tell your story

[arianrose]

Back in 1995, I was in an airport preparing for an international flight, when I realized I didn't have enough to read. I went into the airport bookstore and looked for the fattest fantasy book I could find. (I was, and still am, a horrifically fast reader.) The Sweet covered convinced me it was fantasy, and the sheer size of the paperback sold me. I finished TEotW in Italy, not knowing it was the first book of the series. I had to wait until I was Stateside to pick up TDR. I read through everything that had been published up to that point, and then started The Long Wait. I think TPoD was the first book I had to wait for.

[Woolheaded]

An older friend of mine suggested the series, even though he had not read them himself. It's not his type of book, but he thought I would like them.

Thursday, November 6th, 2008. I walked to my local borders and bought a set of the first three books, assuming that I would like them and therefore read them. I read all 11 books out at that time in a month and a half. Finished them a bit before Christmas.

[bcspeer]

about 3 years ago my favorite local bookstore shutdown and I was forced to go to another and it was smaller and I ended up looking in the sci-fi/fantasy section and I had heard the WoT books were really good and I was skeptical but I decided to try reading them anyways. It took a little while to get into the first book but after that I was reading about 1 a week and I was anxious to get home from school or work just so I could read them. After I finished reading them for the first time, I couldn't read anything else because my mind was still in WoT and it is the best series I have ever read. I just couldn't go from the best series to something that I knew couldn't be as good

[Rufae]

These stories are great and interesting!

 

My story starts back in college. I was a Freshman in 1994-1995. I had a friend who got me interested in a Wheel of Time based MUD. That's a multi-user domain for the young folks out there. It is basically an online text game with heavy role play. It was called Web of Destiny. Later I went to Broken Seals. Anyways, I wanted to read up on the world that I was playing really fun game in, so I bought Eye of the World. I loved the book but was disappointed that my game-character's race was not mentioned much in the book since I played a Seanchan warrior.

 

Anyways, found Dragonmount a few years later and loved them ever since.

[wcbrooks]

okay - gosh - I have always been into reading i guess and fantasy books have helped balanced my world...anyway a long time ago (I forgot when maybe 10 or so years ago) I was on my way home from Uni and the bus dropped me at some shops before heading back home (its a 15 minute walk to my house from the shops) I went into the Library for a little walk around the place scanned a few books nothing taking my fancy then I came across a book cover that looked interesting it had a man holding a horn and a strange humaniod and girl looking upon him with people in the shadows lurking about - yes it was The second book of the series The Great Hunt and yes I read it first with out realising it was apart of the series (hahaha) - relooked at the book cover and figured out that it was it was the second so went back to Library to look for the first one and it was not there so I ordered it and had to wait a week for it and from that point I have read the series and eventually brought them all :) and read them and reread them

[boli]

I first read the books in 1996 - I was on holiday and I follishly only packed one book which I managed to finish on the plane trip (it was rage of a deamon king by Raymond E fiest) thankfully my parents packed one book each as well... tEotW and TGH so I picked up tEotW and started reading. In total over the two weeks I read those 2 books through... and then again from the start again; in fact for the last few days I was more concerned with the conclusion of the series than the holiday itself as I "stupidly" assumed it was a trilogy as most of the books I read were part of a trilogy.

 

When I got home the first thing I did was dig out book#3 from my parent's library and start reading! ... and I was so.... annoyed! from the tempo of the first two books people seemed to be doing nothing and taking their time about it - and Rand's POV was entirely missing! but I perseveared and finished the book finding out partway through the book that it was not one of 3... but one of "at least 7". TSR is what hooked me on the series line-and-sinker though; returning to the two rivers was especially ponient. And I finished ACoS in that summer and pretty much started reading the entire series again... and again... I must have read the entire series up to book7 about 4 times in that first year.

 

I wasn't until 1999 when I got tPoD - when I went to university and bought the entire series for myself and I was shocked to find that there were MORE of these books! - unfortunally given the endings of the previous books with deaths of forsaken conquored cities etc I as extremely disappointed with tPoD but I must have re-read the series through another two possibly 3 times (by now tEoTW and TGH I must have read 10 times in 4 years).

 

It was during this time I foudn DM and WoTmania... creating an account on the latter looking for theories, crackpot ideas and getting my WoT fix between book publishes. and I bought my first hardback copy when WH was released. WH I had to read twice just because I was in shock the first time... saidain cleansed! it was such a large segment of the story it took two reads just for it to sink in.

