How long did it take you to read WoT?

[Amberfly]

@EpitomyofShyness: I had a similar experience when I was reading AMOL. I'd read it whenever I had the time, and one day while I was reading the epically long battle chapter something happened that made me sob uncontrollably. My boyfriend was in the room and had no idea what to do--he knew what I was reading and how important it was to me, and he didn't want to interrupt, but when you see someone you care about reacting like that it's hard not to do something about it. The worst part was that he was reading the series too, but he hadn't reached the last book yet, so because of spoilers I couldn't even tell him what I was upset about!

 

And yeah, it is pretty mind-boggling to think about the time this series has enveloped. It's weird to think that EOTW and I both came into the world in the same year.

[EpitomyofShyness]

@Amberfly: Yeah AMOL was hard to read. I'm pretty sure it was that long battle chapter where I just finally refused to stop reading until I had finished the book. My husband doesn't read WoT (yet  ) but both of my parents are fans of the book and I couldn't say anything to them! Oh man it was so hard.

[Siege]

My first attempt at reading the series was about 12 years ago.  I got about 3 books in and gave up.

 

Now that I am older, I am trying again!  I have no intention of stopping this time though.  Very much enjoying it! 

[pxnsolid]

I picked up the first book in, I want to say, Oct. of 94. I finished the last book the day after it came out. I've since read it 7 or 8 times, as it's the only one I have currently. I've probably read through the rest of the series at least a dozen times. 

[Diana Petrescu]

Started it spring this year, currently on Shadow Rising which is technically my 5th book in the series given that I started with the prequel (which was pretty confusing, let me tell ya).

[Sila Seastar]

I read TEoTW through KoD and NS in 3 years and 1 month (actually, I'd read the TEoTW prologue 2 years earlier but was too bored to read farther), then did a lot of waiting for the remaining ones to come out, and finished the series shortly after AMoL came out 4 years and 7 months after finishing KoD.

[dawnflower8]

It took me more than 10 years to read the wheel of time series.

I was captivated by the wheel of time cover for the dragon reborn, and that was what took me to read the series.

Captivated by Perrin's headband?

[Guest durin1211]

I started reading in 1990 when EOTW came out.  I instantly fell in love with this series. 

 

Last year I read the series back to back with only some breaks for the new Dresden Files.  It took me 10 months. 

 

I really enjoyed it, even the slower books.

[Ismail Elezi]

Finished the series yesterday (including the prequel). Started them reading on 10th September, so I read all of them on 80 days. Read the first 5 books on 3 weeks, then slowed a bit down and then read Sanderson' books very fast.

[VincentAsaro]

Finished the series yesterday (including the prequel). Started them reading on 10th September, so I read all of them on 80 days. Read the first 5 books on 3 weeks, then slowed a bit down and then read Sanderson' books very fast.

 

Wow. I wish I could do that! I started summer 2012 and I'm just beginning Book 5! Did you like it?

[Ismail Elezi]

 

Finished the series yesterday (including the prequel). Started them reading on 10th September, so I read all of them on 80 days. Read the first 5 books on 3 weeks, then slowed a bit down and then read Sanderson' books very fast.

 

Wow. I wish I could do that! I started summer 2012 and I'm just beginning Book 5! Did you like it?

 

Yep, it is excellent. I struggled a bit on book 9 and book 10, but kept reading considering that I loved the story until then. Things become decent on the book 11, and then comes Sanderson which did a great job (especially on book 12 and book 14). Anyway, I am a fast reader and spend some time in train almost every day which made it possible for me to read it in such a short time.

 

Book 5 in my opinion is the pinnacle of the series. And probably the best fantasy book I have read after ASOIAF: A Storm of Swords.

[bobarose]

I averaged 2 weeks per book over 14 year span. Worth the waiting.

[Aniere]

I can't imagine reading the whole series in a month! That's pretty incredible. x3 I'm a slow reader myself, it took me from May - December of this year to read them all. Of course, this is mostly because I HAD to have them bought and because I didn't want many of them to end. I read book 10 the longest, mostly because it was so....tedious.

[Isgrimner]

I started The Eye of the World Christmas Day 1990.  I recall seeing it, and told my mom that was a gift my little sister could give me.  I was 14 at the time, and remember thinking I wish Ewin Finnegar was one of the main characters because he was my age.  I finished two or three days after the release of A Memory of Light.  I was quite a bit older than all the mains when I finished, and noted that WOT has been in my life the greater part of it.  I have read EotW and TGH easily over 10 times, and the rest of the series several times with the later volumes being reread less than the preceding volume. 

[boli]

I started in mid 1997 until 2 days after AMoL. Although I have read through them all prob 3-4 times.

 

The last full "re-read" before the final book was done by listening to the audio books and forced a very slow 9 months to complete.

[bg1256]

I read them basically straight through in about 1.5-2 years. Hard to remember exact dates. 

 

I had never heard of them until a friend turned me on to Mistborn. After finishing Mistborn, I read the Wheel of Time basically straight through, with a few other shorter novels in between. 

 

I will do a re-read someday. I imagine that will take a lot less time. 

[Paul H]

I started reading in 1995, and finished reading a few months after the release of A Memory of Light.   Before the last two or three books, I re-read books 1-11 or 1-12.  I can't remember if I read book 12 before the re-read, and then read it again as part of the re-read, or if I read it only once at the end of the re-read.  Either way, I think that it took me about one or two years to read straight through books 1 to 12 (with a few smaller books read in between, but not many).

