What started you on the path to the Wheel of Time?

[EpitomyofShyness]

Back when I started 1st grade our teacher would read us The Wizard of Oz. He went so slowly though that I begged my mom to read them to me. She caved and read the first eleven. My best friend handed me the first Harry Potter Book on my 10th birthday. I promptly handed it to my mom, and once again she began to read to me. We were all hooked! On a vacation to Hawaii my mom, my dad and I were stuck inside the hotel trying to finish book four!

 

The summer between 3rd and 4th grade I finally took an interest in reading. Somewhere during that time I saw an ad for the new Lord of the Rings movie which was coming out soon. I told my mother I wanted to read the books it was based on so I could go see the movie. She told me I had to start with the Hobbit (she read them all when she was 18). I was hooked on fantasy from that moment on. I devoured the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, and plunged into any fantasy book I could find, the Drizzt Saga, a little Dragonlance. I always found that I would get bored eventually though, never finding something as truly epic as I wanted.

 

Then one dreary day, I was wandering the brown aisles of Costco, scanning the books with a weary eye, when ALAS! What was that my gaze did find?

 

A book with a weird Hobbit lady on a weird looking white pony and some epic dude with an asian helmet?! Oooh ooh and "Robert Jordan has come to dominate the world Tolkien began to reveal." CHECK PLEASE!

 

Yeah. That's why I bought The Eye of the World. The cover art is so bad I thought Moiraine was a Hobbit. Oh well. This series has dominated my teenage years completely, and continues to dominate my twenties.

[msbee]

A couple of years ago I took my teenage daughter on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday to Kathmandu. The flight was 16 hours (not including stopover etc.) and my daughter is a voracious and expensively fast reader. Still, as is our custom we went to buy some new books for the trip. Amongst her choices were tEotW and tGH - which she finished before we even arrived at the hotel. Now, at some point before the trip I had made the mistake of mentioning that there are great bookshops in Kathmandu and sure enough, I soon found myself making a deal with her - no she can't have the rest of the series, but I'll buy tDR and the next one when she finishes it. On our last visit to the shop, the owner greeted us already holding a copy of LoC.

 

Some time afterwards I found myself unemployed with too much time on my hands. Now I'm not much of a FF reader but I do enjoy a complicated plot and the idea of that many characters and action spanning a whole continent intrigued me. I struggled with the books at first but was soon hooked and have re-read the series several times, often skipping around, following a plot line or a single character in search of clues. I suppose I've been treating the series as an enormous literary puzzle and can't wait to find out if I've got any of the answers right.

[maryemi'jigede]

I suppose I've been treating the series as an enormous literary puzzle and can't wait to find out if I've got any of the answers right.

 

Exactly why I enjoy these epics (am also a huge GRRM fan)!

 

I love the webs and mysteries within mysteries, all the hints and foreshadowing... like an enormous puzzle!

[Mandro]

Luckers. "Started reading A Game of Thrones first, got to that memorable scene in the tower with Bran, and gave up--it was too much for me at that age."

 

I started reading martin in. . 2000 I think, a friend told me to give it a try. I was about to give up on the book UNTIL that scene. It's one of those few times where I actually sat up straight from reading a line, and I thought to myself. "Now That Takes balls!!!" That was the part that hooked me to tell the truth.

 

Yeah, but I had just turned twelve--as in literally, like a week before I was eleven. Think fully about everything that happens in that scene.

 

 

True, I was coming up on 25 or 26, so I had a little more experience with "WHAT THE HELL" stuff in books and life.

[Mandro]

Well my brother is five years older than me and I was always a greedy reader - unfussy, just plenty - so I actually read The Hobbit at about 8, I think. After a brief foray into all sorts of nonsense, I hit on the Chronicles of Narnia at 11, then LotR at 13 or 14, wandered to Eddings in the late 90's, a brief time with Goodkind, (I know!) then hubby got me books 1 to 7/8 of WoT in 2000, up to whichever was out by that stage.