 

CoT I got and read on a train journey.I must have bought it like 3 days after release as the other books I had to hunt down and find but CoT got its own separate table in the bookshop! I was so disappointed with this and WH I began to feel as if the books will never finish and the author woul die before its completion (sadly how right I was about the last :( )

 

KoD came out though after an agonisingly long wait... punctuated with new spring in the middle by this time I was getting desparate but the book finally delivered!... plot lines seeminly wrapped up in the space of a few pages Sadly an even longer and more worrying wait happened after KoD with the sad news RJ had a disease (first read on DM actually) and then that he died. The second was extremely sudden I was expecting a longer wait than usual especially with the news of the disease was first made public but like everyone else I expected him to pull through. For a WoT fan my first thought was sadness but then the overwhelming and selfish though of "what happened? it was just getting interesting again!"

 

Well TGS came out and on its release day (or as close to it as I could manage) I went to the shop to buy it having saved up enough money (I was currently out of work) but it wasn't in the shop... on the shelves or anything! Asking the staff they also came up blank until I spotted it behind the till tucked away out of sight (it was obviously being held for a member of staff but ah HA!... I swiped it and bought it and after a slow and... weird start with the new author I read through the book FAST; read it through again just for it to sink in and then decided to re-read the entire series from the start again.

 

I wasn't going to take any chances with ToM- I bought the book online and got the book delivered through the post - I even took a couple of days off work to read it! Sadly it didn;t come when it was supposed to but the next day and like 3pm as well... a lot of axnious waiting ! but I read through the book quickly and breathed a sigh of relief. This time I didn't re-read anything until months later when I re-read the last two books again at work.

 

It was about this time (now) I started to browse the interweb for those old whaky theories finding out WOTmania was closed down but there was theoryland and obviously this site. Reading through theorylands interview database got my interest levels up again this time however I decided to take it slow and "read" through the books by way of audiobook. I'm currently on Chapter 1 tPoD and hope to finish it before December. (it has taken me since around feb/march to get this far). I'm enjoying the more relaxed pace but I know if it starts to be too slow and I won't make it in time I could prob read a book in an evening!

 

Its amazing how much sticks in my head from WoT but it has been such a big part of my life for so long.Its an ending I've been waiting for for YEARS but one I'll be both sad and happy to read. As before I plan to re-read the series a few months after release and look for the foreshadowing in the series I know is there.

[Plan R]

Well I started reading the series in '95. I came to the series by accident. It was my first day in college, I found the first book in the back of my dresser. I let the book sit right there until after the first semester was over. During the break I decided to finally try it out, I was hooked very fast and continued to read it for years until about halfway through book 8. I hit the wall and could no longer continue, its not that I hated the series, it was just progressing far to slowly, so I decided to walk away until it was finished.

 

In February I just happened to find Tor.com, after browsing the site for awhile I found the announcement that Sanderson was almost finished with the last book, so I started again. It was wonderful being back in the world and with the characters I had abandoned over a decade ago. I almost instantly remembered everything I originally loved about the series. It was a good few months as I plowed through the series. It has been a weird trip with this series, I was a very naive and innocent person who had lived a fairly sheltered life. In my over a decade away from the series, I changed a lot. But in returning to the series I found that although my old self is almost a stranger to me now. Some part of him is still in there, coming back to the series so many years later was kind of like finding my 18 year old self again, and we both really do like the Wheel of Time.

[pepe Al'thor]

It was last summer, only a year ago. I was at a friends house drinking and we never really talked about books (i'm not an avid reader, only read the Harry potter series as a kid) ..anyway, for some really random drunken reason i ended up going home that night in a cab with The eye of the world on my lap hahaha

 

The next morning i woke up (hungover with nothing to do for the day) and immediately started reading, i was hooked right away. I got through EotW within a few days and drove out to the nearest book store and bought every Wheel of Time book they had to offer, which ended up being the first 7, i later hunted down the rest and just finished reading Towers of Midnight a week ago.

 

I have already started a re-read in anticipation for AmoL :D

[A Rant Lord]

Alright, I'm from The Netherlands, I used to study all the pictures on the books (the covers) since I was 6, my mom read them and I enjoyed watching them in the bookshelf. When I was 13 I started reading the first and read all the books up to KoD in a single holiday. Since then I've enjoyed rereads of WOT, Robin Hobb, Feist, GRRM. Also I read Terry Goodkind's SoT series (note that I don't put him on the "like" side). RJ(&BS) is still my favorite though, simply because of the (easy intrigue). To any Robin Hobbs fans out there though: I read a part of that newest series, where rapskal (sp) enters a tower and finds a ruined map and a campfire, in the early books it is shown that Verity used this, funny eh, If someone is active on Robin Hobb forum, please direct me. Cheers

[BNICK1026]

It was summer of 1997. I lived in Detroit, MI and was getting ready to move to the East Coast. Away from my family and friends. My best friend is a huge reader. He loves books and has always let me borrow the first book of a new series, but as I was packing my things to move and loading my crappy car up he walked over from his house next door and gave me EotW. Told me to read it and that I would like it. I began reading it during my first few days while looking for work. As soon as I got my first paycheck and ran out and bought the next 2 books.

