The book that got you into reading.

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As the title says, and let's keep it focused on a particular genre, otherwise we'de be having a lot of children books here.

For me it was "The chronicles of Aurian" by maggie furey, I got it from my parents (in dutch) and it perfectly fitted in with the sort of games I was playing (rpg). After that series I moved on to english books because of the poor translations, and the fact that many aren't even translated.

 

My first venture into fantazy was an old Sword and Sorcery book by Ian Livingstone. I think the tittle would be something like "Isle of the lizard king". I read it in danish when I was about 8. A few months later I stumpled upon a book in the dragonlance Chronicles series. However, as it is puplished in 6 books here, I started at book number 2. That would be the later part of Dragons of Autumn twillight. Been into reading ever since, although I do think dragonlance has turned for the worse.

 

"Streams Of Silver" certainly started me off. Salvatores style was perfect for me as it isn't exactly complicated reading . LotR helped me the most to advance my reading though.

 

There are many books I read as a kid before I truly got into reading: Tolkien, Loyd Alexander and a bunch of stuff I dont recollect either author or name of the books. What really got me going both in reading and in fantasy for real was David Eddings the Belgariad, my grandma bought me the entire series and I was hooked. I read it straight through and then reread it three times in a row. After that I have been hooked on fantasy with the small sprinkling of sci-fi. No other books need really bother most of the time.

P.S. I loathe Eddings today, I refuse to reread any of the books I loved as a teenager, just my recollection of them show them for the crappy books they are but for a 14 year old kid they were marvelous and I dont want to truly spoil my still fond memories of reading them by judging them with my somewhat adult eye.

 

the Hobbit

 

It all started two years before...
My parents bought me the Lord of the Rings trilogy as a Christmas gift, beacuse I was really excited with the movie (I went to the theaters 5 times ).
After that, I read the Hobbit and the Silmarillion and then it was a friend who introduced Salvatore's books to me.

 

The Hobbit was my first fantasy, but it was Homeland that got me going into a fantasy book frenzy.

 

Hmm... I would have to say the first third of the first book of Tad Williams' series, the one dealing with the three swords. (Horrid, I can't even recall the name!)

I read it at one go, and after that, I scourged the shelves of the library for fantasy. Thje rest is, as they say, history.

 

Mine would probably be "Halfmen of O" which no one here would have heard of as it is written by a kiwi!

 

@Ara: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn

Mine was a collection of tales of the greek myths by Robert Graves

 

mine was The Making of a Mage: Elminster . I had been playing baldur's gate when i ran into him and i asked my dad( another big fantasy fan) who he was. My dad went to the bookshelf and tossed me the book and told me to find out. I was hooked immediatley.

 

The Nine Princes of Amber by Roger Zelazny. It took me a while till I got through the first two chapters. With that book begun a period of my life when I read only fantasy or science fiction. I'm still not sure whether to curse or praise the day I opened it for that.

 

For my love of reading in general, I have to credit Agatha Christie. I forget which book was my first, but I do know that it was a Miss Marple. To this day I prefer her to Hercule Poirot. I clearly remember raiding my mother's collection when I couldn't stand any more Dr. Seuss.

 

I've been reading since I was a pup, but the first book I actually remember reading on my own was:

Harold and the Purple Crayon

 

Nijntje naar Zee (Miffy at the Sea) by Dick Bruna. Boy, that was scary!

 

Well the first books that got me reading like a madman were books by Thea Beckman.

- The golden fleece of Thule
- Crusade in Jeans
- Hasse Simonsdaughter
- Triumph of the burned earth
- Children of Mother Earth
- The hellish Paradise

and several more. These are just off the top of my head.

Anyway, after these books I read a lot of Tom McClancy, and then The Silmarillion got me into Fantasy.

 

For me it was Edgar Rice Burroughs - but I can't remember where I started. It must have been the Tarzan books, or maybe Carson of Venus. Still, it was probably _A Princess of Mars_ .

 

I always loved fairy tales, and I read The Hobbit, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Lloyd Alexander's Black Cauldron series (don't know the real name) when I was a kid. But the book that really got me into fantasy was The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley.