# What Books Hooked You?



## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

On another thread, we were discussing that "Howl's Moving Castle" is now available on Kindle, which got me thinking about Diana Wynne Jones and how her book Charmed Life () completely opened up the world of fantasy to me as a kid. Between that and The Hero and The Crown, I was hooked and spending all of my babysitting money in the fantasy section of Waldens.

So how about you? What's your favorite genre today? What was the first book that made you fall in love with it?


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## Julia444 (Feb 24, 2011)

I fell in love with mysteries by reading romantic suspense in the 70s.  This was a really big genre then, and still considered "mystery" rather than romance.  The big names were Mary Stewart, Phyllis A. Whitney, Victoria Holt.  I read them all, but it was Stewart who made me fall in love with the mystery/suspense genre.

Some of her best titles are NINE COACHES WAITING, THE IVY TREE, MADAM, WILL YOU TALK?, and AIRS ABOVE THE GROUND.

Julia


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## Carolyn62 (Sep 5, 2011)

The Little House series caught me.


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

I was into Chandler and Hammett pretty early on. But then I came across one of Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer detective novels -- I think it might have been _The Blue Hammer_. I read it in practically one sitting, and then went out and bought every single other book in the series. I love horror, sf, and supernatural fiction too, but I've always had a special yen for good noir thrillers since then.


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## Todd Trumpet (Sep 7, 2011)

KateDanley said:


> ...completely opened up the world of fantasy to me as a kid.


For me, it was "THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING".

It came courtesy of Mr. Haycock, 10th grade English. I had heard of "THE HOBBIT" for years, but had no idea what it referred to. So with some curiosity, I began "THE LORD OF THE RINGS"...

_...which remains to this day my favorite reading experience of all time._

I was so enamored, in fact, that I sought out more. But sadly, I soon came to learn that almost all fantasy was a poor imitation of Tolkien.

[The only other trilogy that came close for me was "THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER" by Stephen R. Donaldson. Many similar elements, of course, but the writing itself was a cut above.]

I still sample the genre occasionally, but almost always find it repetitive and uninspired.

Or maybe it's "first love" syndrome.

In any case, it's hard to imagine anything ever besting Middle Earth.

Thanks, Mr. Haycock.

Todd


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

There are authors here I have never even heard of before!  I'm off to the Kindle shop to start downloading samples!


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## Tina Boscha Writer (Jul 13, 2011)

I'm really liking Roz Morris' _My Memories of a Future Life_. It's pricey, especially as a (fellow) indie writer, but it's damn good. She has ghost-written several novels and knows how to write. This isn't paranormal, but it has a really interesting premise involving past lives and perhaps BEING the past life of someone else.

You can buy the book in chunks or the whole thing for 9.99. (Again, I wish she'd price it lower, but yet if it was traditionally published it would cost at least that much.)


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Stephen King's 'The Stand' and Pat Frank's 'Alas, Babylon' started it all for me in my favorite genre, SHTF/post-apocalyptic fiction.

I think Star Trek, the original series, started my interest in sci-fi, so cant really name an author or book there. But I certainly jumped in with both feet!

Dick Francis fed my love of horses and led me into the world of mysteries. I was with him from the early 70s.

Ridley Pearson's 'Undercurrents' definitely led me further into crime/mysteries with his focus on forensics which I still love. That first one took place in _MY _ neighborhood, and _my _ convenience store, and the park where I walked my dogs......chilling! And meticulous.

And Laurie Garrett's non-fiction 'The Coming Plague' only whetted my appetite for more hard science in epidemiology (altho I still love it mixed with fiction).


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## samanthabates (Oct 11, 2011)

More recently it has to Sherrilyn Kenyons Dark Series!!! Its fab.!!!


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## badassauthor (Oct 26, 2011)

American Assassin by Vince Flynn definitely hooked me.  I went back and read seven of his other books after that.


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## Guest (Oct 26, 2011)

I think it was the "Goosebumps" books that originally got me hooked on reading, but the first BOOK I truly fell in love with was The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. After that, I really go into Anne Rice novels (much to my parent's dismay).