 

I read them, enjoyed them and thought no more of it until a far more geeky friend went on and on about how good they are and how I had probably missed a lot in a casual read and that re-reads would be well repaid. I obliged, and I've been an addict ever since. I've read the lot fresh every year since 2002, I think, and will start another go round on New Year's Day. My favourite books by a country mile.

 

True Story Aunt_pol, I used to DELIBERATELY, ruin books for my brother. Not because I wanted to be mean, but I wanted to teach him that it was the PROCESS that makes a book worth reading. It's not like guessing the final outcome is difficult! Hint, the vast majority of the time the good guys win!

 

I would just do it in a way, that forced him to actually enjoy the experience of absorbing himself in a book or story. THAT is what is important.

 

BTW, for impatient readers, The dragon wins, the wheel survives, and the pattern isn't unwoven. GUARANTEE! Does that ruin the series for you?

 

NO! It's the adventure. Where, and HOW is this gonna go? That is the joy of books like this.

 

You think I stopped reading "Rise and Fall of The Third Reich" because I knew the ending? HELL no! I wanted to know what the hell was going on!!!

[Mandro]

Will Inclue I ame to rift war late, but that was a hell of a series, both the magician trilogy, and the empire trillogy.

[OneDragon]

I kind of got introduced to the fantasy genre before I could read...

 

When I turned 7 or 8 (cant remember) I got a CD player for birthday present along with some CD's and some cassettes including the first Narina book.

I loved the "Which and the White lion"? and my dad realised that, and so began to read the Belgarion books(Eddings)to me, instead of bedtime stories.

 

I didnt think much about reading being so young, and forgot about fantasy for the time. Up until the time when I came of the age when you should start reading just to keep up practice... 13? and that is when I started reading fantasy for real. I read most popular ones in sweden, (that I could find in my school library) All the Narnia and Belgarion harry potter + the golden compass, even the eye of the world, not thinking about that it was really that good.

 

Only some years after finishing tEotW did I realise that I constantly kept thinking about it, the world was so enigmatic! And I of course felt so connected with Rand being a tall teenager boy who obv doesnt get women... xD

 

Only after the first reread of tEotW Was I stuck.

They really do have a great reread, and greatthingtothinkaboutwhenudonthaveanythingtothinkabout-value. sry for the long word, but the sentance would not have had the same effect without it. ^^

[water_seeker]

OneDragon, you didn't read till you were 13? I was reading @ 4. Anyway, I read a lot while in elementary (we had this BookIt! thing or w/e it's called where you read books and earn personal pizzas from pizza hut...I always earned the most pizzas...) I read A Wrinkle in Time, Chronicles of Narnia and stuff like that. It wasn't until High School that I found tWoT. I was with my parents while they were grocery shopping and as I was passing by the books I saw a man reaching for a shining sword and knew I'd found something worth reading. I saw it was book 3, they had books 1-6 but my mom would only get tEotW for me and I devoured it. I got the rest in short order, but I took those books everywhere with me. I had them in every class, I even took them to church with me...

[conall]

Started off with LotR then i went back to read the Hobbit and Silmarillion. I got hooked with LotR Strategy Battle Game and from then on i was a Tolkien fanatic...more people in the world speak Quenya than Irish! My older cousin who is also a WoT and Tolkien fanboy got me into WoT giving me a lend of the Eye of the World which got me hooked on them.Since them ive read the Runelords series, Inheritance, a Song of Ice and Fire, Terra Incognita, Sword of Truth and Malazan Book of the Fallen.

[damandred]

Read LotR really young. That captured my imagination. Started working In a library at 18, read a lot of fantasy, feist, gemmel, weis/hickman, eddings ect. But always left WoT alone. Tried to read one book CoS (I think) and couldn't get into it.

Years latter (2005ish) I had, A different job, family looking in the syfi/fantasy in the library one day,and took out EoTW, been hooked ever since. Read the series that year and re read it too many times. Can't help my myself.

[Rand alSaurus]

While I was an early reader, I was a late bloomer to the genre. I started the Hobbit/LoTR trilogy in Middle School. Aside from that, Harry Potter is the only thing close to the genre I had read before I picked up WoT.

