I got the first three books from my dad when I was in middle school (about 11 years ago). I have always been a big bookworm and my dad suggested I start reading The Wheel of Time. I spent many nights staying up extemely late and reading into the morning...good thing it was summer when I got those books.

Best thing about starting the series around that time is when I was reading 'The Shadow Rising' and my 7th grade science teacher noticed I was reading it and recognizied the series. Needless to say: best science teacher ever.

I had it suggested to me at the local book store. I bought it, and it sat on my shelf until one day, in eighth grade, I needed a book to read for this silent reading time we had. My teacher (the coolest guy ever) flipped out when he saw it on my desk and the next day brought me two bags filled with the hardcover copies up to book 10 (those were all that were out at the time). I started reading and got hooked! I'm now a junior in high school, and the Wheel of Time books are still my favorites!

I already have the audiobooks, but I've enjoyed reading how people discovered the series that I feel compelled to share mine as well. I got it as a freebie from the bookstore when I was maybe 14. I was hooked on heinlein at the time so I threw it in my closet. When I moved away for college my brothers took over my room and discovered the book and both got into the series. A few years later I was preparing to travel on an extended trip to costa rica and asked my brother if he had some books I could take to read. He handed me back my eye of the world book and the next two books in the series. I devoured them in my first week, then tradede them for the next few books when I came across them in a used bookstore in costa rica (he was pissed i gave away the books, but he stole the first one from me on the first place, so fair is fair). Now I have them all on audio as well as paper, listen to them all the time, and have heard my three year old talking about aes sedai ;)

I went out to a yard sale, and I saw a book series for sell for $2. I bought it, only to find out that it was books 2-9 of the series. That series was of course the Wheel of Time. I then went to Books-a-Million, purchased the first book, and have been hooked ever since.

High School 1993, The Shadow Rising just released, and some friends said it was an awesome series that had only a book or two left to finish the series. So i started and have been addicted for almost 20 years.

EotW had just been translated to my mother tongue and I saw the short introduction in the newspapers, in the section new publishings were introduced. It caught my eye as something exactly suitable for me, just my cup of tea. Later on, I saw it in the shop and looking at the back-cover introduction and especially the cover art I knew I wanted it. Since it was Christmas, I ordered it as my Christmas present (and got). They did not translate the next books, alhtough they promised, so I finally got tired of waiting and ordered them in English. But this Christmas - well, it was love from the first chapter and I cannot imagine any more I would have to live without my WoT books and characters.

Well, I have a brother who is 7.5 years my senior.. With that said, as most brothers do, I tended to try to keep up with and even outdo him, regardless of the end results. As such, I found a huge love for books and began reading anything he would read or recommend. Then in late 95/ early 96, after I had begged him for a huge book like he read for awhile, he finally said hold on one day, and when he came back he handed me LoC, and as he so eloquently put it.. "To really see if you want to read on my level." Needless to say, I devoured the book 3 times through the rest of my sixth grade year, completely blown away by the size and scope of the story and not to mention half lost because I had no idea what had happened in the previous 5 books! That is until I finally got my reserve of TEoTW from my local library that summer so I could start at the very beginning. Now here I am, about 16 years later, and I still get goosebumps when I read up to and including the Dumai's Well scene. Pure awesome.

I think it was in '95, a friend of my family was really into reading sci-fi/fantasy books and she introduced me to them after I finished The Death Gate Cycle in a summer. I started reading TEoTW and just couldn't put them down after that.

When my boyfriend and I started dating (almost 6 years ago :) ) we were discussing our favorite types of books. He started telling me about WoT and it sounded like a series I would enjoy. Shortly thereafter, I picked up The Eye of the World and the rest was history!

My best friends dad was traveling and randomly picked up EotW at the airport in Aug. 1990 and read it in a couple of days. He felt that this was the perfect book to get to 11 year old boys away from the Nintendo, so he bought me a copy of it too and basically forced us to read it. I am so glad that he did because I was hooked from the beginning. My only gripe is that I have had to await the release of each book in the series, and sometimes for years. But now that we are so close to the end, I feel like it will be a big let down now because there is no more anticipation of what comes next. I love the series and am glad that there are creative geniuses like Robert Jordan out there that create such fun and amazing stories and worlds.

I was doing a book report in my english class. We could choose the book ourselves (with a minimum page count of 200).

I had read Tolkien and some other fantasy authors and thought I should pick a fantasy book , if I could find an interesting one. I went to my local library and found "the eye of the world". The cover seemed promising.

Since Tolkien had been so poorly translated to my native language I had a tendency to prefer reading the books in the original language. Then it's only my comprehension that filters the contents and the book is not filtered via a translation (which can affect the feel of a book sometimes).

I read the first book in three days and was completely astounded by it. I looked at the library but they had not purchased book 2 and 3 (only three books of the series had been published at the time).

I couldn't leave it at that. I had to find out the continuation and end of the story. I asked the library to get the other books, but that would take a while. I therefore got to the nearest SF/F bookstore and bought the first three. I re-read the first book and then read the other two.

When "The Shadow Rising" came out I read that at once and thought the new scope was amazing. I couldn't wait to learn how the series would end.

Well it's been a long wait.

I was a freshman in high school and at a local bookstore saw the hardcover "Shadow Rising" (ironically enough, because of this giveaway...am I EVER going to win, Dragonmount?!?! LOL). And I assumed it was some type of continuation of Tolkien's work or something because of the title, but then I saw "Book 4", so I went to find Book 1 in the paperback section, and the rest is well, history (in the form of a wheel).