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## Sean Cunningham (Jan 11, 2011)

Once I learned how to read, I never stopped. The Chronicles of Narnia and The Chronicles of Prydain are likely the ones that got me started on fantasy. In Narnia, just about anything magical was possible. In Prydain you have an adventurous boy who must fight terrible evil, make grave decisions and in doing so become a responsible adult. Both are early versions of stories I tend to gravitate towards.

Asimov's books with the incredible Chris Foss covers took me off into space across a vast span of time, with the rise and fall of empires in the balance.



Todd Trumpet said:


> [The only other trilogy that came close for me was "THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER" by Stephen R. Donaldson. Many similar elements, of course, but the writing itself was a cut above.]


These was the first truly grim story I'd ever read. I couldn't go back to light-hearted Anne McCaffery books after Donaldson.


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## EliRey (Sep 8, 2010)

Carolyn62 said:


> The Little House series caught me.


OOOh! I always say/think that it was Judy Blume that hooked me but I forget that I was hooked on the Little House series long before Blume!  Thanks for jogging the memory there!


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## cblewgolf (Jan 3, 2011)

The Firm (before it became famous).  A buddy and I were in the mall and I picked it up.  Read it in like 2 or 3 days.  Wow.....


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## bjscript (Oct 26, 2011)

When I was in high school I read a book of science fiction short stories, about things like a man bringing home a robot teacher who was important to him when he was young (but a waste of money to his hyper-materialistic wife), and another about animals being evolved to do human grunt work but having no rights. For the first time I understood that stories could be about the world I lived in, unlike all the reading assignments I'd had up to them.


Some of my favorite novels are The Lovely Bones, the Accidental Tourist, and the Tin Drum. I'm proud I made it through Gravity's Rainbow, but that was a real chore.

Adored Vonnegut when I was young.

Bill


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## Iowagirl (Jul 17, 2011)

Carolyn62 said:


> The Little House series caught me.


Oh geez, me too. I read every single one of them.

Tracey


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## Ben Dobson (Mar 27, 2011)

I've been hooked on reading since I was a wee lad.  I started with the Hardy Boys, in like grade 2.  They were the first real books I read, and I read all of them, obsessively.  Mystery stuff isn't really my thing though--I read the Lord of the Rings in grade 3 or 4 and I've been a fantasy fan ever since.


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

Julia444 said:


> I fell in love with mysteries by reading romantic suspense in the 70s. This was a really big genre then, and still considered "mystery" rather than romance. The big names were Mary Stewart, Phyllis A. Whitney, Victoria Holt. I read them all, but it was Stewart who made me fall in love with the mystery/suspense genre.


That's what I read, altho almost exclusively Phyllis A. Whitney (who only died a few years ago!). I kind of "caught" that mystery/suspense/romance thing from my mother, who still mostly reads mystery stories - although the book club she's a part of reads lots of different types of books.

I was going thru a particularly angsty time then (mid- to late-teens) and those seemed to keep me out of my doldrums...for a little while anyway. 

And I still have a hankering to incorporate a mystery into the fantasy stuff I write. We'll see.


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

Todd Trumpet said:


> For me, it was "THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING".
> 
> It came courtesy of Mr. Haycock, 10th grade English. I had heard of "THE HOBBIT" for years, but had no idea what it referred to. So with some curiosity, I began "THE LORD OF THE RINGS"...
> 
> ...


OMG, you sound JUST like my husband! For him, it was his 6th grade teacher, Mr. Stevens. My husband was a science geek, and drove Mr. Stevens absolutely nuts on just about everything. He suggested to his mother that at the next book fair she look for The Fellowship, he devoured that and the other books in the trilogy...and like you, it's the only fantasy he'll read on a regular basis.  The only other fantasy I've managed to get him to read were the Belgariad books.

But he returns to Tolkien time and time again.


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

KateDanley said:


> So how about you? What's your favorite genre today? What was the first book that made you fall in love with it?


