Member introductions

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

The last post in this topic is more than 3 months old, and we've had a lot of new members since then, so I thought I'd revive this thread. To everyone who joined recently - please take a moment to say hi and tell us a little about yourself!

(And there's also the reading habits thread!)

[Dawn]

Well I guess since I never introduced myself here (I just jumped right into commenting) I might as well start it out...

I'm Dawn, 27, working as a Mechanical Engineer. I discovered fantasy during my freshman year in college, by accident really. I found a book (The Sword of Shannara) on the floor of my boyfriend's (at the time) room. I was bored, it looked interesting, so I read it. I've been hooked ever since! Since then I've read little besides fantasy. My to-read list keeps growing and growing, I haven't had time for anything else.

Besides that I'm a new mom to a seven month old boy, I love it. It cuts a considerable chunk out of my reading time but it's more than worth it.

I don't really know what else to say, so I'll just leave it at that :-)

[Charles]

Dawn wrote: "Well I guess since I never introduced myself here (I just jumped right into commenting) I might as well start it out...

I'm Dawn, 27, working as a Mechanical Engineer. I discovered fantasy during ..."

Welcome, Dawn, and to your "young audience",welcome, too! We have a pretty good time for a bunch of bookworms!

[Paul]

Hi all.

I was recommended here from The Reading Room site, and it looks like a great, vibrant community.

I've lived all my life in Sheffield in the UK. I've always been a voracious and omnivorous reader - I love good books across a range of genres, but Speculative Fiction is my first love to whom I always return. I'm an avid cyclist and hiker, and have fairly recently discovered the joys of audiobooks.

My favorite authors are (off the top of my head) Iain Banks, Sheri Tepper, Joseph Conrad, Paul McAuley, Mary Gentle, Charlie Stross, Arthur Conan-Doyle, Dashiell Hammett, Umberto Eco, Elmore Leonard, David Sedaris, Gene Wolfe, Kate Atkinson, Kate Grenville, Ursula le Guin.

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

Welcome, Paul! Just out of curiosity, where you recommended to GoodReads in general, or Beyond Reality specifically? And if the latter, where is this Reading Room site? (asks the curious group manager)

[Paul]

thanks Stefan. GoodReads in general was recommended, and i naturally gravitated toward Beyond Reality :)

i came from http://www.thereadingroom.com

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Hi, been here on Goodreads a while now and I've loved "speculative" fiction for many years. I love everything from Tolkien and Lewis to Poe and Lovecraft.

[Melanie]

Hey all-- a new person from California. I read in all genres and just discovered your group this morning. It covers a hole I have in fantasy and science fiction groups here on goodreads. I'm a writer, but do historicals, paranormals and mysteries rather than fantasy. Like to read it though so I look forward to meeting you all and talking books. As I have mentioned on other boards, I am currently looking for Halloween reads. The only one I have in fantasy so far is Night In Lonesome October by Zelazny.A Night in the Lonesome October

[[deleted user]]

Melanie wrote: I am currently looking for Halloween reads.

I really liked Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Hey, I'm Jenny and came in on Sandi's recommendation. I am a music librarian and avid reader, and like to have a blog for every hobby, haha. Ive only been reading sci fi and fantasy for a few years so this group will expose me to more. I'm excited about September because I read all the Hugo award nominees and we are in for a treat!

[Jan]

Hello! I'm new, both to this group as to the whole bookclub experience.

I'm a non-active archaelogist from Belgium, currently doing a post graduate in library sciences. I've been an avid reader all my life, with a preference for romance, sci-fi and fantasy novels.

However, since english is only my 2nd language, I had to depend on the dutch translations, which aren't plenty in sci-fi nor fantasy. So I don't have a very strong foundation in those genres.

In recent years I've been reading in the original languages, and not only has my english improved dramatically (still not perfect unfortunately), but there's so much more books to pick from :)

So that's where this group hopefully comes in, to help me pick my next sci-fi reads.

Besides regular reading I have a big fascination with experimental writing and reading formats, and after years spent on Novelr and the Web Fiction Guide, I founded an ezine for fans of webfiction called ErgoFiction.

