SOS: Serious Overload of Series discussion
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It All Started With ...
You know, I've seen this question in another group several weeks ago and I've been stumped ever since. I can't remember what it was.Was it all the ghost stories I read as a child/teen? They were very big back in the 60's & 70's (at least at my library). I just don't remember!
Can't be things like Twilight, Vampire Diaries etc because I haven't read them yet.
Darkfever. They gave it away free on Kindle when I first purchased mine, and I LOVED it. Had it not been free, I would have never bought it, so glad I did!!
It was the Sookies for me. True Blood came out, I watched the first episode and loved it, went and got the books from the library and read them all in less than 2 weeks, then picked back up with the show. :)
I have always been an avid reader but it was mostly horror and mysteries but what started my obsession with all things paranormal was Twilight!!!
I'm with you, Susan. My love started with all things spooky, horror movies (good ones) ROCK! My 1st para-anything book was "Interview with a Vampire" and I devoured Anne Rice's books. And, that was all she wrote, for me on vamps. From there my love grew to include weres & witches with "Sookie", "Rachel Morgan" and "Riley Jenson".
Yeah I read interview after I had read a few others and I didn't love it near as much, so I have not been able to bring myself to read the rest of them, but I hear they are fabulous.....
I don't know how much I'd love them now, after having read SO many since then. But, at the time, hell yeah! My favorites of the series where The Tale of the Body Thief (loved seeing LeStat freak out ... hilarious), Memnoch the Devil (my first book with the devil) and Blackwood Farm (I liked Quin and this was my first witch book). The others were ok. Maybe I'll re-read in the distant future to re-evaluate them.
Maybe I'll see if the library has them ;)
It was a slow decent, first Harry Potter series, then Lord of the Rings series, then the Earthsea series, then it was Twilight, then it was Sookie, and then the Fever series -- after the Fever series I officially recognized that I was a fan of UF and PNR. :)
Kindlelicious wrote: "Darkfever. They gave it away free on Kindle when I first purchased mine, and I LOVED it. Had it not been free, I would have never bought it, so glad I did!!"That is soo cool!
LOL Regina! It is a slippery slope. hehe Once ya start, seems there's no stoppin' it.
Loved all things sci-fi on TV and then someone introduced me to Buffy... At the same time I studied The Bloody Chamber at school (weres & vamps). Later at Uni I walked into a book store and picked up my first proper UF.First UF: Bitten
First PNR: Night Pleasures
First Fantasy (or high fantasy): Kushiel's Dart
Bitten's a great place to start! Love Elena & Clay (actually all the weres in that series). :)
My first was Twilight series, and then Harry Potter, then started the Sookie Stackhouse books and then True Blood and then Vampire Diaries and then got started on Goodreads and everything just went crazy from there...LOL
GoodReads does have a wicked tendency of quickly building your TBR list! No doubt!
my advanced age makes it hard for me to remember... I think I started with the girls; mary stewart, tanya huff, sheri tepper, sharon shinnWe are a big very italian family, when I read stewarts merlin trilogy, I told my mom "I don't belong here, you know". she just agreed with me!
Amy or "Ames" wrote: "Loved all things sci-fi on TV and then someone introduced me to Buffy... At the same time I studied The Bloody Chamber at school (weres & vamps). Later at Uni I walked into a book stor..."never read the bloody chamber, will have to look for it
My first Urban Fantasy book was Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews. They owned my from the famous "Here kitty kitty" :)The first PNR I read was Dark Lover by J.R Ward which started my initial addiction to vampires.
The first para-YA was City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.
Well, from there on, it kind of went downhill. Doesn´t hepl that I seem to be a little obsessiv when it comes to buying books :)
But I guess I am in good company!
It all started with Twilight...I know..
:)
Kelleigh wrote: "It all started with Twilight...I know..
:)"
hehe I'm sure you're not the first and won't be the last person Twilight has pushed towards these genres. :)
Used to read Mary Higgins Clarkand V.C. Andrews way back then and then stopped reading for a long time then Twilight came around and re sparked my love of books and I haven't stopped reading yet.
See, exhibit A ^^ Amber. :) Welcome back to the addiction ... hehe
I started reading a lot last year and I read the Twilight series. Last summer, I read a lot of Kelley Armstrong - Bitten, Stolen etc. Since I joined Goodreads there are so many series that I have fallen in love with - Kate Daniels, Fever, Night Huntress, Sookie Stackhouse, Black Dagger Brotherhood, Chicagoland Vampires....Now there are a lot of series that I have yet to read...