It's weird, but I really can't think of a single book I read as a kid that got me interested in fantasy.  Didn't read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings until a few years after I was married (I was 24 or 25). I _will _ say it may be because a teacher in 2nd or 3rd grade had us write a short story, and she had just talked about why "three" was a magical number in fantasy stories. For some reason, that stuck with me, and so I came out with a handwritten short, The Magic Three.

I'm a little more creative with titles now, though. 

So maybe the Tolkien books pushed me to realize how much I really loved fantasy, and that there was nothing wrong with that.


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## TerryS (Mar 29, 2011)

Hmm. How far back can I go. I remember as a little kid in Barbados always having books about Br'er Rabbit and Anansi the Spider. From there it grew. My father kept me away from T.V unless it was the news, so I spent all my time reading. Ended up sneaking into his books at an early age and gettign hooked on Louis L'Amour Westerns and Don Pendleton's Executioner Mack Bolan. Then one day I picked up Asimove and a few weeks later Tolkien. I never let go fantasy and Sci fi after that.


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## Todd Trumpet (Sep 7, 2011)

Nancy Beck said:


> OMG, you sound JUST like my husband! For him, it was his 6th grade teacher, Mr. Stevens. My husband was a science geek, and drove Mr. Stevens absolutely nuts on just about everything. He suggested to his mother that at the next book fair she look for The Fellowship, he devoured that and the other books in the trilogy...and like you, it's the only fantasy he'll read on a regular basis.  The only other fantasy I've managed to get him to read were the Belgariad books.
> 
> But he returns to Tolkien time and time again.


Never met him...

...already like him!

Todd


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## wvpeach (Jul 12, 2010)

Todd Trumpet said:


> For me, it was "THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING".
> 
> It came courtesy of Mr. Haycock, 10th grade English. I had heard of "THE HOBBIT" for years, but had no idea what it referred to. So with some curiosity, I began "THE LORD OF THE RINGS"...
> 
> ...


 Got to agree almost entirely with Todd's post. Except for me it was Mr Kimichek my 7th grade English teacher who turned us on to the The Lord of The Rings series.

But I had been a avid reader since early childhood, I'd say my favorite childhood books were the Pippy Longstocking Series.


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

Oh, so many ...

In 9th grade I ordered The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks Jr. from the Scholastic program. Very intense. A very hip student teacher in my 10th grade English class gave me a copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. An unforgettable reading experience. Then in 12th grade, I discovered The Stranger and The Plague by Camus.


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## EGranfors (Mar 18, 2011)

Dogs of Babel
Girls in White Dresses
The Concert Killer


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## scottnicholson (Jan 31, 2010)

Dr. Seuss--words could be fun and have their own music and be couple with wild, liberated imagination and "serious stories"! I am pretty sure that opened the door to all that followed for me. On Beyond Zebra!


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## Todd Trumpet (Sep 7, 2011)

wvpeach said:


> Got to agree almost entirely with Todd's post. Except for me it was Mr Kimichek my 7th grade English teacher who turned us on to the The Lord of The Rings series.


_7th_ grade?

Now I feel like a Frodo-come-lately...

Todd


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## joanne29 (Jun 30, 2009)

Pippy Longstocking, Anne of Green Gables and Misty of Chincoteague.


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## Tamara Rose Blodgett (Apr 1, 2011)

I never looked back after the _Chronicles of Narnia_...at nine years old.


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## Susan Brassfield Cogan (Mar 25, 2011)

TerryS said:


> Hmm. How far back can I go. I remember as a little kid in Barbados always having books about Br'er Rabbit and Anansi the Spider. From there it grew. My father kept me away from T.V unless it was the news, so I spent all my time reading. Ended up sneaking into his books at an early age and gettign hooked on Louis L'Amour Westerns and Don Pendleton's Executioner Mack Bolan. Then one day I picked up Asimove and a few weeks later Tolkien. I never let go fantasy and Sci fi after that.


You should definitely read "Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman if you haven't already. It's wonderful and brings Anansi to life, charming and tricksy.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

This will date me, but for me it was Kerouac. The song of experience. Couldn't get enough of that voice.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

I'm a mystery reader - and it was Nancy Drew that got me hooked on reading.  I went through a trashy romance phase, and I read a lot of stuff, but my favorite genre is still mysteries/thrillers.