I actually heard a short piece of the EOTW audiobook and wanted to read more. So I bought EOTW (Dutch hardcover) and after that the rest,

My dad had purchased it years ago as it "looked interesting on the book table at Sam's Club." He bought several books at that time (I was in high school at the time) and for some reason never got around to reading it. After graduating college and starting work I was looking over his book shelves for something I hadn't read yet while at home for a visit. I found Eye of the World and also thought it looked interesting. I sat down and started reading it a good decade ago now and I haven't stopped reading the series since.

This is by far my favorite book in the series. My wife and I love Perrin's story in this book, especially near the end of the book.

I was very bored and at a book store when I found Eye Of the World. I bought it then and now i have all the books.

I was 14 and moping around the house in 1991 mumbling, "I'm SO bored.". My late mother finally became fed up with it. She handed me an 814 page soft cover book called "The Eye of the World" and told me that I was grounded until I finished it. Two hours and three chapters later, I burst out of my room and shouted, "What ARE they?!?!" She smiled and calmly stated that I would have to RAFO... Yep, it started way back then. I have since come to think that she and Master Jordan where in concert in some fashion to have so effortlessly hooked me into reading an average of 1 - 2 novels week for the last 21 years after.

My story is an old one. By that, I mean I am old. "How old?" you ask. I got married in the same year Tolkien died. C.J. Cherryh was my high school Latin teacher. That old. I always loved books on Mythology, Ancient History, novels with a splash of the supernatural, but never discovered Fantasy until I saw the first episode of HBO's Game of Thrones. I immediately ordered all the books and read them twice before the first season was over.

I then found myself in the middle of a full-blown Fantasy Obsession. but what to do until the next ASoIaF book was published? (which I learned could be quite a long wait). I consulted my son-in-law, Randall (Rand for short!!), who has been a Fantasy geek since birth, for recommendations. There must be other great fantasy series out there, but being an OLD person, didn't want to waste time with the less-than-great. Top of his list was the Wheel of Time series, but it came with a caveat - "I must warn you, the author died before finishing the series..."

This gave me pause, did I really want to embrace another unfinished series? I researched Brandon Sanderson, it was all good, so I took the plunge. I downloaded Eye of the World to my Kindle. Two days later, I downloaded the remaining 12 books and didn't stop reading until they were done. Now I follow Brandon Sanderson on Twitter and gleefully retweet every progress update on AMoL he makes, waiting along with the seasoned, long-time fans for publication.

I was going to ask for sympathy points, thinking an audiobook would be a great relief for these OLD eyes during my WoT re-reads, but as winners are selected randomly, I'll just take my chances along with the rest of you.

God bless him, my uncle gave the Prologue as a gift to my brother. I just needed to take the bus and bring it back home to him. While traveling I read the 1st two chapters - Lan and then the White tower. HOOKED! Started reading and waiting and loving ever since. That was 1999 I think.

My best friend was reading The Dragon Reborn when I was in fifth grade. He lent me a first edition paperback of The Eye of the World, and even though I wasn't able to grasp everything that was going on in the book at that age, I still fell in love with it.

After getting Tolkien as Xmas present back in 1991 or 1992, i got interested in Fantasy books. My first books of the series I bought in german starting 1993, until I discovered an english bookstore in Graz where I was studying - and there immediately bought the first three books in english and got totally hooked to Fantasy. I read the first 8 books at least 4 times while waiting for the next release, but then started on other autors to bridge the time - and now have about 400 books in my little library - thanks to Robert Jordan for making my sparetime so much better :-)

first time i noticed the eye of the world was in a bookstore around 1991,and immediately(here we go again lol) disliked the cover,especially the female

midget ha ha ha(sorry moiraine).put the book back and forgot all about it.

in february 1992 i visited london for the first time,and near my hotel was a toys/games/books and comics store called forbbiden planet,in was then in

new oxford st,and there i saw the eye of the world again with(i think)two more books from the serie.

i decided to give it a try,now the store was very busy with people coming and going all the time,but i still managed to read a few pages....

a few minutes with rand were enough and twenty years later i am still reading the damn books!!!!

I fell in love with the paperback of The Eye of the World in a little country store, a Piggly Wiggly out in the boonies one summer while visiting my grandparents after graduating high school I think it was 1991. Needless to say, it was the only interesting book to me on the rack and the only copy so I suppose it was meant to be and just for me. I was instantly hooked and finished the book in three days. I was eager to get back to town, city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama as soon as I could so I could go to Waldenbooks and see if the next book was out. I proceeded to get the books all in hardback form from that point on also getting the first book in hardback. However, I would finish them way too fast unable at times to put them down until I was finished and wanting the next one so desperately I couldn’t stand myself. I became a Robert Jordan WoT junkie, lol! Who would have guessed our family, whose other relatives are more country in all ways, would be the techno-geeks, sci-fi and fantasy book loving, computer glued family that we are. :)

When I was a freshman in high school, a very good friend recommend the series to me. I picked it up and started reading, all the way up to Crossroads of Twilight. Since then, I have been waiting for the next books in this phenomenal series. I've reread them so many times and love the story they tell. The series even inspired me to get my first tattoo (the classic snake eating it's tail with the wheel) that I have thought about since I picked up the first book. I'll be sad to see the story end, but they'll always be there for me when I need to distract myself or get away if only for a bit!

Myself? I was browsing Coles' Worlds Biggest Bookstore in downtown Toronto back in the late '80s looking for something new to read - came across the just released trade paperback of The Great Hunt. Thought, "hmmm...looks interesting." Searched for Eye of the World paperback and brought them both home. Over 20 years now. 20 years, wow I feel old. I wonder if any here remember me on the old newsgroup forums, login 'gopher'...??? Gonna have to chug a bottle of Geritol now and yell at kids to get off my lawn.