What first got you into the YW series?

[estar9821]

This is such a cool thread. It's neat to hear how everyone discovered this gem of a book series.
I'm currently in the process of trying to get all my friends to read SYWTBAW and posting stuff about it on my school's book blog.

[Tobiasscrabble]

Well

Me I first read the book while hiding in a my friends library ironicly enough but forgot it til I was twelve when I read it again I felt good I had been beaten up that day

[Tensai24]

Memories...

I started reading this series when I found the first book in my English class in Junior High, right around when I was about Kit & Nita's age (a little younger). I was very shy, a bookworm, and a bit of a misfit, and I always admired Nita's spunk (which I lacked). I loved the series, and one time got so into reading one of the books that the entire class of almost 30 tweens thundered out at the end of the day without my noticing until the teacher turned off the light to leave, not having noticed me curled up in the corner with my book. =) She later gave me a copy that contained books 1-5 in it that I still have a treasure to this day.

I am now a freshman in college, and I still love these books. I have stopped being quiet, but I'm still a proud bookworm, and not above borrowing the entire series from the local library to read as a celebration of having finished my first semester. =D

One line that I found highly amusing upon a re-reading of SYWTBAW was:

"Stick to those instructions," Carl said. "Don't be tempted to improvise. That claudication is the oldest one in New York, and it's the trickiest because of all the people using it all of the time. One false syllable in a spell and you may wind up in Schenectady."

(Is that another world?) Fred asked.

"Nearly." Carl laughed.

Now, this may not seem funny to you. I grew up in San Francisco. I now go to college at Cornell University (in Ithaca, New York). Ithaca is what you might call "rural". Over fall break, I didn't have time to go home so I drove to Boston to visit a friend going to school there. On the way home we got a little turned around and passed a sign for "Schenectady". I couldn't for the life of me remember why that sounded familiar. Not two months later, I found out by accident. I go to college not far from somewhere that is "nearly another world".

I think the real beauty of these books is that there is something in them for people of all ages. I identify as much with the characters now as I did when I was 11. Also, since first having read the series, I have taken Bio, Chem, Physics, and Astronomy (including Cosmology and and introduction to Genreal Relativity), and I am amazed at how well tought out and researched the magic in this series is. Truly, it is my favorite rendition of magic of any series I have ever read because of its fascinating overlap with true (and relatively complex) scientific principles. I applaud Ms. Duane for her extensive creativity, intelligence, and research.

[EbonyGirl45]

How'd you get into YW?

How did you find out? Did you hear about them from someone, or just see it in the library, or, perhaps, were you running away from some bullies and hid in a library and it snagged your hand?

For me, both my brothers read all the books and then recommended them to me. Although, that was a while ago - they probably haven't read the newest few. Hmmm...
Anyway, share your stories!

[Trialia]

I'm pretty sure I've already replied to a thread on this subject...

I was introduced to YW by a friend from Washington D.C., after we found we had similar tastes in fantasy reading and she realised that I'd never heard of DD. Went on from there, and in fact, discovered Lois McMaster Bujold through the same friend, and she and DD are two of my favourite authors now. This was about 18 months before Wizards at War came out, so nearly seven years ago now.

[Wizardprincess]

i saw them in my brothers room and read them i read most of the series from the library though

[SilveredBlue]

Hmm....I think I had a discussion about this, somewhere...

I was eight when I first saw SYWTBAW in the library- the one with the blue cover, the much-discussed one in another thread- and I was really interested. But it was a thick little book, and I forgot about it for a while. Finally, I worked up the courage to get it out and read it...about a year later. I didn't know there was sequels until a year after THAT- somehow mine didn't include a DW teaser- and read the original trilogy. (I remember sitting in the car, hugging DW because I was so excited to read it )

and then, three years after I first saw SYWTBAW, I finally read the whole series, and have been re-reading them over and over and over and...well, you get the picture.

Wooo! I can't wait for AWoM, since it's the one YW book I haven't read 60 times!

...uh, yet.

[Lazy Leopard]

Hmm....I think I had a discussion about this, somewhere...

There's this thread, which has a slight twist on the matter, and this one, which is near enough identical.

[Kathy Li]

Thanks, Rick, I've merged the threads. Tremble before my awesome admin powers.

[SilveredBlue]

*trembles*

Hey, wait a minute, that was a one-liner! Bad admin. *hides*

Wait, what were we talking about?
Oh darn, I already contributed to this post. What can I say....? Okay, I'll talk about my little sister's discovery of YW.

Actually it wasn't a discovery. I first blackmailed her into listening to me read YW out loud, a few years ago...I forget quite how, but it was a feat. So I read her an abridged version of the first five, in about 2 months total. My gnaester has never been the same, but it was worth it to convert someone else, even if their conversion was only partway.

Oh, abridged= hard words simplified, and a few scenes made less bloody, frightening, etc. It's amazing what changing a few words can do. For example, Ed merely bit the giant snake- his teeth remained intact, rather than blasted away, and his discussion of the gruesome details of eating a whale was boiled down to "You'd feel no pain, Sprat. I would eat you quickly." She was a tad squeamish, as you can probably tell.

[nita13579]

Well, I discovered SYWTBAW in a bookstore. I was looking for another book to read, and it just happened to catch my eye. ( Also, you know that feeling you get when someone is staring at you? Thats what it felt like every time I passed that book in the bookstore. Took my a while to finally pick it up.) I went to read the back cover, and it sounded amazing, all the magic and wizardry, so i thought i would read it. I couldn't stop reading ever since the first page. I think the YW series is one of the best series I have ever read. I am still waiting for AWoM. I have it marked on my calender!

[araine]

I'm pretty sure that I discovered the series during one of my many childhood trips to the local bookstore. It was during that phase of my life when anything with the word "wizard" in the title grabbed my attention, so I picked it up and was a quarter of the way through the book before we even left.

When I found out that it was a series, I had to get the next one (demanding kid that I was). We had the hardest time finding High Wizardry in either the bookstore or the local library, so I remember getting the audiobook version. It was how I learned to pronounce Dairine's name.

I recently got back into the series during a reread of my young adult book collection during the final years of high school, when I found that I didn't have any time to read heavy adult books. When I went back, I remembered how much I loved them, and have not looked back since.

[96bookworms]

My story really isn't that interesting, but still.....

I was randomly looking for books in either Barnes and Noble of Borders.....I think it was Borders. Anyways, there I was, and a random girl came up to me and said something along the lines of: "Oh, do you like that series?" to which I replied "yeah...I really like it" then she said " If you like that series you might like the Young Wizards Series." that's about it.....i found the first book, read the blurb about it, and decided hey, why not? If i'm remembering correctly, I think I also got the book The Divide that day...

I got deep wizardry and high wizardry from my aunt for my birthday a while later...

[FocusPunch]

Nice thread!

I was in middle school, and I was always looking for new books at my local library. I would grab any that sounded interesting. I grabbed... I think Wizard's Dilemma. Wouldn't it be epic if I grabbed SYWTBAW for my first read? But no, I grabbed it and skimmed it. Then I read it. And then I read the books horribly out of order, and took a big liking to them .