 

I used to play a MUD in my free (and not-so-free!) time, and was involved in a group (or "clan") called The Children of Ba'alzemon.. (only WoT theme group on the MUD!) I hadn't read the series, but was quite intrigued by all of the references I didn't understand!

 

Eventually picked up Eye of the World from a bookstore, and haven't been able to put them down since. I'm reluctant to start another series until this one is finished up.

[coolpool]

used to hate reading till about the age of 13.. where i picked up some kid action books (alex rider :P) all because of an accident in school... now i was 13 and very immature but if it wasn't for this i wouldn't have found my love of reading... me and 3 friend sat around a table in an English class and the teacher chucks 4 stormbreaker books down and tells us to read... i was preparing to endure an hour of boredom where my friend on pg 31 IIRC notices if u change BMW to mean Big Man's W___ (i assume u can guess what the third word was...)from the car then the most hilarious scene unfolds.. ( like i said.. young and immature) like the word BMW comes up alot in the scene because it is a scene describing BMW being crushed in a junk yard... like IIRC a quote from the book was "the BMW screamed as the two metal plates crushed it" we were in fits laughing and i was sad to put the book down at the end of the lesson. Because of this i bought the book and now for someone who hated "hobby" reading... i read each consecutive book in the series so far every 1/2 days..i was shaking while reading many of the scenes from anticipation and the thrill of these books.. i finally knew why i used to hate reading, i just hadn't found the right ones.. and thats what headed me down action and adventure books and then fantasy...

 

though to get to fantasy was an accident which relied on a few factors miraculously coming together.. such as my bro having the second book of my first fantasy series (inheritance cycle) being given to him when i was 10/11 a primary school friend having motioned her love for the series when i was 9 and the fact i could remember about this ... the fact the first book was published though the film eragon coming out in cinema (rubbish film)which made me remember about the series and the fact i was desperate to read because i had just finished harry potter and was feeling depressed... anyway.. from there i read lots of kid fantasy still some action books as well.. some adult (LoLR which was a waste of 6 days of my life tho i loved the films)... read twilight (dw... im not a fan.. they were rubbish books that i read to see what the "hype" was about) and finally found WoT in WH smiths because i saw the word dragon (and i liked dragons since i was an eragon fan :P) and i saw the length of the books and series (13 brick-like books long when i found it.) a and since i read quick.. i thought these books would occupy me and here i am... posting on a fan site because i love the books so much..

 

if things had turned out different i might have never have found reading.. which for me now.. is a horrible thought like i have a 60+ book pile to get through.. and i love it..

 

edit: very bad spelling.. as always for me :/

[Spirit1025]

I read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, and The Last Unicorn as a kid. I loved anything like that I could get my hands on, but I didn't know until I was older that it was a whole category of fiction that was available for me, or I would have started sooner!

 

When I was in junior high, I was given a big box full of clothes and books as hand-me-downs from a girl down the street. In the books was a hardcover volume with a painting of a dragon on the cover entitled "The Darkest Road", by Guy Kay. I started reading, didn't know what in the world was going on, found out it was the third book of a trilogy, so I bought the first two books. Loved them. I was hooked. I raved about them to a friend, who loaned me a copy of Eye of the World the next day, and I've been a Wheel of Time addict ever since.

[Mandro]

OneDragon, you didn't read till you were 13? I was reading @ 4. Anyway, I read a lot while in elementary (we had this BookIt! thing or w/e it's called where you read books and earn personal pizzas from pizza hut...I always earned the most pizzas...) I read A Wrinkle in Time, Chronicles of Narnia and stuff like that. It wasn't until High School that I found tWoT. I was with my parents while they were grocery shopping and as I was passing by the books I saw a man reaching for a shining sword and knew I'd found something worth reading. I saw it was book 3, they had books 1-6 but my mom would only get tEotW for me and I devoured it. I got the rest in short order, but I took those books everywhere with me. I had them in every class, I even took them to church with me...