[Guest Legenden]

I started when i was 11 years old and finished it last night, I am now 23 years old. :P

I am a bit slow at reading. Took me over a year from the last book came out until I started reading it.

[Basel Gill]

I took a little bit over 4 years on my first read, first beginning with the prequel at Xmas-time 2008 and finishing AMoL in March 2013. I hardly ever read a series one book right after the other, so if I wasn't spending a majority of 2012 in a mad dash to get fully caught up before Jordancon 2013, I would have continued to jump back and forth with other book series at the same time, and I don't even know if I'd be done with my first read now if not for wanting to avoid spoilers at the con.

[Azrayne]

I was given the first two books and The World of RJ'sWOT by my cousin in a collection of her old books she was getting rid of when I was in primary school - we'd gone on holidays with her branch of the family at a beachside place for a week, and I spent the days on the beach or in the pool and the nights powering through EOTW and occasionally The World Of for reference. Rhe spoilers didn't bother me, and the details about stuff like the Forsaken and the Age of Legends just inspired me to push on with the series, it was fascinating to a kid who'd been reading Childrens/YA stuff and Tolkienesque fantasy for as long as I could remember, finally it was something that had a bit of fresh flavor to it.

 

By the end of the week I was reading TGH on the drive home, and I grabbed TDR at the library the next week. I powered through the rest of the first 6 the way only a kid on summer holidays can, but kind of lost my speed at #7 and my enthuism dropped off enough that I'm fairly sure I never finished #8 or 9, which I believe is where the series was up to at the time (I remember seeing WH at the library, but not COT). The dragged out mundane details and tangle of subplots which annoy and bore me even now (when I have the wiki on hand to help me keep track of the bajillion different nobles and aes sedai and so forth) were too much and too slow for a kid of I think 12. Over my teenage years I'd occasionally go back and re-read some of my favorites in the series individually (usually EOTW, TGH, TSR or LOC), but I never went past those first 6 until years later, in 2012.

 

I was sad when RJ passed away, but I'd lost my attachment to the series long before. It was only when I found out that AMOL was coming out in 6 months or so that I decided to dive back into the series which had captivated my childhood imagination. I didn't have all day to lie around and read like I did that first summer holiday, but I squeezed in every bit of reading time I could, public transport, between lectures, every night before bed, whenever I needed a break from study. I had constant access to the wiki, so I could keep up with the side characters better. Like most people I found KOF a considerable improvement on the last few entries - I faltered for a bit when I hit TGS, but came back after a week or two to give myself a chance to adjust to Sanderson's style and found myself enjoying his books as well, finished those late 2012, then I bought AMOL the day it came out and finished it over a few days.

 

I'm now doing a re-read, which is something I do pretty regularly with series I enjoyed. Currently on POD and really struggling to push myself through Perrin's whining.

[Ea'V_FOTV_Fan]

The Eye of the World was given to me by my now ex-wife for Christmas in 1995. I was hooked almost immediately. I'm a voracious reader so I can blast through a thousand plus page novel in two or three days, and was often frustrated by the large gaps between books. There were also some books that, at the time, struck me as 'filler'. It only all came together at the end, at least for me. Perrin and Faile was one arc that confounded me for a while.

I think there was a eight year gap when I'd pretty much stopped following this series, but when I picked it back up I couldn't put it down. Each new release made me go back and re-read the series from scratch just so I'd be current on what was happening. Since the series was completed I've re-read it multiple times. I'm confounded by people who, after completing a story, consider it done. For me the Great Stories, whether they be in print, film or video, only improve when revisited. I've read King's Dark Tower countless times. I've watched the entire West Wing series countless times. Tolkien? Can't even guess how often, between the books and movies. Wheel of Time? I continue to re-read it, continue to find new subtitles and nuances each time and enjoy it more with each reading. The familiarity only enhances the experience for me. While reading it I even have dreams that are immersed into the story. That's what the Great Stories are supposed to do, isn't it?

[Azrayne]

Yeah I love doing re-reads/watches. Especially the second and third, where you always pick up on things you missed the first time around.

 

That said, I don't like having to do a re-read every time a new book comes out because the gap was so long I have to catch up again. Luckily there are plot summaries on the internet now days, but the combination of WOT and ASOIAF has put me off reading new massive fantasy epics, I prefer to wait till the series is finished and binge. I generally do the same with TV shows, although on a seasonal basis instead of with the entire series.

[Sabio]

Especially if you are like me and  skip reading certain characters pov' the first time because you felt it was dragging on too long.

[Galium]

I started Eye of the World around September of 2006, in 8th grade. Finished A Memory of Light two days after it came out. So a little less than 6 and a half years. For each individual book, it'd take me under a week or so up until Crossroads of Twilight. I got so bored with that one and ended up not finishing it until fall of 2007. For the three Sanderson novels, took me about 2 days for each. I'm in the middle of a reread now (not my first), started Eye of the World the week after this past Christmas and I'm on Winter's Heart right now. 

 

It's the reason why I'm constantly fighting myself over whether or not to start reading A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't want to burn through the first five in a month and then have to wait half a decade, if not longer, for the end of the series.

[Cosmic Champion]

.

Well, I just started my first reread(Sept 2014) less than a year after having read this series for the very first time.

 

Right now I am about to finish book 12 tGS. (a speed reader I am not)

 

After I finish that, I will give Mr Jordan's Conan books a try; I browsed one of them at a local B&N and noticed Conan giving a lady a derogatory goat remark, and then he proceeded to spank her bottom. Reminds me of Mat. I can't wait!