As a child, reading became a prominent part of my life very early. Starting at just several months old, I was read to nightly by my parents or some member of my family. There were shelves in my room stacked with all different types of children’s books for my sister and I.

As I grew older and learned to read on my own, my love for books increased. The types of books on shelves evolved as my reading level did, from short chapter books, to extensive series, and beyond. Looking back I can identify different books that defined certain periods in my life and the evolution of my reading abilities.

Here are five books (or series) starting from early in my reading days all the way to my current preferences that help define different phases in my reading career.

1. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans and John Bemelmans Marciano

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My journey as a reader began with a series of picture books about a young French girl named Madeleine that were read to me before I could read. My mom would read the stories to me each night and my love for them began my attachment to books.

2. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

My reading level quickly increased in second grade, when if you weren’t reading the Harry Potter Series, you weren’t cool. I jumped on the bandwagon and once I opened up Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, I was hooked. I didn’t stop reading until I was finished with the last one.

However, at such a young age, the further along I moved in the series, the less I was able to comprehend, and I had to reread the books in the fifth grade.This series defined my elementary school life and became a turning point in my reading tastes.

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

A little further into the future my love for fantastical series did not disappear, but my taste matured. In the summer going into seventh grade, I was introduced to the Hunger Games series, and became immediately hooked.

My time on the beach was spent engulfed in the story of Katniss Everdeen and her experiences in a dystopian society. Throughout seventh grade, I recommended the series to all my friends and was able to obsess over it with them.

These books helped me embody the obsessive middle school girl that I was.

4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

This classic by Charles Dickens was assigned for me to read in my freshman year of high school English class. Although this book is not similar to the style that I typically read, it represents a majority of the reading I did in high school.

As more books were required to read for class, I focused less on my reading for pleasure and authors like Mark Twain and William Shakespeare became much more prevalent in my life.

5. In Revere, in Those Days by Roland Merullo

As I have matured into an adult, the bookshelves I read off of now have matured with me. Instead of handing my mom a picture book off of my shelf for her to read for me, I now ask her for recommendations from her large collection of books on the shelf reserved for grown up books in our house.

This summer, she gave me a novel to read about a small boy from a large Italian family and his experience growing up in a city in Massachusetts. You followed the story as the boy grew up and his family evolved around him.

The book provided me with a sense of nostalgia as I read it right before leaving for college. Reading about someone else’s childhood helped me to reflect on my own and appreciate the environment I would soon be leaving.