Fantasy Aficionados discussion

I remember reading Dr. Seuss of course but the first "real" book I read was Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I was maybe 8 or 9. A friend of my mother's recommended it to me. Loved it! That got me started reading historical mystery romance - not sure that is a genre - with Victoria Holt, and - of course - Nancy Drew! Have the WHOLE original collection! Then a couple of years later my older sister introduced me to fantasy with The Hobbit. I ate that one up as well. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was difficult for me to get through and I gave up many times but finally persevered through. I was in a SciFi literature class in high school and read some of the classics. They were good but not as fun as fantasy. I stopped reading for a few years and then started up again. But as I stated above it was Rebecca that I can claim got me started!

Honestly for me, it was the discovery in junior high that Star Trek and Star Wars came in book form too. From there it spread to all manor of speculative fiction.

The books that got me started were the ones my parents constantly had in their hands when I was three or four years old. I don't know any titles, but I wanted to read to see what they loved about it so much, lol. My family still tells the story about how upset I was after my first day of school when they hadn't taught to me how to read. xD

I tried with both my kids and they did read for a little while. My son is more interested in Xbox but my daughter is reading some. She just finished the Hunger Games series and the Fifty Shades series (I was not happy with those but she is 20!). She used to read Goosebumps, The Magic School Bus, The Magic Tree House series and some of the Nancy Drew books when she was younger. Then she turned to the Charmed series, Series of Unfortunate Events, and Gossip Girl. Her tastes are far from mine but at least she will read. I can't even get my son to open a schoolbook! He is 17. He used to read the Dinotopia books, then some dragon books, then just stopped reading altogether.

With the exception of Walter Farley's Black Stallion books, I skipped beginner chapter books and went straight to Terry Brooks' Sword of Shannara at age ten or so. I know he gets flack for that book being too much like the LotR, but it will always have a place on my shelf. I fell in love with fantasy, and since my dad liked it, I always had something around to read.

Patrick wrote: "Books which were read to me aside, Pawn of Prophecy is what I remember hooking me more than anything else."

Oh, yeah, that was an early series, too. Loved it and read it over and over.

Oh man, I just always remember having books with me! I vividly remember reading the Sweet Vally Twins series and the Baby Sitters Club series around 8 or 9. I fell in love with reading when I read the Anne of Green Gables books and fellin love with the fantasy genre when I read Dragonlance Chronicles and The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes

Cori wrote: "I tried with both my kids and they did read for a little while. My son is more interested in Xbox but my daughter is reading some. She just finished the Hunger Games series and the Fifty Shades ser..."

I read to my son since he was a little baby. (Remember Good Bye Moon? )
When he was younger he liked enjoyed the Hank Zipzer series and later on the Percy Jackson series. Now 15 he will read for school. The last novel he read was Under My Skin and he liked it a lot, however given the choice between reading or video games for having fun, he would chose the video games :(

My brother (now 22) still reads books I buy him, but it was tough finding things he'd enjoy. I tried the best of both worlds - there are lots of books that build on the Expanded Universe of the more popular video games. He liked the Resident Evil Books and enjoyed some of the Halo novelizations. I just gave him the Assassin's Creed series for his birthday.

Aside from those, mostly I got him to read manga. He still reads them on his phone.

For myself, I read pretty much anything when I was small, but I did have an illustrated nursery rhyme book that had some fairy tales thrown in that I carried with me everywhere. All kinds of chapter books that I half remember, old National Geo. magazines and comics that were at my grandmothers, some abridged classics my aunt bought us. But THE book, the one that got me obsessed with reading, was Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville. My older cousin gave me her copy when I was 7 or 8 and that was it - I became a permanent Fantasy Land Inhabitant.

I don't really remember what book got me addicted to reading. I remember my mom sitting and reading a Disney's Aladdin book with me when I was two or three years old, and slowly realizing that letters, when put together, formed words, which formed stories.

I think once that realization hit me, I was doomed - I'd fallen in love with linguistics. I read anything I could get my grubby little hands on.

Maki wrote: "I don't really remember what book got me addicted to reading. I remember my mom sitting and reading a Disney's Aladdin book with me when I was two or three years old, and slowly realizing that lett..."

If you really love linguistics, you should check into becoming a philologist.

I never even knew it was a real field until it was much too late. :(

Sophie wrote: "My brother (now 22) still reads books I buy him, but it was tough finding things he'd enjoy. I tried the best of both worlds - there are lots of books that build on the Expanded Universe of the mor..."

My son reads lots of Manga as well. His favourite series is still Naruto, Vol. 01: The Tests of the Ninja but he also likes Bleach, Vol. 01: Strawberry and the Soul Reapers

I still remember the book that got me reading as a little girl was The Golden Book of Fairy Tales
I found an article about it here and you can see all the beautiful illustrations: http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/r...