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## Todd Young (May 2, 2011)

The Magus was hard to get into, though once it got exciting, it was a roller-coaster ride. Certainly one of my ten favorite books.


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## Vianka Van Bokkem (Aug 26, 2010)

Carolyn62 said:


> The Little House series caught me.


Same here! Laura Ingalls Wilder is among one of my favorite authors. I also get hooked on books with magic spells, magic potions, and paranormal romance. 

-Vianka Van Bokkem


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## morriss003 (Feb 20, 2009)

When I was about 3 or 4 it was Cowboy Bill which my grandmother read to me as I sat on her lap.  When I was fourteen, it was Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein which opened the world of science fiction.  In my mid twenties I read the Lord of the Rings.  In my early thirties, I came across Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave and later Marion Chesney (M.C.Beaton now) opened up the genre of romance and Stephanie James (Jayne Ann Krentz) forced me to read Silhouette's. When I was about forty, I chanced upon Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis and discovered historical mysteries.
But of all of these, perhaps the one that made the biggest impression was a book that I found at a garage sale when I was thirteen, United States History, 1757 to 1865.  This was a strange book, because at the end of each chapter there were questions about the chapter.  So I read the book and wrote the answers to the questions (not even a typewriter in those days.)  Once I was asked at a job interview what the last book that I had read was.  My answer was Germanic Invasions 200-600 AD.  I love history books.


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## Darlene Jones (Nov 1, 2011)

The Language of Flowers. I didn't want to read about flowers. I didn't want to read about abuse foster homes. Not sure why I bought the book, but once I started reading, I couldn't put it down.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

morriss003 said:



> ....perhaps the one that made the biggest impression was a book that I found at a garage sale when I was thirteen, United States History, 1757 to 1865.


Interesting, this reminds me that one of my favorite books is one that I found at a garage sale....and it was the autobiography of a young woman who grew up to be an author, so later I read her fiction. Her philosophies in life became mine, I have her (and her father's) quotes written down and branded in my mind. They made a difference in my life and do to this day.

I think I read that book originally at age 9 and only understood some of it. And I just realized I was wrong...I got it at the church fair book sale.

Thanks for reminding me! If that book 'hooked' me on anything it's that a life safely lived is not a life fully lived.


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## davidestesbooks (Nov 4, 2011)

For me it was always Lord of the Rings.  I was one of those that camped out for the movies.  By that point I had read each LOTR book more than a dozen times.  Since I read The Hobbit, I have been about as big a reader as there is, although it is getting harder and harder to fit in reading while I am working on my next novel!


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

How can you remember your first or even best books? There are too many and it was too long ago!

Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass, as well as the Narnia books were early ones for me. Surely not the first.

Great Expectations in 4th or 5th grade (?) made me hate Dickens like the dickens. (The first 20 chapters were great, but I hated the other 40 or 60 of them).

The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Le Morte d'Arthur, and The Once and Future King were also early ones (and also all start with "the"). Others include The Wizard of Earthsea books (at least the first two) and some of McKillip's books. Diane Duane was probably very early and the books were relatively new (0-10 years old) at the time (per Wikipedia).

Mainly, though, I can't place _when_ I read these... at this point I don't know how old I was or in what order I read any of these books!

I didn't branch much out of Fantasy / Adventure until after High School.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

"The Swiss Family Robinson"
I loved that book. It got me into reading.


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## askenase13 (Mar 1, 2009)

As a kid, I loved the Hardy boys series. In High School, I went with political fiction (1960's- Allen Drury, "seven days in may", "fail Safe", etc).  As an older adult, i find myself reading more historical fiction.  I love to get lost in a different time and place.

I still love my techno thrillers and action novels (Ted Bell, Clive Cussler, etc.)

Funny that my wife  doesn't read any of this (well, a little historical fiction).


