Timewaster's Guide Archive

I blame my reading addiction on my Dad. Well, my Dad and my sister. When I was in third grade my Dad read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to me. The trick was he didn't read the entire book to me. He stopped about half way through, at a very exciting point, and told me I would have to read it myself if I wanted to find out what happened. Of course I had to find out what happened, so I read the rest of the book and then the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia. LOVED THEM. I still love to read them.

I remember reading the Indian in the Cupboard books at some point in Grade School, but for the most part I thought there's not much to read out there besides The Chronicles of Narnia, so I don't need to read any more books. I think I read on these forums somewhere that it's common for boys to stop reading between 4th grade and Junior High. I guess I fell into that statistic.

I didn't read anything again until 8th grade. My older sister lent me her copy of Pawn of Prophecy. She told me it was REALLY good, so I agreed to give it a try. It took me a long time to get half way through it, but then it finally got exciting and I was hooked. I devoured the rest of the Belgariad and every David Eddings book I could get my hands on. That's when I realized there are a LOT of good books out there to read and I became a reading junkie.

I read all of Lloyd Alexander's books in Junior High and loved them. It's fun to read that others of you enjoyed those same books. At that point in my addiction I was limited to the books in the Junior High Library and my sisters' book cases. Luckily between the two of them I found enough books to appease my hunger. I read The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist, The Shannara books, Robert Asprin's Myth series (so funny), a little Robin McKinley, and I'm sure there were some others I can't remember.

I think I found The Eye of the World in 10th grade and have been a Robert Jordan fan ever since. I had never read Tolkien, and I felt like I should since he is considered the father of modern fantasy. I tried the Hobbit, but it just didn't grip me and hold my attention like many other books I'd read. I ended up forcing myself to continue reading and finally finished the book years later. I then started The Fellowship of the Ring, but got completely bogged down (lost interest) in the Tom Bombadil section. I decided that Tolkien just wasn't my cup of tea and moved on.

This post is already plenty long. Wow! Hope I'm not rambling too much. It's fun to find out what got other people hooked. It also gives me some ideas on books to try out. Thanks everyone!

I read a lot of fantasy, but my favorite book of all time is The Count of Monte Cristo. I've read some of Alexandre Dumas' other books, but they were just "okay". Nothing great. I personally thing the Count of Monte Cristo is a masterpiece. I'd recommend it to anyone, regardless of their preference in books.

There you have it. Alexandre Dumas is not my favorite author of all time, but he did write my favorite book.