[Optimus Prime]

Tolkien will always be great to me. He opened the door for everyone else, IMO.

CS Lewis on the other hand....blech!

blech=intense hatred by the way

[Varunwe]

Rupsje nooitgenoeg

[caladanbrood]

Xander;305062 said:

Tolkien will always be great to me. He opened the door for everyone else, IMO.

CS Lewis on the other hand....blech!

blech=intense hatred by the way

What?:eek:

You're insane, Tolkein may have set the standard for Epic Fantasy, but Lewis was a pioneer in at least three different sub-genres.

[Optimus Prime]

I don't like Lewis, never said he didn't influence others.

Read. My. Post.

:cool:

[caladanbrood]

You said Tolkein opened the door for everyone else (in itself a debateable statement, but nevermind) and then Lewis, "on the other hand".

Implying that he didn't.



Write. Better. Posts.

[flea]

Influencing someone does not make him a great writer. My perspective on Tolkien is as an educated adult with a master's degree in literature. To say he rocked my world when I was in fifth grade does not denigrate him in any way. SE, for example, is vastly a superior writer in terms of actual manipulation of the language and characterization.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Tolkien spent much of his time writing and developing the mythology history of Middle Earth. That was IMO of more importance to him than telling the story of the war of the ring. I believe he stated that the original reasoning behind the entire project was due to what he saw as a lack of purely British legends and mythology.

Lewis was adapting Christianity into a children's story in order to intoduce the young to Christian beliefs and bring more people to the Church.

Tolkian took on a larger undertaking with purer motives. Even if Lewis did a decent job (I can't stand the books by the way), I would not be impressed. Though for similar projects his writing beats the Left Behind series hands down.

Back to the original topic, my first books were probably of the "See Spot Run" variety. The first ones I remember reading are Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, Where the Wild Things Are and the Berenstien Bears. I followed those with many Hardy Boys and Eric Wilson novels (Eric Wilson helped with my love of reading by visiting my advanced education class in grade five or so). The series that got me into fantasy was The Amber Chronicles, which I read in grade three.

[Optimus Prime]

Gwynn you're exactly right about Tolkien. He wanted to create his own mythology and did so.

Lewis once famously told Tolkien that writing about those silly little people "Hobbits" would never add up to anything.....

Talk about your classic swing and miss

[flea]

Yes, I totally agree about Tolkien.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Thanks.

I remember owning something like volume 95 of the Hardy Boys books, so just for kicks I thought I'd see how far the series has gone. It is the longest running and best selling children's series ever. What blew me away was that the first was published in 1927 and, not counting the many crossovers and the spinoff (roughly 200 books), there have been 344 Hardy Boys novels. I will never complain about the length of a ten or twelve book series again.

[FilthyGnome]

The first books that i can remember reading when i was young and left an impression on me was this series of books about African/Arabic fables and legends. I can still remember quite a lot of them to this day.

They had this otherworldly charm to them, and i, more often than not, imagined myself to be the hero, which i suppose fueled my interest in fantasy.

I had read some books prior to that, but the first story that i ever read that actually got me to pay attention was probably a comic book, but it wasn't a comic book per say... It was Prince Valiant, and i was about 9 years old. I started reading from the first volume when i was about 10 years old, and the last time i read one was about 4 years ago and i was up to volume 46 or so. The publishing in Sweden was really crap
they churned out like one every other year or so, which was rather dissapointing.

[Cold Iron]

Narnia, then Tolkein, then Eddings. *shame* Eddings really did it though, I ate that shit up.

[Mezla PigDog]

I read loads from a very young age and grew up in a house stuffed full with books. Before that, my mother read to me and my sister every night. As my sister was 2 years older than me and considerably more vocal, she got to choose all the stories (although my mum shoe horned in plenty of "classics". Dickens and the Bronte's are forever black listed in my mind).

I do recall picking up The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula LeGuin when I was about 8 (had already finished Dahl, Tolkien and Narnia by that point). Thinking back always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. I think it might be because it was the first book I read that hadn't previously been pointed out to me by my mum or sister (who used to talk about "proper" books round the dinner table all the time). That may have cemented a love affair with fantasy (which my family still mock me for) that has lasted 20 years so far!

[Dancer+]

The Hobbit at seven years old clinched it. I don't remember reading too much until the age of eleven after that, apart from Pratchett and Goosebumps (Oh dear).

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Cold Iron;306032 said:

Narnia, then Tolkein, then Eddings. *shame* Eddings really did it though, I ate that shit up.

No shame in liking the older Eddings stuff as a child. I read the Belgariad several times and loved it. Won't touch it now, but for a kid getting into fantasy, not bad.

[Cold Iron]

How could I forget Dahl! Add him in, with Esio Trot as a candidate for favourite!

[...]

The book that turned me on to reading has to have been "the Stand" it took me three months to read the entire book when I was in 8th grade. I then moved onto the rest of King's works - It, Salem's Lot, a couple of his anthologies, ect...After that I borrowed the Star Wars books from my friends. This was in the mid-90's when Timothy Zahn and Kevin J Anderson started writing these books. However, I discovered fantasy with "the Eye of the World" I was in the book store with my mom and the cover made me want to buy it. Needless to say I soon bought the rest of the books and began reading mostly fantasy ever since, with a little standard fiction thrown in there.

[Aptorian]

...;307599 said:

The book that turned me on to reading has to have been "the Stand" it took me three months to read the entire book when I was in 8th grade. I then moved onto the rest of King's works - It, Salem's Lot, a couple of his anthologies, ect...After that I borrowed the Star Wars books from my friends. This was in the mid-90's when Timothy Zahn and Kevin J Anderson started writing these books. However, I discovered fantasy with "the Eye of the World" I was in the book store with my mom and the cover made me want to buy it. Needless to say I soon bought the rest of the books and began reading mostly fantasy ever since, with a little standard fiction thrown in there.

Wow, you and I had much the same beginning with books. I started out with King, then began reading Dean Koontz and moved on to star wars.

I've only just begun reading WoT though.

[...]

Aptorian;307614 said:

Wow, you and I had much the same beginning with books. I started out with King, then began reading Dean Koontz and moved on to star wars.

I've only just begun reading WoT though.

After reading King I tried Koontz but I couldn't really get into his books. The only one that I enjoyed was "Midnight". Eventhough WoT has its critics, I still think its one of the better fantasy series. Its probably because I have a soft spot in my heart this series.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Mr. Popper's Penguins, and another one called The Trumpeter Swan, I think, about a swan who could play the trumpet. Going waaaaaay back with these.