Do I need an intervention?
GR has gotten me hooked on a bunch of new2me series too. That's part of the fun, yah?Nope, no intervention needed. Just hang with us and you'll be in good company. :)
NO intervention need girl.Like I've said before ADDICTS UNITE!!!! MWAHAHAHAHA
Steph me thinks S.O.S domination is a go!!!!HEHE
Anita Blake books. I really like the first 5. They were 80% kick butt story and 20% smoking sexy. (new here!)
Definitely Twilight. I read all of the Anne Rice books when I was in high school and early 20s, but then spent the rest of my 20s reading mysteries and contemporary fiction during. I picked up the Twilight series on a whim and was hooked, and a few years later my bookcase has over 600 books on it. It's an obsession now... =D
Welcome to the group, Sharon! :) I actually have never read Anita Blake.As much as I love military life, the constant moving has definitely hindered my ability to hang onto all my books. Got my favs that I'll never give away though. I'll stuff 'um under the bed if I have to. LOL
I would also say Twilight pushed me into this genre, which is great! I used to love Twilight but since I started reading PNR/UF books, it's really not that great compared to so many other books that I've read.
My first PnR books was a YA book called
Sashana wrote: "it's really not that great compared to so many other books that I've read. ..."Better watch out or the Twilight police will cuff ya for such words. Don't know you that's the be-all, end-all. LOL!! :)
I haven't heard of that one, ☪☠Lizz☠☪.
Steph wrote: "Sashana wrote: "it's really not that great compared to so many other books that I've read. ..."Better watch out or the Twilight police will cuff ya for such words. Don't know you that's the be-a..."
Lol I know, you have to be careful about these Twi-hards because they are CRAZY when it comes to matters of Edward and Jacob.
What I find amusing is how popular it's become to bash the books, or be ashamed to admit that you may have actually enjoyed them. Screw that, I loved them and I'm not a crazy fan girl. ;) I've read books since them that I've liked more, but I'll always have a soft spot for them.
DarkHeart "Vehngeance" wrote: "What I find amusing is how popular it's become to bash the books, or be ashamed to admit that you may have actually enjoyed them. Screw that, I loved them and I'm not a crazy fan girl. ;) I've r..."I wasn't bashing them. I loved Twilight, at one point I was even obsessed. But once I started reading more and more Paranormal Romance books, like Richelle Mead for instance, Twilight just fell off the pedastool that I put it on. But Twilight was the first book that I ever truely LOVED so it'll always have a special place is my heart- and I'm not ashamed to say that. And yes I'm aware that that last sentence was extremely corny :D
Read Interview With the Vampire years ago and was obsessed with Anne Rice books for a while... Then, I quit reading fiction for several years...Came back to the genre (and reading fiction in general) after reading the Twilight series.
FlibBityFLooB wrote: "Read Interview With the Vampire years ago and was obsessed with Anne Rice books for a while... Then, I quit reading fiction for several years...Came back to the genre (and reading fiction in g..."
Everywhere I go on GR I keep hearing about Ann Rice. I will definetly have to read something by her ASAP!
I have always been a fan of science fiction and fantasy since I was a kid. :)
LOL, Sashana, that wasn't directed towards anyone - just an observation about how in general the opinion towards the books seems to have shifted. It happens when anything becomes really popular though. I just find it amusing. :)
DarkHeart "Vehngeance" wrote: "LOL, Sashana, that wasn't directed towards anyone - just an observation about how in general the opinion towards the books seems to have shifted. It happens when anything becomes really popular th..."Oh no problem, I still meant what I said though. And it does happen when things become popular, which I don't get because if you like what you're reading then it shouldn't matter if it's popular or not.
In fact, if something is too popular, I steer clear. I'm forcing myself to read Twilight this month, by putting it into a couple of challenges.
Kelleigh wrote: "It all started with Twilight...
I know..
:)"
Awe, I get some flak for having read the "Twilight" series in such a short time...
I remember reading "The Vampire Diaries" (by L.J. Smith) and "The Last Vampire" (by Christopher Pike) series in my early teens, there was a HUGE gap between then and now, I read all of "Twilight" within a week and that is when I was told to read "Women of the Otherworld".
I know..
:)"
Awe, I get some flak for having read the "Twilight" series in such a short time...
I remember reading "The Vampire Diaries" (by L.J. Smith) and "The Last Vampire" (by Christopher Pike) series in my early teens, there was a HUGE gap between then and now, I read all of "Twilight" within a week and that is when I was told to read "Women of the Otherworld".
