[Obdigore]

For me it was certainly "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card.

That book really struck a chord with me.

[Tyrion]

Just remembered, Cold War In A Country Garden by Lydsey Gutteridge. I'm not positive about title or author but I think I'm close. It was about an experiment that shrunk some people down to about 5mm in height. If I remember rightly it was like a cross between James Bond and The Incredible Shrinking Man. I read it way back in the earlyish 70's, anyone else remember it?

[MecnunK]

The Wishsong of Shanara I think was the first bona fide fantasy book I read The weapons master garet Jax? was the height of coolness, then thomas covenant's chronicles and Edding's stuff..blegh.

[Abyss]

Zanth13, on May 8 2008, 11:14 PM, said:

... @Abyss

did you ever read any of Susan Coopers other books... I tried the Bogart... and while it wasnt terrible it was deff. more kidish then DIR sequence.

I never tracked down anything she wrote after that, actually.

In other related chatter, unlike many here, DESPISED LotR when i picked it up post HOBBIT. Only decades later pre-movies that i got around to reading it. ok enuf but i don't hold it as high as some.

- Abyss, heretic.

[Chance]

Abyss, on Nov 4 2008, 09:00 PM, said:

In other related chatter, unlike many here, DESPISED LotR when i picked it up post HOBBIT. Only decades later pre-movies that i got around to reading it. ok enuf but i don't hold it as high as some.

- Abyss, heretic.

I was the other way around kinda...found it fantastic at the age of 13-14 (read all the rest of Tolkiens) and tried re-reading it before the first movie...well time has moved forward in the fantacy department and LotR ain't exactly perfect...

/Chance...

This post has been edited by Chance: 04 November 2008 - 08:56 PM

[stone monkey]

@Abyss - I actually read LotR first, so when I eventually got around to reading The Hobbit I was terribly disappointed...

@ Tyrion - I've not read that Lyndsey Gutteridge book but I have read its sequel Killer Pine, which is more of the same...

[Vengeance]

When I was 5 or 6 my dad got me started on his collection of Hardy boys. I read that and some choose your own adventure books till we moved to Hungary when I was 9. It was next to impossible to get new books in english. So I invaded my parents collection. I read Texas by James Michener. Then I read all of his other Novels. While I was doing that I learned how to speed read. Then I would just go to my schools library and read all of the books that were over 500 pg then over 800pg then series that stretched out....Natural progression into fantasy...

First SF was Hobbit (I think)

[Volkh]

I was a comic book kid. I loved the hell out of them as a kid. I never really did any real reading untill maybe 5th grade when i read Maniac McGee for class. Pretty damn good book too. But i didn't really get into reading untill the next year when i read The Hobbit and then in 7th grade when i read Lord of the Rings ( yes it took me all of my damn 7th grade school year to read those books .. oh and a little of the end of 6th grade too ). Then in 8th grade my good friend ( who i still trade books with till this day ) gave me a Dragonlance book. I still love all those original books. In 9th grade I picked up Enders Game by Orson Scott Card and like Obdigore it really struck a cord in me. After that point i was sold on fantasy and still have a hard time reading non fantasy. In 10th grade I got into Dune and The Wheel of Time.

After several years thinking Robert Jordan was the best thing since silced bread I got a hold of George RR Martin. For those of you who have not read anything else but his Song of Fire and Ice you are missing out. And in the last few years I have found Dennis L McKiernan's Mithgar works absoutly a pleasure to read. If you haven't read then please do. It's really cool. He took the stance of writing about the history our world as if alot of the tails of fairy's and elves and dragons and such were true just lost as humanity grew and took over the world. So he wrote all these books as if they were diffrent events from a time line. Some of them are single books some of them are series. Give it a shot and see what you think.

And lastly have been devouring erickson!!!

volkh, out

[Corporal Nobbs]

A bit late to this thread but anyway..
Probably for aussies only but having Blinky Bill read to me a kiddie stared it all,
then Choose your own adventure books, I devoured them around 9-10 yrs old.
Then Dragonlance and when the school librarian recommened WoT I was lost to fantasy forever.

