When did you know that SciFi and Fantasy was the genre for you

[Daniel]

everyone has that one book, books or author that made them think, 'wow this is something I love'. for me it is the workers of writers like Pratchett and Gaiman, I would love to hear yours too.

[AndPeggy]

The Time Machine

Before that book, for the most part my reading was geared towards literary, folklore, and mythology. Couple my reading of "The Time Machine", "Around the World in 80 Days", and "War of the Worlds" with my love of shows like "Star Trek" and "Cleopatra 2525" and it was a done deal.

[Paul]

I like the answer China Miéville gave when an interviewer asked him when he started reading fantasy:

"When did you stop?"

Most of the children's stories I grew up on had fantastical elements - from the wicked witches of fairy tales to the Hobbit to Roald Dahl and, at middle school, I was a huge fantasy nerd - all the writers coming to the fore in the 80s like David Eddings and Terry Brooks, and discovering older writers such as T.H. White, Lloyd Alexander, Tanith Lee and, of course, Tolkien.

In my teens I switched to more SF, initially through a bunch of old paperbacks of my dad's - E.E. 'Doc' Smith and AE van Vogt, and the planetary romances of Burroughs and Leigh Brackett, then working through the pantheon - Asimov, Clarke, Pohl, etc.

[Paul]

Actually Marvel comics, Godzilla and then Star Wars were the beginnings of my Love for genre related craziness :)

I found some conan type stuff but never really thought I liked Fantasy I just knew I was fascinated by swordfights and Dragons and liked The D&D cartoon, then record of Lodoss war and it kind of just snuck up on me very slowly with fantasy.

[Daniel]

I'm glad you all choose to share these experiences with me. Thanks guys!

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

Since I was a wee lassie. I grew up on fairy tales, mythology, and Doctor Who. Another way of life was over for me by the time was eight.

[Jeffrey N.]

I the page I met Tasselhoff Burrfoot.

[Jeff]

Zayne wrote: "Mine was Eragon. Before I read it, I absolutely loathed reading. Then, at the end of the 6th grade, I picked up Eragon, 'cause I thought the cover looked cool. That night I read 50 pages of it and ..."

Thats me almost exactly except replace Eragon with
The Dark Elf Trilogy Collector's Edition and 6th grade with age 27!

Couldn't stand reading, now I feel ALL twitchy if I don't already have my NEXT book picked out :p

[Michele]

Piers Anthony's Xanth books hooked me, Anne McCaffery's Pern reeled me in and Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar landed me.

[Dara]

Harry Potter is what got me reading but Lord of the Rings got me more into the genre and The Name of the Wind sucked me completely in.

[Phil]

I was into reading mysteries and mythology and books about magic tricks when I was young but Rocket Ship Galileo by Heinlein is what locked me into science fiction when I was 11.

[~Geektastic~]

I was a library wanderer in my youth, plucking books at random when they seemed interesting. One day I chanced to take Daggerspellby Katharine Kerr off the shelf, and it has been love ever since.

[Crissy]

two books really, though I can't seem to remember the one off hand. It was about a boy who stole a dragon egg to raise as his own. I remember the most significant thing being that when the two moons went down everything outside froze, except for dragons.

The other was "Dragonsinger" by McCaffery... I think I had a serious crush on the master harper. The last book was so sad.

[Ben]

Probably when I picked a Terry Brooks out of the main fiction section of the library. I had read plenty of fantasy and SF before but these were books that were in the childrens sections of libraries. After that I started looking for the SF and fantasy sections in libraries and bookshops.

[Rob, Roberator]

The only fantasy I can remember reading before college was The Hobbit (for 9th grade English) and the first four The Dark Tower books.

The only real Sci-Fi I remember was 2001: A Space Odyssey. There may have been others, but I tended to read more of a variety.

In college I finally read Lord of Rings before the first movie came out, and slowly I started reading other stuff.

Sadly it's all sort of a blur now, and I don't have any real idea.

[Teri]

I've been a "reader" since I learned to read. No matter how broke we were my Mom always made sure I, somehow, had a book in my hands. Gosh I miss her! In high school I read mostly historical romance. I'm sure that's nothing unusual! When I was a young adult someone told me about "The Hobbit". I was skeptical at first but I bought the book anyway. That was the beginning. I was totally hooked. The story of Bilbo lit up my mind and imagination. Now I can't get enough.