Oh...so many things. In general, any number of books my parents read to me when I was a wee little thing--those of books anyone loves to bestow on a three-four year old. Those classic Choose Your Own Adventure novels probably didn't hurt either. Have always been surprised those seemed to evaporate when I was still young; my poor childhood.

That said, in terms of spec-fic, I suppose I would have to consider myself a classic of that starting field: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series, all the way.

MrsJoseph wrote: "If you really love linguistics, you should check into becoming a philologist.

I never even knew it was a real field until it was much too late. :("

It's probably a bit too late for me to start heading down that road - in the near future, at any rate. I do enjoy reading about languages as a hobby, though. :)

I've loved books ever since I can remember.. As a kid I enjoyed reading the series Little House on the Prairie and the Ramona Quimby books...

What got me into Fantasy was Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of OZ, which are my all time favorites.. and the book The Hounds of the Morrigan..

The adventures of huckleberry Finn is one that standard out plus the comic books loved em ....still do

The Hero of Ages, third in Final Empire Series by Brandon Sanderson.

First two books were amazing, hope this one is as good as the previous two.

When I was in elementary school I use to read books like The Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High & R.L. Steins Fear Street collection.
Then I read The Outsiders for a school project & along the way I started reading the Weetzie Bat books - between the two I was officially hooked.
Now I'll read just about anything I can get my hands on :)

For standard fantasy, it was the Dragonlance Chronicles for me too, but before that I remember reading The Castle in the Attic, The Ordinary Princess, A Wrinkle in Time, and the Dark Is Rising books several times over...

ℒauren wrote: "When I was in elementary school I use to read books like The Babysitters Club"

My mom got me a subscription for The Babysitters Club. I used to get five books every month. I think I own all the books. That sereis as well as Animorphs, A Wrinkle in Time, Blood and Chocolate and The Silver Kiss turned me into a heavy reader.

Call of the wild was my first novel in 3rd grade. An astronaut had come to our school with a moon rock and was giving a speech. We were in the library and for some reason I was bored and started looking on the shelves and the cover caught my eye. That definitely had an effect on me and I was always partial to adventure tales.

The first non-picture book I remember reading is the Wizard of Oz in the 1st grade. My dad handed me a copy after I had gotten in trouble at school for refusing to read and copy simple sentences. It made reading stop being work and become a fun and exciting adventure.

when I was 16 I read Douglas Adams Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy, and that was it for me all I've ever wanted to do was write like that

Little Golden books? That is my earliest reading memory. I particularly loved The Poky Little Puppy.

It's been on like Donkey Kong ever since. I am trying really hard to think what may have been my very first non-picture book. Maybe Encylopedia Brown? Mrs Piggle Wiggle?

Well, toddler age was where it started, whatever books my family read to me, Golden Books and Mother Goose and fairy tales and Disney stories. But as a kid reading on my own, it was stuff like the Serendipity books (Flutterby Fly!) and the Little Miss/Mr. Books or whatever they were called, Miss Happy, etc. Then it was on to Boxcar Children and Babysitter's Little Sister and Sweet Valley Twins, and Goosebumps and anything about horses I could get my hands on, Black Beauty, Misty of Chincoteague, Black Stallion, etc, etc. Then Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High and Junior High and University and RL Stine's Fear Street books and many others I don't remember now... :D

Ha, now that's a walk through memory lane, Kit!

For me, the first book that set me on a life-long reading binge was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe followed shortly thereafter by A Wrinkle in Time. I actually memorized word for word the first pages of Wrinkle. I always swore my first car was going to be a convertible because of Nancy Drew and I wore green jammies for a year when I met Irene from Xanth. I also filled my bedroom with plants. I was a geek / fanfreek before it was über chic. :)

Chris wrote: "Those classic Choose Your Own Adventure ..."

I loved those! I would spend all day in the library read and re-reading to get every combination.

The first real book I remember reading back in 1st grade was Call of the Wild by Jack London. My dad bought me a version that "classic library" series that were popular in the late 80's/early 90's. That's also the first time I can remember getting really pumped up and excited by a particular scene in a book. I think I was the only 1st grader I knew with bloodlust :)

For me,and some of you will hate me for this,Lord Foul's Bane.

Charlton wrote: "For me,and some of you will hate me for this,Lord Foul's Bane"

I recently read the series for the fist time and realized it aged badly. Thomas Covenant used to be a huge jerk, but you can find much worse specimens in modern fantasy.

Charlton wrote: "For me,and some of you will hate me for this,Lord Foul's Bane."

I know I read that as a teen, but I can't remember anything about it or if I liked it. I guess it wasn't too terribly remarkable to me, one way or the other.