It's very nice to meat you all, and I hope that this bookclub thing will be a fun experience :)

[[deleted user]]

Hi Jan,

Welcome! Your language skills are really impressive. As far as books and authors, I really like Connie Willis, especially Doomsday Book; and Kage Baker, Company series (the first one is In the Garden of Iden). What are some of yours?

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

Hi Jan, welcome to the group! I'm originally from Belgium myself (grew up near Leuven) but have been living in the US for about 15 years now.

[Jan]

Thank you both for the welcome!
@Laura:
I added some of Connie Willis' books to my tbr list, but it'll depend on what I can get my hands on. I have to admit I'm fairly new to the Sci-fi bookworld, I read my first Ursula Le Guin this summer, and I really liked it, so now I'm looking forward to read the Earthsea series.

I was a fan of the Wolfwalker series by Tara K. Harper when I was younger.

But when it comes to sci-fi I still have a lot of ground to cover :) That's why I'm here :)

@Stefan How strange to meet a fellow Belgian here, I always feel like I'm the only one on the internet!

[[deleted user]]

Jan, you might try www.paperbackswap.com as a way to get a variety of books. I've ordered a Tara Harper book for myself. Love Ursula LeGuin, especially The Dispossessed. Okay, there are lots of great books mentioned here and lots of great authors. I don't usually post much, I'll let you explore for yourself.

[Marty]

Welcome, Jan.

[Felina]

Hello everybody. I'm new to the group and look forward to discussing books with everybody.

[Dawn]

Hi Felina! :)

[Felina]

Hi Dawn! *waves*

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Hi Felina. *waves*

[Felina]

Hi blackrose!

[Alan]

Hello All, My name is Alan. I am 33 years old and live in the UK. I have only been reading books for about a year, mainly Fantasy.

I don't know why I have stayed away from books until now but I could not imagine life without one now.

I'm looking forward to some good conversations in the group.

Cheers
Alan

[Christine]

Welcome to the group, Alan; you will find many good suggestions for books, and some wonderfully helpful people here

Christine

[Batsap]

Hi, found this group whilst browsing on GR and it looks really interesting. I've always read sci-fi and fantasy, but lately I've been looking out for older classic sci-fi.

[Christine]

Welcome Batsap...interesting monniker...

[Paul]

hi Alan! welcome to GoodReads, Beyond Reality and the wonderful world of reading! :D

[Alan]

Thanks Paul

[Batsap]

Thanks. =] It's what Joker called Batman in a comic once and I love it as a name... I'm a Batfan. My real name is Ellen, which isn't nearly as interesting.

[Christine]

Batsap wrote: "Thanks. =] It's what Joker called Batman in a comic once and I love it as a name... I'm a Batfan. My real name is Ellen, which isn't nearly as interesting."

I love names like that...mine is terribly boring

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

Time to bump this topic back to the top! If you just joined the group, please take a moment to say hi and introduce yourself...

[[deleted user]]

So uh, hi.

Was just looking for a new group to expand my book reading horizons a bit, and stumbled on this one.

Love SF&F, figured this would be a good fit.

Will join in once I get the books :)

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

Welcome Ala! :)

[Hélène]

Hi, I'm French and started on SFF some 40 years ago (Oh, my...) At the time, SF was mostly read by boys and I felt a bit lonely.
I seem to have lose the thread with SF during the last years. I hope this group will help me to broaden my horizon there.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Love seeing new members here! Welcome!

[Shel, Moderator]

What Kathi said! Glad to have you and happy new year!

[Sandi]

Hi everyone,

My New Year's resolution is to have a bit more variety in my reading choices and I thought the best way to accomplish my goal would be to try and read the monthly picks from this group. I picked up Air: Or, Have Not Have from the library and will start it soon.

My genre of choice is crime fiction and I did not really start reading science fiction or fantasy until I started using the internet back in 1995. Some of the authors that I have enjoyed over the years are Nancy Kress, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Connie Willis.

[A.J.]

hey,

I'm new to this group. I've never really read sci-fi or fantasy until about a year ago, but what I've read I've really enjoyed. I joined the group to hopefully find some new reads and I look forward to participating in some of the discussions.

[Benjamin]

Hi, I am Benjamin from Wellington New Zealand and have been a member of GR since 2010 but have yet to post.