[TristanWebb]

Started in 2000 when I was trying to avoid studying for highschool. Read the books on recommendation from a friend, never looked back.

[Vardar]

These stories are great and interesting!

 

My story starts back in college. I was a Freshman in 1994-1995. I had a friend who got me interested in a Wheel of Time based MUD. That's a multi-user domain for the young folks out there. It is basically an online text game with heavy role play. It was called Web of Destiny. Later I went to Broken Seals. Anyways, I wanted to read up on the world that I was playing really fun game in, so I bought Eye of the World. I loved the book but was disappointed that my game-character's race was not mentioned much in the book since I played a Seanchan warrior.

 

Anyways, found Dragonmount a few years later and loved them ever since.

 

LOL @ Explaining what a MUD is.

 

That makes me laugh, and sad.

 

Mudding taught me how to type when typing classes and english papers couldn't. I used to type 40 wpm with 2 fingers, when I started mudding it was type or die (before discovering how Macro's worked). Next month, 100+ wpm. Teachers and my mom were amazed.

[TristanWebb]

Same with me Vard. I hate to think how much time I wasted playing MUDs, I think I have a character on one with over a year play time.

[bsmnt23]

I started reading in 4^th grade with Eddings’ the Belgaraid. I was in daycare and constantly getting in trouble because I would bully pretty much everyone around me because I was always bigger than kids even older than I and because I had nothing better to do. Granted I was a young punk kid, but I’d not been much of a reader up to that point, and really, who could blame me with the kind of kid’s books they foist on kids in schools.

Eddings introduced me to worlds of evil Gods and heroes who would defy them, monsters and magic and great big flaming giant swords, which is a pretty big draw to a young boy’s imagination (also, redheaded princesses). I devoured them and went looking for more. I found there were many to chose from and since I was becoming an avid reader (and getting in trouble far less often at school and after) my parents and teachers strongly encouraged me by providing more to read. I encountered Terry Brook’s Shanarra series, but it always left me cold till in 6^th grade a friend found out that I had never heard of this awesome book called the Wheel of Time. He gave me his copy and threatened to kick my ass if I didn’t read it, also if I cracked the spine or dog-eared the pages.

It was a real step forward. I had some knowledge of what the Lord of the Rings was but the antiquated writing style of Tolkien couldn’t capture my interest until I was much older. This new series with its adult themes and complex political structure and rich history was, I felt, fantasy perfected. Also, Trollocs are awesome. I’ve had to find other books to tide me over in the long wait between WoT books, and I found Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series. I never understood what people always complained about with that series. It had swords. It doesn’t matter.

Over the subsequent years I hunted down each sequel and other WoT fans with equal drive and suffered the rolling eyes of my parents and less-inclined friends. I struggled to understand the myriad arcane details of this series which this whole forum is based around. I’ve read and re-read each of the books so many times now that I’ve lost count and I still pick things up with each re-read and from perusing these forums (even putting up with certain know-it-all snarkers who shall remain nameless because I outgrew petty years ago).

I was in Iraq with the 3^rd Infantry Division when I heard about Robert Jordan passing and I was as devastated as I would have been for any family member’s death. It might seem a little silly to have what is, after all a fiction series affect me on such a personal level, but the WoT has been an anchor in my life for a very long time (I even used my brief pass from the Basic Training to go to the PX and buy Knife of Dreams. Yes I did a LOT of pushing for that, but it turned out my Drill was a fan, too and let me keep it if I let him read it at night. Good guy). I’m 32 now, I’m out of the army. I have a wife and a house and a good job, yet the idea of the imminent release of the next WoT book fills me with the same giddy anticipation as I had when I was a kid. I know it’s the last one, and I am sad, but I am equally glad to have had the opportunity to finish what has been almost a life’s endeavor; to finish the WoT.

[Terez]

I think I started reading in 2001. Started reading fantasy in 1998, and then in 2001 I worked with a guy who saw me rereading Eddings and asked me if I'd read his other favorites (which included WoT, Goodkind and Feist). I liked Goodkind and WoT; I hated Feist. After a reread I liked WoT more; the foreshadowing made the difference. Found Theoryland in 2004. Used it as therapy when I lost everything in Hurricane Katrina; soon became the resident expert at Theoryland. When RJ got sick, I started working on the interview database. Decided I hated my job (I had been there over a decade) and went back to school, and then RJ died. Started stressing about the completion of WoT, which was a huge distraction from school. Just graduated. Not sure if I accomplished anything, though. And now, here I am.

