How did you find the Outlander Series?

[Sharon]

I bought Outlander right before Christmas 1992 upon the recommendation of a wonderful little used paperback bookstore called The Book Rack in Nashville, TN, the owner Pam suggested that this was "a very special book". I'll admit I was a little slow to get into the story but once I got about 1/3 of the way into the book I was hooked. I even ran out to check out Dragonfly in Amber in hardback from my local library as I just had to know what was next. These books were a wonderful comfort to me at a very trying time in my life as my father passed away suddenly in early 1993.I just bought the latest book and plan on savoring every page.

[Elizabeth]

I actually found out about the series through the show. Last year when the show was still airing (around episode 11 I think) I couldn't wait a week until the next episode so I got the ebook and read it all that week even past the part where I was in the show. I just couldn't wait a week. Ever since then I've been hooked. I've actually never read any series or book like this series. After finishing book one I finished 3 more that summer and this summer I just started Fiery Cross.

[Angie]

I saw the commercials on Starz. I became number 63 on the waiting list at my local library. Three months later, I received a notice that my copy of Outlander was available to download. It was one week prior to the show airing. I read Outlander in 3 days and downloaded the entire series on my kindle. I've been a fan of the books, as well as; the Tv show ever since. ❤️❤️❤️

[Diane]

I was browsing in the bookstore and saw the Outlander hardcover. I was interested because of the artwork on the book jacket and when I read the description, I thought I would really like the combination of time travel and history and romance. I have since bought every book in hardcover, though have also obtained them in ebook format as well.

[M.]

I was told about the series by a work colleague back in 1992 when it was only a trilogy. I remember agonizing at the end of Voyager hoping that there would be another book, and then after each book thereafter. I now have all of the books in hardcover, on my kindle, and in audiobook. It's simply amazing to me how real these characters have become, even before the series on STARZ.

[Jennifer]

I was at work many years ago and needed a book to read on my lunch and found The Fiery Cross. It sounded good so I bought it and started reading. Well, I was a little lost but still interested when a girl I worked with came out and got really excited when she saw what I was reading. She asked if I was a big fan of the series and I told her I didn't know it was a series. She walked over and took my book and told me to hold on. She went to her car and got her paperback of Outlander and told me to start with that. I have been hooked ever since and the series has become my all-time favorite.

[Cindi]

I don't remember WHY I was in that section (since I usually don't look in general Fiction), but I can still remember the look of the B&N shelf, the hardbacks and their size compared to surrounding books. I was so blessed to discover the series!

[Lorinda]

I saw the advertisement on Starz thought it could be a good series. After the first episode the memory of a book that matched the description the episode so I went to my Kindle typed in Outlander, bought the book the rest is history.

[Andrew]

My Mum bought me a book one Christmas called "The Scottish Prisoner" by Diana Gabaldon - I think it must have been 2011 - our last Christmas with Mum. I hadn't heard of Diana Gabaldon or Outlander at that stage. I really enjoyed the book and looked up the reviews on Goodreads - it mentioned Claire (who wasn't in the book) and it also mentioned time travel. I thought this odd as there was no mention time travel in The Scottish Prisoner. I really should re-read, but pretty certain there wasn't any there. I was quite intrigued by this stage and as the reviews mentioned the Outlander series, I put down Outlander as a book to read. A few months later I was in Tauranga, New Zealand with a few hours to kill so I found myself browsing in a local book shop. On the shelf was a copy of Outlander, so I bought it and started reading. I was hooked - and the rest they say is history.

Well not quite - that same year I began going out with Debbie, my partner, and one evening at a restaurant we were talking about various books we had read. I mentioned the Scottish Prisoner and how it led me to Outlander. Which I had well and truly finished by then. Debbie mentioned that she had read a similar book called "Cross-stitch" and I might like that and that she had the following books in the series too. It took a few moments to realise that we were talking about the same book! Unbeknown to me, Outlander was re-titled as Cross-stitch in the UK and Australia. In NZ and the US it was published as Outlander!

It's something we still laugh about - even all these years later.

