Addicts by how long you've been reading PNR/UF

[GinBee, Founder & Mod]

Following on from the thread about number of books read I wanted to have a different definition of Addict :-)

How long have you been reading paranormal romance and/or urban fantasy? That's Addiction or dedication to your genre!

[GinBee, Founder & Mod]

Am I an addict?

I'll give a clue, I started a group with the word in it 4.5 years ago, run a blog on it, am starting a Online TV show & podcast on it and I'm writing it!!!!

Yes I'm addicted! Oh, but I'm not exclusive, I also like me a bit of contemporary romance, thriller, cozy mystery, erotica, high fantasy etc etc etc....... I also love psychology & history books! (NF)

I've been reading the genre since before it was really called it as such! Back in the 1990's & early 2000's I was reading Laurell K Hamilton and Sherrilyn Kenyon

[Angela]

I'm an addict. I concur that I'm not exclusive cuz' I like variety when the mood hits me. I also read LKH and SK and L.A. Banks way back when.LOL!!!!

[Krysta]

I'm also a paranormal addict.
It started with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show (with Sarah Michelle Gellar) in 2002-ish.
I fell in love with the show and it actually earned me a lot of really good friends through online forums and chats.
I then started reading Buffy books, and finally ventured out in to other paranormal novels.

[Carolyn F.]

I'm about 10 years the 2nd time around. I did like vampire/horror books when I was in high school and then took a 30 yrs break.

[Nancy]

Wow over twenty years

[Victoria]

About 10 years - before that it was science fiction.

[Loretta]

I have been reading PNR/UF since I was a teen. Dracula broke me into the scene and I have discovered that if I go for more than a month without indulging in this genre I literally get restless! Yay for PNR/UF! Yay for 20+ years of dark yummy stories!

[Shannon]

My addiction has been over 20 years in the making. Anne Rice was my first, with her Mayfair Witches series.

[GinBee, Founder & Mod]

Oh yes the Mayfair Witches. I read those in the early 1990s :-) And again a few years ago!

[Sonya]

Krysta wrote: "I'm also a paranormal addict.
It started with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show (with Sarah Michelle Gellar) in 2002-ish.
I fell in love with the show and it actually earned me a lot of really g..."

:) :) I'm the same age as Buffy, so I watched the show religiously in the 90s. I'm also around Kirsten Dunst's age, so when she was cast in Interview With the Vampire in the years before Buffy, I wanted to BE her! Every tween and teen did back then, having their first kiss with Brad Pitt!

As for reading these genres, I guess it started with Dead Until Dark. I used to read pretty much everything written in the PNR/UF area, but these days I just stick to my favourites.

[Lindsey]

I was reading some kids/YA fantasy novels back in 1995, and discovered Anne Rice in 1997, which really got me into all things vampire and paranormal. I started reading Laurell K. Hamilton in 2002, and probably from there fantasy and urban fantasy novels became the largest percentage of what I read.

I was also definitely a huge fan of Buffy. ;)

[Michelle]

JenBee wrote: "Following on from the thread about number of books read I wanted to have a different definition of Addict :-)

How long have you been reading paranormal romance and/or urban fantasy? That's Addicti..."

Wow, since the 80's I guess...

[rachel]

wow this is making me feel like a baby some of your additions are older then me. Im 16 and Ive been reading PNR and UF since about early 6th grade so I was about 12 and The Vampire Dairies show is what got me hooked. I had to read the books and it stared from there. My first adult book was Dark Prince by Christine Feehan that my sister gave me about that time. Not the best book to give at that age.

[lorii (Loriidae)]

I am a much later convert than most here, probably 2003, I guess it's funny I am trying to remember that first PNR book and can't that is really going to bug me... (my first Mills and Boon the hero was Driff Campbell, I was 15, first fantasy novel when I was 25, Tolkien), but first PNR maybe Lynne Viehl's If Angels Burn first of her Darkyn Series.

One thing I will say in favour of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, it made PNR popular and books that I had previously had to mail order in were suddenly on KMart and Target shelves.

[[deleted user]]

I have been addicted to PNR/UF since I read way back when it first came out in 2000, it was my very first paranormal read and I have been hooked ever since. I don't usually stray to far from my love of the paranormal but I do like a good mystery, horror or contemporary just to break things up a bit :)

[Kellie]

I've been reading books with PNR elements since the late 80's. But, like most everyone else I'm not focused solely on PNR because I do read contemporary romance, western romance and some historical romance. Although, the bulk of my reading became PNR once I read Dark Prince by Christine Feehan in the late 90's. So, yes I'm truly an addict and so proud of it!

[Sandra J]

I started reading fantasy (and to my way of thinking, PNR has strong roots in fantasy) in the mid to late 60's (yes, I'm old). I read a lot of Andre Norton especially because there are usually strong romantic elements in the stories. From there I read Interview with a Vampire, Dracula, and Ann McCaffrey's books. PNR wasn't even a gleam in a pubisher's eye when I started looking for books that would fit that description. BTW, one of the best vampire series around is the Saint Germaine Chronicles by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (usually shelved in horror) that I started reading in the 80's.

[Katharine]

I started reading fantasy in the '80s when I was a young teenager, with Anne McCaffrey's Pern series. I read Bram Stoker's Dracula around the same time. Then it was Laurell K. Hamilton some years later and I was hooked on UF.

