today, unfortunately, I don’t have much time this month, by the looks of it, so I am joining in the meme a little bit later.

Was there (or is there)  a woman in your life who sparked your love for reading?

Yes, there is and was! The very first woman who sparked my love for reading was my late maternal granny. She loved the classics: The Count of Monte Cristo, The Name of the Rose, The Scarlet Letter, Wuthering Heights, etc. She was the first one I recall talking to me about books, even though at the time I wasn’t reading anything except for school assignments. Let’s say she made me curious with all the stories she told, and the way she talked about her favourite books made you stop and listen to her.
The second woman was a friend from the scouts when I was living in Italy. Due to some health issues back in my teenage years, I used to faint a lot, and no one knew the cause, so they decided to write it off as attention-seeking. Lo and behold, I had a bad faint where I hit my head, and they decided to take me to the hospital for a month so they could perform various tests and try to find the mystery surrounding my condition. I was treated like I might be holding the answers to some mysterious new disease. Therefore, while I was stuck in the hospital, a friend of mine came to visit and brought me a copy of The Little Prince. This marked the official start of my reading journey, and I have not looked back since. (For the curious ones, they did find a little hole in my heart, and I was prescribed pills until it closed on its own. My heart would beat very irregularly due to it causing me to hyperventilate and lose consciousness.)

Who was the first woman author you remember loving? Do you tend to read more books by women authors and do you think that’s for a reason?

Maggie Stiefvater, I remember vividly loving the Shiver series and not sleeping so I could read the first book in one sitting. I even skipped school for these books! Mind you, I still love her books, and last year I re-read Shiver, which brought so many memories back. I can’t recall any other author that I used to love as much as her back then.

Honestly, I never actually thought about this, nor have I noticed if the books I read are predominantly written by women. But now that I have given a quick glance, I can see that the majority of the books I read are indeed written by female authors. Personally, I don’t think there is any particular reason, other than that statistically speaking, there are more female writers than there are males. This is a fact you can check for yourself as well. But I read male authors and enjoy their books equally, given the story is worth it, LOL.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and happy reading!