What got you in to reading fantasy books?

[Masquanade]

When I was growing up I always enjoyed the fantasy stories to the regular ones. I loved magical and mystical things, I was enchanted. It took me a while to actually started reading (I actually had a hard time learning to read), but I do remember around 4th grade I started reading R.L. Stein's Ghost on Fear Street young adult series. Gradually through my own self exploration and recommendations from friends I would pick up fantasy books in the young adult section.

In 8th grade I picked up The Hobbit because we had to do this accelerated reading program, and my friend recommended it. From there my eldest brother, who's a fantasy geek, recommended that I read the Lord of the Rings series. From then on he would give me his old books that he had previously read. He has great taste in books, and I've never been disappointed. He really helped me get into those epic fantasy books. I eventually from that point went to branch out to other fantasy books on my own (like Harry Potter and fantasy romance).  

[Avi_Veneficus]

I have always been into the unknown abyss of fantasy... It has always appealed to me in many ways... It is an escape from the horrendous world around us yet it is important that we as fantasy readers learn to pull ourselves back... We need that usual dunk of reality!  

[flaming ember 123]

1: i like the genre because of the endless stories and endless elements of it. i mean you could do anything anywhere anytime with this genre.
2: the reason it is hard to find a good fantasy book is because of the elements and because everyone has different prefrences and authors must make books that every type of people will like. if they only made one type of book they would only sell to one type of person, but if they widen their range they make more money. when they widen the range the quality of the original topic gets down-graded. that is why it is so hard to find a book to your prefrence, it is because of the factor of money in the world. cool  

[arugala]

A mix of Harry Potter and Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. My dad used to read to me and I started to read them myself.  

[Eragon-12015]

I started to read fantasy in third grade when I picked up The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I loved it so much that I had to finish the series. After I finished the series I kept reading and reading more and more fantasy books. I love them so much and I don't know what the world would do without them.  

[coolwickedz]

A book got me interested. (:

 

[g-bearbabe]

I was always surrounded by books so it just a matter of choosing what was on the shelves. My Mom read Mysteries (Agatha Christie) and my Dad read Fantasy (Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman). However I wasn't allowed to touch those until I was a teenager. My family saw my strong interest in books though and helped me along.

For my 8th birthday my Godfather gave me the Chronicles of Narnia series. I think I read them in about 3 months. For an 8 y/o that's pretty quick, and after that I was hooked on Fantasy. However there just wasn't as much children's fantasy that I would have been interested in until I was in the 6th grade. That's when I read the Song of the Lioness Quartet and fell in love with the female heroine idea and the strong role model concept. It was all down here from there, xd

People have asked me how many books I've read, and honestly I couldn't tell you. I know I lived in the library as a teenager and devoured everything in sight. My personal library has over 300 books not including my children's books. I know it's some where in the thousands and I hope to keep it climbing for the rest of my life.  

[GhanimaOfArrakis]

My parents read to me when I was very young, and one of the first series that we read when I was four or five was The Chronicles of Narnia, which started my interest in fantasy.

A few years later I was reading a variety of books, but grew especially captivated with the Animorphs series and after that began to read more science fiction & fantasy - the genres are together in most book stores, so if you like reading one you probably end up finding and buying novels from both genres.

Currently I collect novels, especially science fiction, fantasy, and classic literature. My library has between three and four thousand books and is growing every week! (I don't think my parents realized how expensive my hobby would become.) mrgreen  

[pkmn1995]

i've been a bookworm since grade 4. i read random books at that time,just as long as there's adventure in it. but since grade5 or 6 i suddenly got interested in fantasy books. my parents aren't bookworms.(well except my mom a little but she loved nancy drew and stuff)they don't even read to me except those nursery rhyme ones when i was really young.so i'm the only one in the family who likes fantasy and who is a total bookworm.

my little sister is sort of a bookworm herself but she reads random books.

i even sort of dragged one of my friends into liking books but she reads randomly too.  

[bumbbles10]

I really got into Fantasy during Middle School. Unless the Magic Tree house books are counted under Fantasy, cuz then it was elemtary school. Any who, I started reading The Daughters Of The Moon. I really loved it, then I moved on to just any type of book, before settling on vampires, which I LOVE reading now. I totally understand the searching for GOOD fantasy novels..I've definetely read my share of horrible fantasy. I takes my like an hour in the book store before I settle on a book....  

[Merriara]

I started reading fantasy when I was in the 4th or 5th grade. But I really got into it when I was in 6th grade when my brother (who is a year ahead of me) had a teacher who lent him a TON of fantasy books. I stole them out of his room and read them all! rofl My favorite authors are Mercedes Lackey, Terry Brooks, Tamora Pierce, JK Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, and lots more! I am currently waiting for The Host to by Stepheie Meyer to come in and for Breaking Dawn by the same author. heart  

[Azaveil]

I used to be a a big mystery buff. When my grandmother was moving, we ended up with a box of old books that she thought were my dad's. Inside the box was David Eddings' "The Belgariad". I absorbed the series instantly and spent an entire summer reading it over and over. The box also contained the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. After that, I started hitting the library's sci-fi/fantasy section and reading everything I could get my hands on.  

[Foolish Catalyst]

I've always liked fantasy, since I was a kid reading the Mr. Majieka series, but what really got me into it as a genre was probably...

I dunno.

I could say Harry Potter, but I don't really think I've ever properly thought of it as fantasy, for some reason.
So then probably The Amulet of Samarkand. Or the Hobbit.
My mother bought me both of them, which is funny 'cause she detests fantasy!.
Anyway, I was about eleven or twelve, and I've been hooked since!