After years and years of trying, I finally converted a Brandon Sanderson fan!
I know what you're probably thinking, how in the world was it so hard?
Well, I don't hang around a lot of readers.
And the one major reader I hang around converted me.
The first person I suggested a Sanderson book to was my best friend, and it was
Mistborn, who had previously told me she loved reading.
That was a lie.
She loved reading
Gossip Girl books. She got about five chapters into
Mistborn and gave up
The second person I tried was my dad. Who made it farther into
Mistborn, about nine chapters.
But he had to put it down for a while because of work and it's been more than a year now. It's safe to say, he's lost interest. Maybe when he retires he'll be able to read again. But currently he's not reading anything and after months of it sitting on his bedside table I got fed up and stole it back.
The third was when I was in my Consumer's Ed class for summer school going into sophomore year. I believe I was rereading Elantris when the girl next to me asked what I was reading. I showed her and explained to her what it was about and she showed up the next day with a paperback version of it. The class ended before she finished but she was giving good feedback. I don't know if she kept reading or not.
I was more successful the fourth time but then I completely messed it up. I suggested
Mistborn to my (then) boyfriend but I didn't have a copy for him to borrow, so I lent him my copy of
Elantris. He read that and loved it and was eager to read
Mistborn but then I broke up with him and he didn't continue on. (I did have to beg him for Elantris back though, which was annoying. But, we're friends now and I know he still hasn't read Mistborn or any other Sanderson books yet.)
The fifth was a bitter failure. I was rereading
Mistborn in my ACT Prep class and the kid next to me was hitting on me, as usual. He was trying to play to my interests so he started asking me about it and I, of course, expressed how much I loved the book, and the next week he shows up with a copy. He told me he read the whole thing but, once I let him know I wasn't interested, he suddenly realized that he wasn't interested in the books anymore. I texted him a while back and he didn't even remember the book. Which leads me to believe that he didn't read it.
I've also been stressing to my mom to read it, who for some godforsaken reason doesn't trust my opinion when it comes to books. And when she does decide to listen to my opinion on books she chooses the completely wrong ones that I like but I know she won't. She just read
Twilight and hated it. I mean, I like it 'cause I’m a sappy teenage girl who can look past the ten year old writing and fall in love with Bella and Edward. My mom is much more practical.
But finally, and I mean
FINALLY[/b] I successfully converted someone.
A few months ago my aunt and uncle came to me in desperation asking me to help my cousin Tina start reading. I have a bookcase the size of a dinosaur in my room, so they immediately thought of me.
I chose to give her
Twilight, a book my friends who hated reading, fell in love with. And, consequently, so did my cousin and she read every book including the first 200 pages of the first book in a different view point online.
She gobbled them all up in a way that I had only heard of when I had done it with first the
Harry Potter books and then the
Mistborn books.
I was impressed so, two weekends ago, she came to my house for a sleepover saying how she needed a book to read because she always found herself bored. I flew to my bookcase and started from the top-down. From my small paperbacks, to my medium paperbacks and hardcovers, and it didn't even occur to me to look at my hardcover fantasy until I pulled out one of my Robert Jordan books and tossed it to her, joking that she should read that one (It's way above her current reading level; but someday I know she'd love them. Plus, she's never read fantasy, and that's a hunk of a book to get you into fantasy) When I paused and realized that I had completely ignored Mistborn and Elantris.
I was just so used to people shooting down my suggestion for the books and couldn't scare people as effectively with Mistborn or Elantris as I could with the monstrosities of some of the Jordan books, that I had just forgot. So, I paused, halfway turned to bring the previous pile I had assembled and thought,
"Well, why not? Mistborn's my favorite book, and it started me off in fantasy, why not her?"I dropped my stack causing the books to crash and scatter on the floor around me and slid out my copy of Mistborn. I held it up to her and turned, "You could read this." I told her.
"What is it?" She wasn't scared off by the cover and I took that as invitation enough.
I bounded over to my bed which she was sitting upon and plopped in front of her, immediately flipping to the inside cover and reading the description on the dustcover. (Which by the way, does a very poor interpretation of the book, in my own personal opinion. I'll have to see if it's mentioned somewhere else or start a new thread, I'm already making this one entirely too long)
After I finished reading, she looked a little confused, so I described the book in my own words and she paused, blinked at me, and then burst into a smile, "That sounds awesome!"
I gave it to her, after doing a little happy dance and the night went on. (The next morning, I double checked that the book was in her bag because, yes, I am that much of a psycho.)
She sent me a message on Facebook a couple days later:
This book you gave me is amazing.
Chapter 7, right now Kelsier is starting to train Vin. She is working on the tin metal at the moment.
I love reading the story through Vin's point of view more then Kelsier. I don't really know why. Maybe because more questions get answered with her. I love Vin; she is so tough and untrusting. Then Kelsier is so open and soothing. I love him too!!! So far I like Vin more.
That fight scene, when Kelsier was stealing the safe. That was down right awesome.
You gave me a great book!
Then a couple days later, I received this
I FINISHED THE BOOK TUESDAY
AMAZING!!!
I saw her that Saturday when we went to go see
Twilight in theaters and, asides from talking about Mistborn all through the movie, I gave her the sequel
AND (drum roll please):
HER MOM ASKED TO BORROW IT!Which means, she'll read it and love it, then give it to my aunt who will read it and love it, who will give it to all her friends who will read it and love it and soon.
THE WHOLE WORLD WILL READ IT AND LOVE IT!!!!!
Hahah, this was much longer than I expected it to be.
I was just excited.
I am getting better with endings though, I must say. My first lengthy story ended with "So yeah...."