I heard about Brandon from some of the people in my ward-- they're English majors here at BYU and had heard about him somehow... I'm not sure. Anyway, I found out that he was going to be up at the BYU Bookstore for a while and decided to head up and take a look. I'd been looking for something new to read. Anyway, got up there and had a chance to talk to him a bit. That was pretty good-- I fancy myself a bit of an author and needed some tips on how to go about doing a better job. I ended up with not only that, but a signed copy of Elantris. I think I read the book in a couple of days over a weekend, and I was really impressed. I was really excited to hear about a published author that taught here at BYU.
I ended up getting a copy of Mistborn a little late. I heard about it when it came out and wanted to get a copy, but my school work made me so busy that I didn't have any time to read anything other than engineering text books (*gag*) for pretty much the entire year. Just got it... 2/3 weeks ago (?) as an early birthday present, but again was very busy until this last week. I thought it was even better than Elantris. I was blown away by the depth and detail of the world, the magic system, and how it all intertwined. Not only that, but the way it was described in relevant pieces as the story went on, giving further depth and introducing mystery. I just finished the book a couple of days ago, and I've been talking it up to all of my friends ever since I got to the halfway point.
Like I said, I fancy myself a bit of an author, but I've been having some issues with my time recently-- not really having any of it to spare, that is. I have a world I've been slowly building and writing a history for over the course of the last 4 or 5 years, and I'm hoping to be able to write a book from it-- maybe turn it into a small series. After reading Mistborn, though, it left me with a new drive to keep going with it and turn it into something. You'd be surprised how much time you can make for a project when you feel some new inspiration.