After the TV series had aired in Australia the books were now published with the original title of Outlander. We still have a couple of Cross-stitch books which we are going to hang onto because they may become a collectors item!
cheers
Andrew

[Diane]

Nice story Andrew. You are the first person I have heard of that got introduced to the series through The Scottish Prisoner. That was a great book and my favorite of the Lord John series. Many people have started with one of the other of the 8 books for what ever reason but I cannot think of hearing it in this order. I am glad you and your partner are fans of the series.

[NancyJ]

There is an Outlander marathon on right now on Starz.

[Barb]

My sister in law Mary Beth Giesler, brought all the books to me in one swoop. She and her sisters had read them all and they sat in my garage for a year because i was in the process of moving. On june day i was down there trying to pack more things, and get stuff ready for a yard sale. Started reading. Woke up in September four books later and was like did school end, did my birthday come and go, did we go to cape cod, fish creek on vacation? Oh good you guys are going back to school. More time for me to read more of the books!

[NancyJ]

Barb wrote: "My sister in law Mary Beth Giesler, brought all the books to me in one swoop. She and her sisters had read them all and they sat in my garage for a year because i was in the process of moving. On j..."

That's funny. Yes, they will do that to you! For me it was a winter hibernation. When I was really sick or tired and couldn't read, I listened to the books in a dream state, oblivious to the world.

BTW, audio takes a lot longer, so as much as I love it, I won't do that with the next one.

[Beth]

Never been so enthralled w/bks like Outlander series! Started early last summer w/bks & show. I have reread bks 1-7 three times and I pick up new things & nuances everytime. I am reading bk 8 for the 1st time thru. Love them & the show which I also keep rewatching😁

[Pam]

I drive my husband crazy. I just saw a Freesian horse and of course was fascinated by its feathered feet, etc. Hubby was “What’s so special about these horses? “ As I proceeded to tell him , ( only 500 in US, came from Netherlands, and Jamie owns one!), he said...”Oh of course! Everything always comes back to Outlander!”
... like there’s anything wrong with that?

[Beth]

Pamela wrote: "I drive my husband crazy. I just saw a Freesian horse and of course was fascinated by its feathered feet, etc. Hubby was “What’s so special about these horses? “ As I proceeded to tell him , ( only..."

Funny Pamela! So true too!😀😀

[Diane]

My husband has learned to embrace it. For our anniversary (32 years) we actual got tattoos based on the wedding vowels only updated the language and split the phrasing so when we hold hands the quote comes together as one.


I have: You are the blood of my blood, I give you my body that we two might be one.

He has: You are the bone of my bone, I give you my spirit until our life shall be done.

[Eileen]

For me I had lost my job after 35+ years and a friend said, you need to try these books. It will keep you busy! Thank goodness I was reading on my Nook so I could just keep adding 1 when i finished one! That was before book 8 was out... Now I have read everything multiple times

[Merry]

I had read the 'Fifty Shades' books because a high school friend, who teaches English at a local college finally broke down and read them. I thought, if they are good enough for her, they are good enough for me. SO WRONG! After reading the first book, I ranted on and on about how horrible it was on Facebook, and a friend, who had been in a book club with me many years before, suggested Outlander-and that's all it took. So I credit the awful Fifty Shades garbage for helping me to discover something so incredible as Outlander! Since then, I've gotten my MIL hooked-and she and I have seen 'Herself' speak live in both MI and KY. And two years ago, I attended my first Thru the Stones conference! True story people!

[Andrea]

My sister in law was in Hawaii visiting her daughter. While she was there outlander had just started on the starz network. She was telling me all about the show. Then I found out about the books. I have read books 1 thru 5... I know have starz and have all 3 seasons in dvd. I like the shows but love the books

[Paige]

A little over a year ago I was watching a Sarah J Maas interview on YouTube. Several minutes in, she and the interviewer got on the topic of Outlander. Sarah asked the audience if they were familiar with Jamie, and the audience enthusiastically replied that they were. It just stuck with me that so many of her fans were also fans of this book. So after watching several more interviews with her, I noticed that she kept on bringing up Outlander. I figured that if I was a fan of Sarah who was a fan of Outlander and whose fans were also fans of Outlander, then I'd probably like it, too. So I read the book and then the next and so on.

