What did you read as a kid that got you started in this genre? / into fantasy?

[Dominus]

My grandparents let me have their 4 book set of the Hobbit and LotR that were printed in the '70s one visit, and I read those and loved them, but for a few years never really read anything else of fantasy until a friend in orchestra got me on Jordan's WoT books, and during the course of reading those I realized I loved fantasy and needed to find more, so I went searching on the net (I don't ever remember what for now) and came across this great site and forum, and then I just started reading all the recommendations that appealed to me.

This past Christmas I gave my dad a copy of Game of Thrones by GRRM, he reads a ton of books all the time, but as with most people considers fantasy somewhat childish or whatnot, but he has already read it and sent me an email thanking me for introducing him to GRRM, it's a great feeling opening someone's horizons, especially when that is into the world of fantasy.

[Avi_stetto]

It's difficult to remember exactly what one book that turned me on to fantasy.

I read a lot of George MacDonald's and E. Nesbitt's books when I was younger (second, third grade).

When I was about nine or so, we read The Chronicles of Narnia together as a family, and that was a big push in the speculative fiction direction. I found The Book of Three at a friend's house, and that was a big push.

Robyn McKinley's works, especially the Damar duology and Beauty (yeah, a guy who admits he read Beauty )were really profound to me. Heck, I still like 'em.

In high school, I read a huge amount of Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Chinese, and Japanese mythology, so that has also been an influence.

I didn't get around to actually reading the Hobbit and LoTR until I was 18.

I really started heavily reading fantasy heavily fall 2003/winter 2004 when I discovered Greg Keyes and Tad Williams.

[Bree]

Uum the only books i can remember really really getting me into fantasy are the Wind on Fire books by William Nicholson.

It was, I think, the 1st book I got attached to characters. Although the 1st was nowhere near as good as the 2nd and 3rd.

I hated Mumpo in the 3rd 1 after he

killed Ortiz

He was like my favourite character out of the series.

[thrinidir]

lord of the rings in the seventh grade then nothing for a looong time...then i came upon first king of shannara by terry brooks in my senior high school year; i was hooked and the next book i read made me a fan for life - game of thrones

[EricD]

The Lord of the Rings when I was fairly young (like 9 or 10), followed by The Hobbit, then the Shannara series, and I was hooked

[arodace]

I was introduced into fantasy by actually being read the Tashi series by Anne McCaffery. That was an enjoyable bok for younger children. Since then, i just got into fantasy.

[suupaabaka]

The Lord of the Rings when I was fairly young (like 9 or 10), followed by The Hobbit, then the Shannara series, and I was hooked

Wow... that's eerie. My first was LOTR in Grade 3 (9 years old), then The Hobbit and Shannara.

What a strange coincidence.

[makoa]

A friend told me about Eragon so i bought that then read it and decided to look for fantasy.

[columbob]

I was in Grade 1 (6 years old) when the first French editions of Final Fantasy and Lone Wolf game books were trickling onto the scene (1984). I was barely starting to read, but I was already hooked.

Then came the first Shannara trilogy, which helped me to learn English in a big way when I was around 10-11, then the Hobbit, LOTR, Dragonlance, other D&D titles (Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun...), Wheel of Time opened my eyes to non-D&D stuff, and I've been reading a whole other bunch of Fantasy stuff since then. Most recently China Miéville and Jeff Vandermeer.

[Miriamele]

I loved fairy tales when I was young, and I also enjoyed the Narnia books--but I thought that "magical" stuff was just for kids. I didn't even know that "magical" stories were written for adults, too.

A few years back I was working in a bookstore, and discussing with a coworker which books we were going to buy for ourselves next. She showed me The Mists of Avalon and said that a few other women who worked there had really liked it. So I bought it too. Although I have read stuff since then that I enjoyed more, at the time I was blown away. And I started looking for more and more fantasy to read. Now my shelves are stuffed with fantasy.

[Dyloot]

What a great old thread to dig out!

1) LoTR. I have my father to thank. He'd read my sister and me the Hobbit and LoTR before bed, and on long car vacations (inside that red volkswagon bus that my classmates always made fun of). Great memories. Even so, this was not when I started reading fantasy for myself.

2) Video games. Roleplaying games were always my favorite, and they were greasing the wheels for my adult reading.

3) The Wheel of Time. Finally, at age 25, my friend talked me into starting WoT. Eight books later I was totally hooked and have read almost nothing other than fantasy since that time. I now rarely play the videogames, opting instead to have the author lead me through the story.

[Deaf Leper]

I remember exactly when I fell in love with fantasy and sci-fi books. It was the 4th grade, 25 years ago. That's the year I read The Book of Three by LLoyd Alexander. After that I read all the White Mountain books by John Cristopher ( our school librarian told me about them ) and then I read a couple of books by William Sleator.
I soon discovered C.S Lewis, and the rest is history

[Skilgannon01]

I was about eleven or twelve when i browsed through the schoollibrary and found the first book of the Belgariad, Pawn of Prophecy. I read the whole Belgariad and the Mallorean over the summer and since then I've been hooked. I'm from Sweden and I'm raised on the fairytales by Astrid Lindgren so I guess that me reading fantasy is an extension on that.

[Ledonya]

I was 7 years old and refused to read. Really disliked it, I could but just didn't want to.

As luck would have it my aunt worked in the local library and started to take me along with her on a Saturday. Once I had helped her clean the books, cover them and put them back on the shelves, there was nothing left to do.

Was so bored one day that I decided to pick up a book. Drawn by the interesting cover it happened to be The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. From that day was hooked!

32 years and 4000 books later am still just as hooked

BTW - still have all my books too!

[bearhat]

There was no library in our town other than the junior school library. I was 11 or 12 and really irking my dad by reading everything in the house (mum's cookbooks, wildllife guides, political thrillers) and pointing out that there was always a saboteur on board in every one of his precious alastair maclean novels. That did it. He went to a bookshop 40km away and bought me the fattest book he could find on the shelf: terry brooks: sword of shannara. I loved those first few Shannara books. I didn't realise how derivative of Lord of the Rings it was.

I was put off going near Lord of the Rings for years because I read The Hobbit and hated it. A pity because I loved Lord of the Rings when I did read it a few years later. That was the scales from the eyes moment. Why had I been wasting my young life reading Brooks and Dragonlance mush?

Then a discovery of David Gemmell in a second hand book exchange that opened in the next town from us. Then my sister gave me a new book, Tad Williams' Dragonbone Chair (again to shut me up, I expect) and I was hooked on the genre.