[Katy]

I'm pretty sure I was born to read Sci fi and fantasy. I went to renaissance fairs as a kid, and my parents played D&D. I honestly don't remember the first fantasy book I read, through The Black Cauldron was definitely one I read very young.

[Ayesha]

Michele wrote: "Piers Anthony's Xanth books hooked me..."

This. A Spell for Chameleon ruined me for anything but SFF.

[Ariel]

In third grade I plowed through all of Lloyd Alexander's books, that's the earliest fantasy I remember. But Xanth is what got me hooked and I thank Piers Anthony for it every day.

[Belle]

I cannot trace it back to a single book, series, author, or even age. I literally grew up on SciFi/Fantasy & Horror. I was in love with watching & reading those genres at such a young age that I honestly cannot remember the first books I read or movies/shows I watched in those genres. It's like it was written into my DNA that I was going to love them.

[Stuart]

Hard to say, but it might have been the reading of "The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe" when I was about eight.

[Rob, Roberator]

Stuart wrote: "Hard to say, but it might have been the reading of "The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe" when I was about eight."

Oh yeah. I read at least that and I think some of the other Narnia books as a kid. I also read a lot of the Wizard of Oz books.

[Daniel]

because of my dyslexia dyslexia I learnt to read pretty late (about 10-11), I remember my gran teaching me to read books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Oscar Wilde's Selfish Giant. By the time I could read unaided I was devouring books like Harry Potter and Discworld and Lord of the Rings. After that I never looked back

[Amy]

I've always been a reader and had read some SFF include Isobelle Carmody's Obernewton series which is still my favourite. But I didn't get genre specific until my ex MIL loaned me the Pern series around the time I also discovered Katherine Kerr. Never looked back since and there are few off genre authors I read

[Dylan]

After I read The Lord of the Rings I knew speculative fiction was what I wanted to read. And after reading a bunch of stories in some Masters of Science-Fiction anthologies I became hooked on sci-fi.

Seeing the magic of a fantasy world set in a world that could be and was grounded somewhat in reality blew my mind.

[Melissa]

I would have to say that the Chronicles of Narnia started it for me. But what really got me hooked was Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman.

My brother was away at college, so being the nosy little sister that I (still) am, I went into his room, saw this book with a cool looking dragon on the front, and the rest was history.

[Joseph]

Actually, in first grade I wrote and illustrated a book called My Trip to Mars. (My parents tried to convince me that Martians were green but I was certain they'd be red.) Sadly (or not), the manuscript does not survive.

[Klerosier]

The Hobbit and LOTR Trilogy hooked me on fantasy in the late 70's.
Time Enough for Love, by Robert Heinlein drew me to SciFi, not long after LOTR.
Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series addicted me the Urban Fantasy novels about 6-7 years ago.

[Sandi]

I was a child of the Sixties. I remember the moon landing and saw 2001: A Space Odyssey from the backseat of my parents' car at the drive-in theater. I was allowed to order two books every time we got the Scholastic Books flyer at school. I think I was in 3rd grade when I got Andre Norton's Daybreak 2250 A.D.. I loved that book. I think I read A Wrinkle in Time that same year. I was reading a lot of Bradbury in 6th and 7th grade. I watched Doctor Who on PBS back in the early Seventies and I can't remember how young I was when I first started watching Star Trek. After school, we'd watch whatever movie was showing on TV and it was often some B&W sci-fi feature like "It" or "The Creature from the Black Lagoon". Saturdays usually brought some Japanese monster movie like "Godzilla" or "Mothra".

Honestly, I don't know how anyone my age could have avoided becoming a science fiction fan. It was such an influential part of Sixties culture.

[Stuart]

Sandi wrote: "I was a child of the Sixties. I remember the moon landing and saw 2001: A Space Odyssey from the backseat of my parents' car at the drive-in theater. I was allowed to order two books every time w..."

A wrinkle in Time was also one of my childhood books.

[LegalKimchi]

crystal shard. I learned to read with the players handbook for dnd and reading a dnd book made me realize that I was stuck for life.

[Joseph]

As far as books that I actually read, I'd call out The White Mountains, The Book of Three and Red Planet. And probably D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths has to figure in there somewhere as well.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I read Narnia and L'Engle as a child but then didn't read SF/f for years. In library school I took an adult genre fiction class and did a project on feminist science fiction and that was my gateway drug! I'm going to spend a lifetime catching up.

[[deleted user]]

Lord Foul's Banewas the first,I then had to finish the Thomas Covenant series.But I was still in high school so it must have been between 1979-1982.