I remember reading the Hobbit behind my mothers reading chair, sitting on the floor, using the same lamplight as her, eating hideaway candies that were way to dry and hard, but still nommy. that was my first real book that I actually took a notice of finishing and loving. After that I was doomed to a life with books. Ofc Nancy drew, I think I still have about a hundred of them out in the garage somewhere, but then came Sabrina, and Harry potter and I kinda got stuck with the Fantasy genre.

Now I'm spreading over to the sci-fi one, and the occasional historical novella, biografy and so forth. the one genre I'm still having a lot of trouble with is crime/thriller. I think it's like tomatoes for me. I don't like pure, fresh tomatoes. But if you chop them up or use in soup, whatever have u, so that I can't actually pick them out, I eat them with gusto. Pure (fresh) detective stories make me barf, but throw in a couple of explosions, undead, werewolfs and otherwise supernaturally challenged ppl, I read with gusto!

That's a really funny comparison but completely understandable.

The first series I remember absolutely adoring were the Encyclopedia Brown books. I think they're to blame for my love of meticulously detailed mysteries and extremely bad puns.

I read some Encyclopedia Brown books and I remember someone is killed by a falling icicle.

I loved Encyclopedia Brown!

I do not remember a time when books were not a part of my life (and, for this, I will be eternally grateful to my parents). My house has always been full of books.

The earliest book I clearly remember is The Littlest Witch. My great-grandmother read it to me (over and over and over) when I was three.

I consider "The Scholastic Book Club" to be one of the foundations of our modern civilization...lol.

Loved the Littlest Witch!

Is The Scholastic Book Club that little flyer to order books and earn free stickers and posters.

If so, that is what started my book hoarding at a young age. LOL. I would order the book specials that sounded interesting and discovered new books that way.

@Valerie Is The Scholastic Book Club that little flyer to order books and earn free stickers and posters.

Yep..and they are the company that provides the "Book Fairs" to schools.

I wish they had a workplace version. Buy books, earn time off to read them. :)

I don't really remember not reading. I know that in 1st grade I told a kid in my class that I could read real books, and had read the full book of Heidi, for instance - he didn't believe me. Some of my earliest favorites were in the fantasy genre -really precursors of Harry Potter = E. Nesbitt (The Five Children series) and Edward Eager (Half Magic and many others) and then the Narnia books. On the other hand I loved The Bobbsey Twins, which were far from great literature.

M

Robin--I love E Nesbitt also! I think The Railway Children was my favorite.

Charlton wrote: "I read some Encyclopedia Brown books and I remember someone is killed by a falling icicle."

Wow...I totally don't remember anyone dying. The only one I remember clearly is the girl who faked crying and painted tears on the wrong side of her eyes. I got it wrong because the only clue to the mystery was in the picture at the start of the chapter--I thought that was vastly unfair.
Oh, and all those terrible insult similes between Encyclopedia and Bugs... I still remember a bunch of those..."Be like a tree and leave" and all that.

My library growing up had kids books downstairs and adult books upstairs. I remember sometime in, oh, sixth grade or so, finally becoming tired of rereading The Book of Three and LOTR and making the momentous trek upstairs to discover the YA section. I think the first thing I ended up with was some Piers Anthony which kept me busy for a long while. (I picked one back up a couple years ago, just to see how it would hold up... let's just say that was a mistake :-p)

When I was in grade school I remember the women in my family passing the Clan of the Cave Bear series, and wanted to join them. Mom was afraid of the scenes in the beginning getting to me (rape-sort of). I tried to scoop it to see what all the buzz was but never got to. Maybe the first few books I read on my own were ones about fairies and witches,Bunniculawas a funny one I'll never forget from grade two I think.
Reuben said:I think the first thing I ended up with was some Piers Anthony which kept me busy for a long while.
I too ended up getting a Piers Anthony book at age 11 and loved the double meanings to the way he wrote. I think that opened my mind to more books because it was about the meaning of the words as much as the story.
oh and I was guilty of forging my Mom's signature for those scholastic book, or at least the 12 for a penny ones. ha! such a bad girl at age 7. lol

The first books/series that really got me hooked was Brian Jacques' Redwall series. I also loved the Narnia series, nothing too different I guess but pretty sure these influenced me and made me find my way back to fantasy literature.

Thank you Rob!! - I completely forgot about Redwall. This was my favourite book in primary school - amazing. I just went straight to Amazon and bought the first book, I can't wait to buy the whole series and read them to my kids.

I thought it was The Hobbit that got me into fantasy initially, but it was definitely Redwall. I think I progressed to Tolkien late primary school and teenage years and never looked back.

While being bored to death by my English teacher at school I was reading Douglas Adams under the desk and have never look at the world the same again