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Post by longhand.hearted on Oct 16, 2020 14:10:21 GMT -6
Who did you enjoy reading when you were younger? Did you stick with one or two authors or just pick books that looked interesting to you at the time?
Do you ever reread your old favourites? Have you ever deconstructed what you enjoyed about them?
Personally I think I was probably guilty of picking a pretty or interesting cover but authors I regularly read included Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Morpurgo, Celia Rees and Sherryl Jordan (the normally unheard of Secret Sacrament that I must have nearly fifty times).
I did begin looking at that one in more detail but though I haven't got around to officially finishing, I could probably distinguish what each character is in there for.
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Post by Alatariel on Oct 16, 2020 14:59:27 GMT -6
Mine is pretty simple, my best friend and I were obsessed with Animorphs. I desperately wanted to be able to morph into animals. It's still my number one super power choice. Then as an older teen I got into fantasy for the first time, Wheel of Time. I never read epic fantasy before and never had interest, but a friend I trusted recommended it so I decided to try it. That's how I got into Harry Potter too. Way before it was popular, only book one existed, and my friend recommended it. I thought it sounded dumb, to be honest. But got hooked. I also loved classics like Frankenstein and Count of Monte Cristo. I write fantasy but I actually don't like reading it much. I hate dragons in fiction. Magic makes me yawn. But there have been some fantasy books that peaked my interest. Like WoT and Song of Ice and Fire and Stormlight Archive. But a lot of the series people love are ones I've avoided (Mercedes Lackey, Eragon, Tamora Pierce) because it's just not my jam.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2020 19:25:59 GMT -6
OMG, Animorphs. I have almost the entire collection. I'm very proud of this.
Brandon Sanderson and Jim Butcher are my favs right now. I'm listening to The Stormlight Archive again, for the fourth time, because the next book is coming out next month and I want to prepare. It always takes me a bit to get into that first book, for some reason, but Kal nearly steps off the ledge into the chasm, it has me hooked for the next three books.
When I was a kid, it was Star Wars Extended Universe and Forgotten Realms novels. I still have them all, and want to reread them soon.
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Post by RAVENEYE on Oct 19, 2020 16:58:25 GMT -6
Wow, this question makes me realize my childhood reading was really ... hit and miss. This alarms me. Seriously, I remember two books that I loved as a kid, one a ghost story, one a pirate story, and then there's a big blank space in my memory. I remember National Geographics being my constant companions, but ... Did I read books at all in those years?  School assignments, probably, and that's it. I don't think there were any series that I was addicted to, nothing like that. Then I was old enough to start reading whatever my mom was reading, which means big dumb romance novels with the occasional bright spot of actual literature.
I wasn't allowed to touch fantasy b/c it was, according to my mother, the genre of cults and drug addicts. Which makes no sense, b/c fantasy wasn't a problem if it was in movie form. Hell, it was so bad, I even tried reading Westerns to fit in with my family and see what the big deal was. It wasn't. Ugh. 
My first fantasy novel I had to buy behind me mum's back. I bought it for the cover. Gorgeous black dragon on it. Trilogy was good until book 3 when it unraveled and got boring. So I didn't read the regular childhood stuff like Tolkien and Lewis until I was married and out of the house. And I had never seen Star Wars until I got married either. American icon, and my family was like "We don't DO that weird stuff."
Lord help me, how did I end up as weird as I am?
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Post by longhand.hearted on Oct 21, 2020 13:33:47 GMT -6
Oh wow, I had completely forgotten those Animorphs covers haha. Heck yes! I'm doing EXACTLY the same thing with Stormlight! Rhythm Of War, I'm going to be prepared. Alatariel, writing a genre that you don't focus on sounds unusual. Do you find that gives you a harder time writing by not typically giving you ideas or easier by being able to explore the outer regions of ideas? Raveneye, at least you can be certain in your love of fantasy by having tried big dumb romances and westerns! I can join you in being sucker for a pretty cover though (might be why I don't remember many of the Animorphs  ) |
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Bird
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Post by Bird on Nov 22, 2020 22:34:37 GMT -6
So as a kid I adored these series (I'm a 90s kid by the way. I graduated high school in 2003, so yes, some of these books are older lol):
- Emelan Series by Tamora Pierce (The Tortall books are okay but not as good I think)
- Star Wars (any of them, I think I read nearly all that I could find. Young Jedi Knights series was a favorite and the Star Wars Galaxy of Fear -- horror series for kids)
- Animorphs (I read that whole series and ADORED IT)
- Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien (I reread it a lot for the scenery honestly)
- So You Want to Be A Wizard series by Diane Duana (SERIOUSLY FOLKS, READ IT. IT'S A MILLION TIMES BETTER THAN HARRY POTTER)
- Any book by Diane Wynne Jones (Howl's Moving Castle especially)
- Madeline L'Engle (ALL of her books: A Wrinkle in Time series and her Austin Series -- Ring of Endless Light I read a million times)
- Pern series by Anne McCaffrey.
- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
- The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
- The Dark is Rising Series by Susan Cooper
- Anything by Ursula Le Guin
At one point I tried to read all the science fiction and fantasy books in the Children's and Teen section of my library. I read a bunch of terrible books (ooooofff, some were just so bad), but I also read some stand-alone novels that were absolutely fantastic:
- Clay by David Almond (holy shit was this good but also really creepy)
- Speak by Laurie H Anderson
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (He also wrote The Messenger, another stand-alone that is really good)
- Before we were free by Julia Alvarez
- The Last Unicorn by P. Beagle
- Anne on my Mind by Nancy Green (I read this book so many times)
- Dust by Arthur Slade
There's a few others that really influenced me, but I can't think of the title for the life of me. If and when I do, I'll post it here. lol
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School assignments, probably, and that's it. I don't think there were any series that I was addicted to, nothing like that. Then I was old enough to start reading whatever my mom was reading, which means big dumb romance novels with the occasional bright spot of actual literature. 
)
You add them to your profile as you do them around the forum.