 

That sounds like the short story book we had to read from when I was in gradeschool. I think it was called "honeybee's."

[Mandro]

As for reading, I know my numbers and letters before kindergarten, and started reading full length books in grade school. The very first book I remember reading outside of class, was "The history of horror in hollywood," and then there was a series of dates. I was a fan of Son of Svengoolie (he has a wiki page) so I thought "AWESOME more scary movies but in a book." I think I was in 2nd grade. Fist full length novel I remember reading was the following year in 3rd grade and it was "Of Mice and Men." I read, but I never chose to read until then. I oh it one hundred percent to having a quite older brother who liked calling me stupid all of the time, so I made a point of reading what I was required to read, as well as what he was required to read. In the process I realized I enjoyed it, so I would read constantly.

[ironisles]

Saw the first run paperback of the EoTW at Waldenbook's, picked it up. And the rest is history.

[Allotafagina]

Wow, I've had load of laughs reading this thread. Awesome OP!

So here goes my own story :

 

The first thing i remember about WoT was when i asked my cousin what is was all about anyway?. He had just gotten it from my sister as a christmas present, and as he was one year older than me he had gotten into reading about one year earlyier. His answer was : Its about hum, Aes Sedai, Warders, Trollocs. I was like ???????. Anyway about the same time as he got WoT i had started reading manga. And as those here who reads some mangas, it takes about one hour to plow through one, and some of these series are really long. So they said i could get one manga for every REAL book that i read. So i started reading Enid Blytons Five stories. It took about one day for me to get hooked. I read all of them during at the age of 7 i think. My cousin would then get me to try EotW. I took sometime, or well, it took a lot of time to get through the first one, because i was only 7. I took a long break during the second half EoTW, but when i came back to it, i started plowing through it. It took about three days and then i was stuck.

[Nicook5]

At first i started out only reading informational books in elementary school, stuff about the middle ages, war, science a variety of things. I always looked down on those people who read fiction P:. Then in second grade my aunt sent me the first harry potter book, I became obsessed with those, and started reading mostly fantasy/SF novels. Around highschool I started reading more of a mix and especially much less sf/fantasy. I actually was introduced to WoT through an MMO called Starsonata, where some guy made a team about WoT and kept ranting about its glory. One day I was at the library last summer (I had decided to read every last star wars book, but they were so bad I gave up :'( I was almost there too) and saw the eye of the world, so I decided to get it, and decided it was the best series evar.

[Jon Storme]

I started when I was 13 and going on holiday to Majorca. Picked up The Eye of The World in two parts. Didnt see a bit of sun for the first week, just read the whole time. I had been into fantasy anyway. Read The Lord of The Rings when I was eleven and to this day I still read it once a year. I love the sheer scale of Jordans work and the very rich texture he gives to the different cultures within his world. It was sheer coincidence that I picked up those two books all those years and Im so glad that I did because The Wheel of Time is basically a life-long romance that you never ever get tired of.

[Pug]

It was in 2002, I saw my brother in law reading book 4, and I asked him if he had the first book, and then I started reading the series.

[Kadere]

I was traveling in California for the summer in 2000 and I finished whatever it was I was reading at the time and didn't have anything else to read. So we went to this small book store in Northern California and they had The Eye of the World up on display. Now I'd noticed the books in bookstores before, and I was always drawn to them because I loved the cover art (I know I'm the only one, ha ha) so I'd paw through them all the time, but the size of the books had always turned me off, plus there seemed to be a new one added to the series every other year and I was waiting for it to be over (HA!). Well I'd noticed Path of Daggers was out for a while now and I figured 8 books is enough books to complete something in, right? Right?! So then I read the cover blurb that said, "With The Wheel of Time, Jordan has come to dominate the world Tolkien began to reveal," so I figured it must be good and I wanted to read fantasy since I think I'd just gotten off of some regular lit and I wanted something like Lord of the Rings, so I bought it. I read it in about two weeks so by the time I got back home I wanted TGH, took me like 6 months to finish the series and by the time Christmas came around WH came out so I got to read the first nine in one go which was nice.