I am at the moment reading "The uplift war" by David Brin and "claws that catch" by john Ringo and Travis S Taylor, while enjoying both books greatly I would love some advise on a new author to sink my teeth into.

I would like to read some cyberpunk, I have not read any before so some help where to start would be great (I am a big fan of the FIRST matrix) and would like to read something along that line if possible.

Cheers
Ben

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Welcome to Ben & Nicki and any other new members/lurkers out there!

[Chessa]

Hello, delurking. :) I'm Chessa. I used to be on the yahoo list but fell off for a while when I had my first son (although I did keep reading and loving SF/F!)

I'm in Seattle with my two sons (4 1/2 and 1) and my husband, taking advantage of our fabulous library system.

Some of my favorite SF/F authors are Sheri S. Tepper, Julie Czerneda...I'm a big fan of of the sub-genres feminist SF, anything to do with gender bending, utopia/dystopia...And I'm also a big fan of lots of YA (Hunger Games, His Dark Materials) and Urban Fantasy (Richelle Mead, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison).

Major dislikes include George RR Martin (ugh, that guy has issues with women - so much sexual violence, I cannot stomach it!) and uber-epic fantasy.

Anyway, glad to be here!

[Lurple]

Hello all! I've been an avid reader since I was a kid, and fantasy and sci-fi have always been major staples of my reading diet. I've never joined a book club/group before, but your group looks fun and I figure it should help me find some new stuff worth reading and discussing.

I'm new to Goodreads and I'm currently taking the time to catalog my books (which is proving to be an arduous task) while moving a lot of them to the attic. Can't bear to part with them (well, most of them) but they're just taking up too much room, and I'm also switching to more ebook based reading.

Anyway, thanks for having me; I look forward to checking out the books of the month. :)

[Shel, Moderator]

Welcome to all our new members - glad to have you! :)

[Simon]

Hi I am an author with a Science Fiction, futuristic thriller out now. Tag Currently writing the sequel. Great to see the interest in the genre is good and strong :)

[PenelopeThree]

Hi I'm Penelope (PenelopeThree). I just joined. I dont get to read as much as I want--maybe i can read more now. i like fantasy and horror and some scifi like Dune. I am slowly getting all my books on my shelfs but i haven't had time.

[Karen]

Hi everyone! Just found you and while I think I may have joined the yahoo group at some long-passed point, I never liked the interface there so never really even lurked. I'm glad you've moved to Goodreads!

I've been reading science fiction since my dad foisted Erik von Daniken, Asimov, Clarke, et al upon me back in the 70's. We read JRR Tolkien, Dune, I got a telescope in the fourth grade and all the Golden Guides I could ever want. I collected seashells and studied weather, clouds, stars, flora, fauna - you get the drift! We also were avid devotees of Euell Gibbons...

I love books, I'm a Libra, year of the dog and yes, I judge people by the books that they read!

I am delighted to be joining this group which looks very lively. Will be poking around the fora (Is that the plural of forum? I always wanted to take Latin but it wasn't offered at my school(s).) here for a while to get up to speed with what's happening in the Beyond!

[Jean]

I'm Jean, and unfortunately not from the Yahoo group! I am an author who discovered this group as a way to promote my book. I read a ton of Fantasy, with the occasional SF and mystery thrown in.

[Hillary]

Hi! I'm Hillary. I'm definitely new here. I live in Misawa Japan with my husband who is stationed at a base here. There aren't many outlets for discussing books within the area. I'm looking forward to the next book!

[Karen]

Hi Hillary, welcome! I'm new to this group also and usually hang out here on weekdays.

I see you are reading The Alchemyst - how is it?

[Hillary]

Karen wrote: "Hi Hillary, welcome! I'm new to this group also and usually hang out here on weekdays.

I see you are reading The Alchemyst - how is it?"

Well, I was to pick it up yesterday, but my eyes are contesting another book (need new glasses), so between posting that I was reading The Alchemyst and the end of the night, I started Catching Fire on audio. I'll let you know how The Alchemyst is when I get to it. :)

[L]

Hello everyone! I'm a new member from Australia, totally new to book clubs and discussing them in a very public arena.

I have missed all the book analysis and discussion we used to have in the High School days with my book-wormy friends. So hopefully as time and life allows it, I'll be able to join in with a topic or two. :)