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## Colin H (Oct 21, 2011)

For me Julian May's Science Fantasy 'The Saga of the Pilocene Exiles' was and still is one of my best all time reads. It most certainly shaped my approach to this genre.


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## davidestesbooks (Nov 4, 2011)

I completely forgot about the Hardy Boys, add them to my list.  Thanks Askenase!

Also, anything by Dean Koontz.


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

I still remember picking up The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe in the School Library when I ws 8. The cover was plain blue, there was no indication what the story was about but I liked the title .  It was the beginning of the end.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Cujo...the first King book I read and I have been hooked ever since.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

KateDanley said:


> On another thread, we were discussing that "Howl's Moving Castle" is now available on Kindle, which got me thinking about Diana Wynne Jones and how her book Charmed Life () completely opened up the world of fantasy to me as a kid. Between that and The Hero and The Crown, I was hooked and spending all of my babysitting money in the fantasy section of Waldens.
> 
> So how about you? What's your favorite genre today? What was the first book that made you fall in love with it?


Heh. This novel keeps coming up for me the last few days.

_The Count of Monte Cristo_.

It absolutely hooked me on the "adventure story" although as far as I'm concerned I'll follow an adventure whether it's in the real world such as that or a fantasy one. Even the modern world will do, but if there is no adventure, you have a hard time grabbing me. It is the novel I wish I had written. The new translation is well worth picking up since it does the novel much more justice that the somewhat bowdlerized older translations.


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## Iain Edward Henn (Jan 29, 2011)

As a kid, Hugh Lofting's 'Dr Doolittle,' and Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Kidnapped,' and if anyone remembers the U.S.A.'s Whitman Publishing series, such as the Troy Nesbit mysteries or The Power Boys mysteries. A little later on, Agatha Christie's 'Endless Night' and John Wyndham's novels (The Day Of The Triifids, The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids) cemented my interest in mysteries and science fiction respectively.

And still a little further on, David Morrell's spy thriller 'The Brotherhood Of The Rose' and its sequels certainly got me hooked on the thriller genre.

http://www.amazon.com/Brotherhood-Rose-Novel-ebook/dp/B0057AN2DK/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_ke?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320478891&sr=1-1


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## Russell Brooks (Dec 23, 2010)

I remember when I read THE FIRM by John Grisham when I was a teenager. I finished it in under 24 hours. I was up all night reading it.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

The strongest hook I've read recently was The Knife of Never Letting Go.  

I had company visiting, but I would sneak the book with me into the bathroom so I could read it when I should have been entertaining.  I try not to be rude, but the opening of the book was that good.  Alas, the story dragged a bit near the end, and flirted with implausibility ... but overall it was pretty entertaining.

I also admit that part way through Twilight I had to phone a friend and ask her at what point in the series Bella and Edward, um, "got together."  I wanted to know but I was too impatient to read all the books to find out the one question.  I know, I'm bad.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

KateDanley said:


> On another thread, we were discussing that "Howl's Moving Castle" is now available on Kindle, which got me thinking about Diana Wynne Jones and how her book Charmed Life () completely opened up the world of fantasy to me as a kid. Between that and The Hero and The Crown, I was hooked and spending all of my babysitting money in the fantasy section of Waldens.
> 
> So how about you? What's your favorite genre today? What was the first book that made you fall in love with it?


I mostly read sci-fi and fantasy. Like many of my generation, _The Lord of the Rings_ was the big hook for me in fantasy. I'm not so sure about sci-fi, but the two books that stick in my mind from when I first started really getting into it (junior high or early high school) are Asimov's _I, Robot_ collection and _The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets_ by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. (sadly out of print these days).


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## Russell Brooks (Dec 23, 2010)

NogDog said:


> I mostly read sci-fi and fantasy. Like many of my generation, _The Lord of the Rings_ was the big hook for me in fantasy. I'm not so sure about sci-fi, but the two books that stick in my mind from when I first started really getting into it (junior high or early high school) are Asimov's _I, Robot_ collection and _The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets_ by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. (sadly out of print these days).


TLOTR trilogy had me hooked too. It was required reading in one of my English Literature classes. My teacher had great taste.


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