[thisguy]

I think I started reading in 2001. Started reading fantasy in 1998, and then in 2001 I worked with a guy who saw me rereading Eddings and asked me if I'd read his other favorites (which included WoT, Goodkind and Feist). I liked Goodkind and WoT; I hated Feist. After a reread I liked WoT more; the foreshadowing made the difference. Found Theoryland in 2004. Used it as therapy when I lost everything in Hurricane Katrina; soon became the resident expert at Theoryland. When RJ got sick, I started working on the interview database. Decided I hated my job (I had been there over a decade) and went back to school, and then RJ died. Started stressing about the completion of WoT, which was a huge distraction from school. Just graduated. Not sure if I accomplished anything, though. And now, here I am.

HAHAHA!!! I've been there myself. In a certain way you have and, I'm guessing, it will become apparent. Whether it makes you any money is a different story. Either way, congratulations. Only 1/3 of Americans have a college degree.

[condonmc]

I started reading in 4^th grade with Eddings’ the Belgaraid. I was in daycare and constantly getting in trouble because I would bully pretty much everyone around me because I was always bigger than kids even older than I and because I had nothing better to do. Granted I was a young punk kid, but I’d not been much of a reader up to that point, and really, who could blame me with the kind of kid’s books they foist on kids in schools.

Eddings introduced me to worlds of evil Gods and heroes who would defy them, monsters and magic and great big flaming giant swords, which is a pretty big draw to a young boy’s imagination (also, redheaded princesses). I devoured them and went looking for more. I found there were many to chose from and since I was becoming an avid reader (and getting in trouble far less often at school and after) my parents and teachers strongly encouraged me by providing more to read. I encountered Terry Brook’s Shanarra series, but it always left me cold till in 6^th grade a friend found out that I had never heard of this awesome book called the Wheel of Time. He gave me his copy and threatened to kick my ass if I didn’t read it, also if I cracked the spine or dog-eared the pages.

It was a real step forward. I had some knowledge of what the Lord of the Rings was but the antiquated writing style of Tolkien couldn’t capture my interest until I was much older. This new series with its adult themes and complex political structure and rich history was, I felt, fantasy perfected. Also, Trollocs are awesome. I’ve had to find other books to tide me over in the long wait between WoT books, and I found Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series. I never understood what people always complained about with that series. It had swords. It doesn’t matter.

Over the subsequent years I hunted down each sequel and other WoT fans with equal drive and suffered the rolling eyes of my parents and less-inclined friends. I struggled to understand the myriad arcane details of this series which this whole forum is based around. I’ve read and re-read each of the books so many times now that I’ve lost count and I still pick things up with each re-read and from perusing these forums (even putting up with certain know-it-all snarkers who shall remain nameless because I outgrew petty years ago).

I was in Iraq with the 3^rd Infantry Division when I heard about Robert Jordan passing and I was as devastated as I would have been for any family member’s death. It might seem a little silly to have what is, after all a fiction series affect me on such a personal level, but the WoT has been an anchor in my life for a very long time (I even used my brief pass from the Basic Training to go to the PX and buy Knife of Dreams. Yes I did a LOT of pushing for that, but it turned out my Drill was a fan, too and let me keep it if I let him read it at night. Good guy). I’m 32 now, I’m out of the army. I have a wife and a house and a good job, yet the idea of the imminent release of the next WoT book fills me with the same giddy anticipation as I had when I was a kid. I know it’s the last one, and I am sad, but I am equally glad to have had the opportunity to finish what has been almost a life’s endeavor; to finish the WoT.

Nice,... very nice

[Graendal probably did it]

It's kind of hard to remember, the exact happenings of finding the series it was so long ago.

 

I grew up reading fantasy from about the age of 10 reading the Belgariad. By the age of about 15 I'd read pretty much everything put out in the genre since the 1970's and when I wandered into my local bookshop in 1993 in the summer holidays I found the eye of the world sitting on the shelf with the really good Darryl K. Sweet cover, I read the blurb and immediately snapped it up. From that day on I was hooked. I read it in a week, and went to buy the next book straight away, I couldn't afford the other two that were out being a poor student at the time, but couldn't wait to get my hands on them,

 

In 1995 I went to university and discovered the internet and the wheel of time FAQ, edited by Pam Korda, and the Robert Jordan news group, they were both endlessly fascinating, and I wasted many an hour surfing the web. Needless to say, I have all the wheel of time books as I have grown up with them, I also have all the audiobooks so I can listen to them while at work. It's almost going to be shame when the last book is published as this great series will be over, it will be the end of an era for me and many others.

 

I still haven't persuaded the wife to read them being the Harry Potter fan that she is.

[Vardar]

Same with me Vard. I hate to think how much time I wasted playing MUDs, I think I have a character on one with over a year play time.

 

HA! I had a char with over a year too. I set up a macro program to answer questions and such for when I was at my computer reading, set up to mine and make gold. Well I got involved and left it running one weekend. Like the entire weekend.

 

over 48 hours online, never got caught, instantly the richest person on the server :(. I felt bad...