DH, I agree with you. I love the series too. I was already into these genres when I read them though. But, what they did do for me is make me more open to reading YA books. I almost put "Twilight" back on the shelf while standing in line at the bookstore b/c it was there that I spotted young adult on the cover. But, I'm glad I stayed in line and gave it a go. Within two days, I had read the next one and was with "the pack" waiting for the third to be released. :)I have noticed that people are banding up to either worship it or balk at it. I think that with the fans becoming so ... fanatical it's frightened off some people that would really enjoy it. Maybe makes them think it's too tweeny for them or they just don't want to be classified as falling in with "the pack". It's sad really, I guess that's part and parcel for having your series become such a phenomenon. Dunno. Although now that I think about it, do series like Harry Potter get the same treatment?
I think both series received a lot of flak for not having the greatest writing quality, but that didn't bother the fans of either.I agree though that the pressure heaped on series that are incredibly popular usually leaves me disappointed. I'm just glad that I picked up Twilight on a whim, and as I was outside the States and never frequented YA sections, I'd never heard of them before, so I didn't have any preconceived notions.
I hadn't heard any of the hype at the time either. I think that helps b/c you go into the book with no expectations.
Sandra wrote: "In fact, if something is too popular, I steer clear..."I do this too. I get disappointed if I don't like it as much as everyone else. I still haven't read Harry Potter, I have little interest in it, and my sister is putting pressure on me. She doesn't read as much as I do and a couple of the books we've both read she's loved and I didn't so it's unlikely I'll love Potter as much as she does.
I read Twilight before I knew it was popular and I really enjoyed it but then I tried to re-read it after it was popular and I couldn't manage it. I was beginning to see what the critics were talking about. I tried New Moon but I couldn't finish, I started to hate Bella & Edward and I fell in love with Jacob.
I think that's why I steer clear, afraid of being disappointed. I will read Twilight this month, I really will. I promise. (Can't not finish a challenge). And I've only just started reading Harry Potter; up to the 5th one. They get better the more into the series you get.
Amy or "Ames" wrote: "Sandra wrote: "In fact, if something is too popular, I steer clear..."
I do this too. I get disappointed if I don't like it as much as everyone else. I still haven't read Harry Potter, I have litt..."
I was in love with Jacob from the get go and Edward and Bella were so self-involved and wishy-washy I had moments where I wanted to bitch slap "smart" back into them.
I can understand why they were written the way they were, we have all had that first love that has made other people thing WTF?! Are you serious? And that love is so passionate and consuming you don't see anyone else. And I have been in that wishy-washy passionate love with a third party standing on the sidelines, needless to say it did not end well for ANYONE!
It is still written poorly and yet when you read them for the first time you don't notice those little quirks. However, when I read Breaking Dawn I was shocked! with the vivid sexuality, the YA books I read of this genere (when I was YA) were NOT that sexualy implicit! Even Marked I had to put down because I can't read a YA book that sexsually graphic! should have been marketed for an older market... 18+!! yikes! What is this world coming too?
Okay, I am done with my soap box... (nervous) lol
I do this too. I get disappointed if I don't like it as much as everyone else. I still haven't read Harry Potter, I have litt..."
I was in love with Jacob from the get go and Edward and Bella were so self-involved and wishy-washy I had moments where I wanted to bitch slap "smart" back into them.
I can understand why they were written the way they were, we have all had that first love that has made other people thing WTF?! Are you serious? And that love is so passionate and consuming you don't see anyone else. And I have been in that wishy-washy passionate love with a third party standing on the sidelines, needless to say it did not end well for ANYONE!
It is still written poorly and yet when you read them for the first time you don't notice those little quirks. However, when I read Breaking Dawn I was shocked! with the vivid sexuality, the YA books I read of this genere (when I was YA) were NOT that sexualy implicit! Even Marked I had to put down because I can't read a YA book that sexsually graphic! should have been marketed for an older market... 18+!! yikes! What is this world coming too?
Okay, I am done with my soap box... (nervous) lol
SOS: Serious Overload of Series
Books mentioned in this topic
Carbonel (other topics)Moondust and Madness (other topics)
The Silver Kiss (other topics)
Dead Until Dark (other topics)
Interview with the Vampire (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Mary Higgins Clark (other topics)Charlaine Harris (other topics)
Anne Rice (other topics)
Ilona Andrews (other topics)
Anne Rice (other topics)
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Which book(s) started your love of PNR and/or UF?