Percy Jackson series

After a long time I found some time to read few books. I have asked my colleagues for some suggestion as I haven't really kept touch with what books are released and which are worth reading. She mentioned to me about Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. I asked her if they are similar to Harry Potter series. She replied, not really and I thought of giving it a try.
Here is the cover page of the first book of Percy Jackson. Btw there are 5 books altogether like 7 of Harry Potter.

The title for the first book is "The lightning thief". It really caught my interest and started reading it. Initial few pages of the book felt boring to me, maybe because I was comparing it to Harry Potter. He was the Protagonist in there, his mother died and he has a favorite teacher. His best friends are a boy and girl. It was going on the same lines. I was frustrated as to how all the childrens books should go in the same way. But something was there in this book which I wanted to know from a long time - Greek mythology. I like those Gods and their stories. That was fascinating about the books.

The language is pretty simple in these books and children from ages 7-14 can read  these books. I would want kids in my family to read these stories and keep the reading habit alive. Otherwise in this electronic world, reading books is fading fast enough.

why so gloomy and pessimistic??

I have started reading novels and works of great authors seriously and consciously only 3 years back. I came across many authors who explain the story and go with the flow in a very simple and profound way. Some of them make it complex by using words which are relatively unknown to the reader. Or maybe the reader is naive and just started. What I want to say here is that every author has got its own style and way of writing.

Let me say that some authors write a novel in a very optimistic way and some write in a pessimistic, gloomy way. If you read the classic novel, "wuthering heights" its the saddest one I ever read. I couldnt bear the gloomyness and the pathetic characters in that book. I must say its a great love story written with sadism.

There are other authors who write science fiction, suspense thrillers, vampires, fairy tales,philosophy comedy and horror.  I could enjoy fairy tales, science fiction, vampires and comedy. Ofcourse love stories as well from authors like Erich Segal. I have also enjoyed works of Ayn Rand, JD Salinger , Mitch Albom, Alcott, Dumas and few telugu authors.

From the kind of novels a person likes, an individuals taste is known. So maybe I live in a dream world where I assume every person is good becoz I believe in fairy tales and stuff. Also I love happy endings :) I cant stand the sad novels.
Thats my trait. Whats yours??