[Lori]

I was divorced and looking for a book that wasn't about "how the guy treated her badly, she chased him and then he finally saw his wicked ways". I saw the cover of the Outlander paperback at my library and saw that it was a long book (I love, love long books). I started reading it that night and couldn't put it down. Here was a book about a very capable woman finding a real love and I was hooked. I met my husband around that time and we are celebrating 20 years this August with hopefully a bus tour of all the shows' locations in Scotland! The first time I met the author at a signing I told her I had found my Jamie.

[Parker]

A (then) colleague told me about them, but it didn't really interest me then, as I'd read too many horrible time travel books. Last January, I was in my local library, checking out the new books when I happened upkn The Outlander Cookbook. Since I'm always loiking for Scottish recipes, I checked it out. My husband checked out The Making Of Outlander Seasons 1 and two at the same time. The excerpts in the cookbook intrigued me, and so did the synopses of the series. I went to my local boo kstore the next week, read two pages, and had to out it on hold at the library. From Dragonfly on, I just bought the books, because I knew I'd be rereading them. I now own everything she's published.

[C]

NancyJ wrote: "Barb wrote: "My sister in law Mary Beth Giesler, brought all the books to me in one swoop. She and her sisters had read them all and they sat in my garage for a year because i was in the process of..."

Nancy, Barb, Beth. You girls got bit bad like all of us hardcore Outlander lovers. You can't join the ranks until you have binge read all of them and then gone back to do it again. I did the same thing. one winter Couldn't stop myself. then I went back and read it about 5 times and then I read the rest of the 8 books. Then I read them all again. I lost track of about 6 months. My daughter told me about this book series about a tall charming Scot in the 18 century and a time traveler historical fiction series that I might like and I ordered them on Amazon I. was hooked 100 pages in. The show is icing on the cake!the how is icing on the cake!

[Lori]

I am not one to re-read books. However, I have yet to find a writer who writes so beautifully so I can't wait for her books to come out. With her writing, I can taste it, smell it, sense it in ways very few authors can do. The closest to her are Edward Rutherfurd and Ken Fleet with their historic novels. Interestingly, I don't enjoy the side books of Lord John etc. It's got to be Claire and Jamie.

[Diane]

I didn't care for the Lord John books either except, The Scottish Prisoner, because Jaime was in that one.

[NancyJ]

Who is voting for Outlander as America's favorite book, on the Great American Read webpage?

If anyone wants to exchange twitter names for voting, please send me a direct message.

http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american...

[Leslie]

Lori wrote: "I was divorced and looking for a book that wasn't about "how the guy treated her badly, she chased him and then he finally saw his wicked ways". I saw the cover of the Outlander paperback at my lib..."

All of these posts could have been written by me! Especially the rererererereading ones. I have no idea how many times I've savored these books -- even more the audio version read by Davina Porter. The Outlander series runs as a loop on my iPhone so that I can listen anywhere, anytime. As Lori mentioned, it's a very rare talent to be able immerse a reader in a setting the way DG does. I lose myself to the point that I feel I'm right there alongside the characters. They've become like family to me. That's skill is what draws you in within the first few pages and then never lets you go!

[Parker]

Leslie, totally agree with your comments on immersion. I'm a Living Historian/Historian, and the periods in the books are the periods where my expertise lies, so I'm super picky about both the history and the little details. I find the books incredibly accurate (minor niggles about clothing terminology. It wasn't a skirt, it was called a petticoat back then, and the fact that the poorer people would have been speaking Gaelic instead of English, so Claire would probably not be able to understand them).

[Mary]

Diane wrote: "I didn't care for the Lord John books either except, The Scottish Prisoner, because Jaime was in that one."
Jamie is also in Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade- when Lord John visits Helwater once for Geneva's funeral and once after he returns from fighting on the Continent. These encounters were important because the one encounter made Lord John question Jamie's connection to Geneva and the other was what cause at further breach between Lord John and Jamie and gave Lord John the realization (without knowing the who what when where or why) that Jamie had been raped at some point.