[Lisa Campbell]

OK where do I start? I guess at the beginning...

 

My first fantasy novel was The Girl With Grey Eyes when I was in Primary School, about 10. Never got to read the rest of that series because the school library didn't have them. A shame because I really enjoyed it, enough to ask the librarian about it nearly ten years later (she's a friend's mum) after I was into other fantasy novels.

 

During high school, my great aunt bought me a new Agatha Christie book just about every week so fantasy went out the window until my uni years when a friend was reading The Earthsea Quartet, so I bought it because I didn't want to wait for him to finish it. Fairly recently someone made a cartoon based on it which was a total disappointment to my kids after I told them about the story, bummer.

 

After that I got into The Belgariad and The Mallorean, borrowed from said friend's girlfriend, who also lent me The Hobbbit but to tell the truth I found that a bit slow but admit I should read it again, especially after loving The Lord of the Rings movies (those books are on my list too).

 

After that the Shannara series caught my attention, and another of my flatmate's at the time but I can't remember the name of that one, just something called a Codex and a theme of inconsequential characters linking the books together. Any help with that?

 

It was some time after that when I was catching the train to the city to work and needed solid reading material that I stumbled across WoT and decided to give it a go. I'm a pretty fast reader, no offence but it amazes me that some say it took them months to finish 10 books (I'm not considering finances here). Going by my track record, it wouldn't take me more than 2-3 weeks to read them all, admittedly short on sleep though.

 

I pretty much have not put WoT down since except to start a few new series including Robin Hobb and Sara Douglas (Aussie author - not bad) during the interminable wait between releases.

 

So there you have it, my road to fantasy fiction and WoT.

[Mr Ares]

I can't remember what my earliest fantasy book was, the earliest I can remember was Paradise Lost (and that's not typically shelved with fantasy), but there were quite possibly others before then. I first read WoT because I got my hands on a cheap copy of Legends, which featured New Spring. After reading that, I was willing to give the series a try. Conveniently, my local library had the first book, a local second hand shop had books 2-4, and book 11 was just out in hardback, proclaiming itself the penultimate book. So I read the first book for freee, and liked it enough to get the next three, and just carried on from there.

[Vicious Circle]

My Mom was a big Sci-Fi & Fantasy reader, so we always had great stuff to read at our house. When my brothers and sisters were mad at each other we would hide each others books.

 

I know, that's evil!

 

Anyway, my husband and I moved to a new city in 1994. We went to our new congregation and met some great kids who were talking about which characters in the books they would be and so we had to know what all the fuss was about. And now I've lost track of my many, many re-reads and just how many friends and family I've gotten hooked on WOT.

 

I hope they can forgive me.

[garry1209]

Never read a book after few detective books at school aged 12(1992), My brother-in-law gave me first 3 harry potter books in 2002, read first few chapters and left at that. Harry potter muvi released some months later, it made me realise how much they left out of even few chapters that I have read..started reading again, was totally hooked by book 3.

 

After the end of harry potter series, brother-in-law gave me first 10 WOT audiobooks(till Crossroads of Twilight) and told it's time to step up couple of levels for me, couldn't follow audiobooks(english not being my primary language) so got myself The Eye of The World book, read it in one go, got The Great Hunt, read till Rand and Lan saw the arrival of Amyrlin, at that point the weight on reading 10 big books got to me...after couple of years, I got 3-4 hours free in afternoons for couple of months in summers, started reading again, the start of hunt got to me..and totally got hooked, read the 11 books in 3-4 months, and started waiting for The Gathering Storm, have read many other books in between wait for TGS and TOM. Re-read the series this summer (thought AMoL was coming this november), joined DM after realising my mistake.

 

P.S. Have been a big fan of LoTR, after watching the movies...cousin gifted me book 2 some years ago (I was like WTF, who gifts 2nd book in the series without asking if one has read 1st book or not), finally got to reading The Hobbit last month, going to start LoTR soon.