[Mina]

When I was in college...somewhere in the '90s. My early intro included books by Marjorie M. Liu, Caridad Pineiro and Jeanine Frost. I love to read and write paranormal romance and urban fantasy. I tried writing other genres, but paranormal elements have a habit of popping in and surprising me...so in the end, I embraced my addiction. :D

[Michelle]

My favorite vampire would be Jen-claude from the Anita Blake series.

[Amanda]

Katharine wrote: "I started reading fantasy in the '80s when I was a young teenager, with Anne McCaffrey's Pern series."

I read a lot of YA growing up but Anne McCaffrey Pern books were also one of my first series that I fell for as a teen. I actively went to several used book stores and collected all her books before I even had a shelf to put them on. Her books had the first love scenes I ever read including those in the Freedom's landing series.

Tamora Pierce was the second author I collected. Since I've added several more, but few have made it past the digital stage and onto my physical shelves like they have. I still like to pick them up every couple years and read them.

[Victoria]

I've been reading fantasy for as long as I can remember. Started reading urban fantasy - when it started to be defined as such, in the 90s - I think it was probably the Anita Blake or Vicki Nelson series that started it, or possibly Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Then late 90s - Lukyanenko's 'The Watch' series.

[Andrea]

The earliest PNR books I have on my shelves are from 2011. I know I read many before I started recording them on GR.

However when I was looking at my fantasy bookshelf, I came across this children's book The Princess and Curdie which is a sequel to The Princess and the Goblin. I remember being enraptured with the relationship between the title characters. That was 1988! So evidently, I've had a taste for these kind of books a LONG time.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder*]

Since my early twenties, after my son was born, so almost 14 years. Didn't know it existed before then. Stumbled on Tanya Huff's Blood series and liked them so much I joined a vampire book group. Ask for similar books and it was history from there.

[Lyn]

I started reading horror when I was in high school and I think I first read a PNR when I was in high school to when I read the Point Horror books and that lead me onto the genre and Point did a paranormal set too

[CassieCruel]

Been reading for about 12 years +

Started with the Sookie Stackhouse series

[Nicole]

Been an addict since 2008. I remember the year because I had just came back from deployment and Twilight had also just came out. After watching the movie like a gazillion times, I finally bought the book. Then Vampire Academy, Dark Lover, Pleasure Unbound...and then my husband got me a Nook for Christmas in 2011. From there the addiction has become a downward spiral of sublime happiness since :D

Then I discovered Goodreads....

[CassieCruel]

Hahahhaha liked how you put that final bit Nicole

[S.J.]

I have to say mine begun with twilight which I burned through them books.

Didn't agree with everything about them but the story kept me pulled in throughout.

I do tend to shy away from vampire novels as I feel they have been over done however now.

[Nicole]

Cupcake Cassie wrote: "Hahahhaha liked how you put that final bit Nicole"

I guarantee nothing good will come of this, Cassie. LOL

[CassieCruel]

Indeed, my book shelves would be a lot smaller before!

[SHBown]

I'm addicted to reading them and writing them.

Yesterday at Amazon: it was the first day my book SAINT VAMPIRE was out in print.
Soooooo Grateful!!!

PAPERBACK:
#61 out of 9,871 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Vampires

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,526 out of 55,439,383 in Books

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015TBKKR2

[Yulia]

For me what got me into the first binge of reading UF I think that was Anita Blake (and Sookie Stakehouse series) which I read through like 14 books straight. Man that was in 2010...

[Elle]

I got into the genre via comics, TV & film first and it wasn't until a friend suggested I read JR Ward that I got into the book side of stuff. My first books closest to the genre were probably as a teen reading Frankenstein and Dracula and then I read Twilight before they got huge as a friend demanded I read it before Ward.

That was around 2007? Maybe 2006?

[Mhansen]

I came to PNR through High Fantasy... I started in the early 70's with the Narnia Series. I think I was 8. Then I found J.R.R. Tolkien around age 10... and at 14 Terry Brooks meandered into my lfe with his story of the In the Shadow of the Warlock Lord thanks to my school librarian after she had me readShakespeare's A MidSummer's Night Dream. ...

Now I know that these are not specifically PNR, but they led me to find Anne Rice and her Vampire Chronicles in 1980, I was 15... and I was so addicted by then that my school librarian would spend time searching out vampire and other paranormal books for me every week.Thank you Mrs. Collier.

By the time I was 18 my local bookstore had my home number and would call whenever a new author would come onto the scene with something they thought I would like...so came my introduction to Laurell K. Hamilton ...

So depending on whether we are counting from High Fantasy or from Anne Rice either 43 or 36 years take your pick.. lol

Far too long to deny...

Hi, my name is Mhansen and I am addicted, please dont try to cure me.

[Lys: the adorkable kitten]

Im very addicted been reading paranormal books since the moment i learned how to read and really want it to stay that way. Im addicted to paranormal books and im proud of it!! Thank you very much:)

[Sylwia]

Since I read Interview with the Vampire in middle school 1996. 20 years. Expletive I'm old! Some of the early stuff was rough. I'm glad the field has expanded so much.

[Cee]

So very addicted!!! I can and do read books of other genres but, I always come back to PNR. The mystery and fantasy of it all is too enticing for me to stay away from.

I've been reading these types of books longer than I can remember ^_^ My parents actually would make me read different types of books when I was younger. Had to have variation but, my love for vampires, shifters, witches, and all has carried through to adulthood.

[Iris]

Oh man, what a question lol. I'd say I've been reading PNR for the past 8 years and UF for the past 7. I can never stay away from PNR/UF, it's a pull :D Once I start a UF series, I can't stop until I finish it (unless is a poorly written book).