Ah, sweet nostalgia.

[alestar]

As a kid I read all of "The Hardy Boys" books (owned every one of them...search them out at garage sales and second-hand book shops), I loved those books.

My first "wow" fantasy book was The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks and my (somewhat functional) memories of this trilogy were all good.

It all took off from there.

This post has been edited by alestar: 19 February 2009 - 10:00 PM

[Slow Ben]

Mine was actually Harry Potter and i was in college. Yeah, i was kind of a late bloomer. I used to make fun of my friends for reading it till they convinced me to give it a try. I was instantly hooked, didnt even stand a chance.

[alt146]

Unfortunately I only learned to read in primary school when I was 7. Before that my mom would read to me at night. Anyway, I cant remember which books truly made me love reading, although I can remember devouring anything by Enid Blyton (except the secret 7, never liked them), then all the hardy boys and nancy drew books. After reading almost every book in the children's section of the library I started reading stuff like Tom Clancy and Dan Brown, then discovered LoTR, Eddings and Pratchett. The rest, as they say, is history.

[dktorode]

I read hardy boys and secret seven when i was a wee lad. Once i hit high school i stopped reading cause it was uncool.

Started reading again after I had a car accident and was stuck at home for 4 months....LoTR got me back into reading and firmly into Fantasy and Sci fi.
The rest, as they say, is history

[Soulessdreamer]

Z for Zachariah is proberly the first book I can remember reading but Dragons of an Autumn Twilight was the one that got my juices flowing for both reading and fantasy, then read Starship Troopers and was sold on Sci fi as well.

TTFN

[Use Of Weapons]

Enid Blyton, Faraway Tree, Famous Five, etc.

[waydoug]

The very first Fantasy book that turned me on to my love of all things Fantasy, that continues to this day was "The Druid's tune" but I can't remember who it was written by.

[Salt-Man Z]

waydoug, on Feb 20 2009, 03:04 PM, said:

The very first Fantasy book that turned me on to my love of all things Fantasy, that continues to this day was "The Druid's tune" but I can't remember who it was written by.

That would be O. R. Melling.

[masan's saddle]

Soulessdreamer, on Feb 20 2009, 12:51 PM, said:

Z for Zachariah is proberly the first book I can remember reading but Dragons of an Autumn Twilight was the one that got my juices flowing for both reading and fantasy, then read Starship Troopers and was sold on Sci fi as well.

TTFN

Z For Zachariah ! Was that about some dude in an ABC suit wandering into a valley that was free from radiation and had a young girl living on her own in a farmhouse, post nuclear strike type thingy ? fuck, I wish my brain still worked.

First book I remember really loving was James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, then it was Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, Robert E Howard's Conan books, The Hobbit, LotR.

I was then merciless in hunting down anything with elves, magic,swordplay etc and developed a love of thought provoking sci-fi along the way.Leading nicely to Erikson and Banks as my faves.

Z for fucking Zachariah !!! Thankyou "dreamer" for jumpstarting my toxin riddled grey matter, I think I read it in school when i was about 8-9 maybe 10 ! who can remember, sadly I can't.

[Mavnak]

for me it was Eddings followed shortly there after by Raymon E. Fiest.

Eddings' first series was great and i read them all in under a week, but the rest of it was kind of dissapointing so i pretend it doesn't exsist

Fiest was great, is great, will allway be great.

i also love "Sitting Ducks" by Michael Bedard

[Leoman]

I started reading the Fright Time series when I was seven, they were like Goosebumps but actually kept me looking over my shoulder as I walked home from school. Soon after that I went on to the Redwall series, they started me on fantasy.

My first encounter with more adult fantasy was Jack Whyte's Skystone books. I had just turned 11 and a neighbor gave me the book as a present, as I was moving to a bigger city. Though incredibly difficult for me to read I absolutely loved it! (Once my mom read it she was horrified that I had been exposed to it). I was 12 when I saw the first three Malazan books displayed in a used bookstore and nothing jhas compared to them since.