It All Started With ...

[Samantha]

Ender's Game, my uncle gave me a copy when I was 10 and that was the first book to catch my attention and make me read, then it was The Stand, I realized I could read even the big daunting books, then Interview the movie came out and it was on to the Queen of the Vampires Anne Rice, now I think the only books I haven't read or shelved for later are the Twilight series.

[Elaine]

For me, it was either Anne Rice Interview with the Vampire or Charlaine Harris Dead Until Dark, I can't remember who I read first. The books that really got me into reading was the Harry Potter series, which I read when I was in school.

[Tiffany]

I don't think I can pinpoint the beginning of my love for the genres. I started reading horror novels at the ripe old age of 7 when I read an R.L. Stine book in day. I stuck with horror for quite some time, reading something else only when the "old" librarian was working and wouldn't let me check out the gory goodness. I remember her once telling me that little girls should be reading about puppies and ponies and pigtails. Not able to come up with any suitable alliteration myself, I told her that I liked to read about people dying. Pretty sure she thought I was possessed after that.

When I got to high school, I started reading romance and fell in love with Nora Roberts. My mom owns every book that Nora has ever published so I had plenty of material to keep me busy for awhile. Several of Nora's books have paranormal elements to them and I discovered that those were the stories that I liked the most. After that I looked for books with similar story lines and the rest is history!

[MaWhit]

Mercy Thompson, most likely.

[Peridot_Lyoness]

I seriously cannot remember ya'll. I read Anne Rice, but I think my love for the paranormal started way before.... as a kid, I always liked fantastic stories about witches and fairies and knights and dragons. I guess I've been a lifelong paranormal reader.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Well put Peridot_Lyoness, that is my excuse as well. No specific book or author, but I started reading pixies & fairies & dragons when I was very young.

[[deleted user]]

It all started with Harry Potter, Dark Jewel Trilogy, and Harry Dresden

[BareThoughts]

Fantasy has always been my main genre, although I enjoyed others. But, I resisted UF, not wanting to mix the realms of magic and swords with the modern world. Which is actually weird as I did read Anne Rice, Stephan King, and Dean Koontz but then, they are not really considered UF. Basically my reading of books set in the modern world were thrillers and mysteries (a few horror added to that) with, at the most a touch of physic abilities in some books.

Fantasy either in other worlds without much or any tech or our world before tech were my mainstay. However, many of the authors I liked were branching into UF. A couple of people on the Amazon boards convinced me to try UF, and I started with Patrica Brigg's Apha and Omega (since she was one whose fantasy books I loved - I still want sequels of a few of her fantasy books).

been reading and enjoying UF and PRN since then.

[Amelia]

For me it was pretty much playing Vampire: the Masquerade (1st edition, so old) at university. I got hooked on the whole hidden-supernatural-world-in-modern-setting shebang, and gravitated toward books with that theme.

[Melanie]

Amber wrote: "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..."

I read Mary Higgins Clark and Virginia Andrews too then went off reading that sort of book until I got my Kindle and discovered C J Archer. Now I'm hooked again.

[AlyssReads]

For me, my love of paranormals probably started with Anne Rice: Interview with a Vampire and The Mayfair Witches. My PNRomance addiction started with Christine Feehan's Carpathians. My UF with Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series.

[Nerdy Werewolf]

AlyssReads wrote: "For me, my love of paranormals probably started with Anne Rice: Interview with a Vampire and The Mayfair Witches. My PNRomance addiction started with Christine Feehan's Carpathians. My UF with Nali..."

I just read over half of the Psy-Changeling series last year. What a wonderful world.

[Danielle Book Boss]

My first sci-fi romance was by Janelle Taylor - an old school bodice ripper type: Moondust and Madness - I found it in my mother's closet when I was about 14. Then I moved to time travel romance with Johanna Lindsey and Karen Moning.

My first PNR with a vampire when I was about 12 was one I found randomly in the library at school: The Silver Kiss

And my first PNR (with adults) was the Dark Hunter series.

[kittykat AKA Ms. Tortitude]

How have I never seen this thread before?

I read some of the Narnia books when I was a kid, and I remember being totally entranced with when I was really young. I don't remember much other fantasy of any type as I was addicted to boarding school stories for much of my childhood, and then at around 12/13 turned to some really adult stuff including Jackie Collins and similar types of stories!

I started with fantasy as an adult a couple of times I think; first with Anne Rice, Interview With The Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and the great saga that is The Queen Of The Damned. The rest of the Chronicles came later. But then it was the magnificence of The Witching Hour, which (excuse the double pun) totally bewitched me and I've read three times now I think.

I had time out for Eragon which I demolished as I loved it that much, well the first two anyway.

Then later came all the Ellora's Cave/Samhain Publishing erotic romance stuff which included loads of vampires and witches and some werewolves and other types of shifters and this lead into my current iteration where either Mercy Thompson or Sisters of the Moon/Otherworld was my first foray into the strictly UF category. My series count is not a high some folks though as I now tend to wait to read a series once it's complete. I discovered when I read Mercy Thompson, Sisters of the Moon and Night Huntress and after being left floundering after a certain number of books (not really!) that all this waiting in between books isn't really for me (IKR! I sound idiotic, but it's how I feel lol!) which is now why I tend to wait for most series conclusion and then binge them.

This year the plan is to try out some more High Fantasy as some of the series sound so good and I've close to Zero experience with it.