Your fantasy/sci-fi progession

[Muttering Bill]

Started with the Chronicles of Prydain at around 8 or 9. I liked the books, but didn't really like reading, so I only made it throught the first 3. I tried The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at some point but hated it.

Fast forward to high school, I had a book report that I'd left for the last minute, and grabbed Asimov's Nightfall from my fathers bookshelf. I loved it, but I also had to read some bad books for class that turned me off again. Then in senior year (1996-1997) we got to pick our own books every time. I read Stranger in a Strange Land, also for a book report. By that point I had realized that I did like reading, I just have trouble starting books. So to cure that I went looking for a series. And stumbled on Foundation in the school library (they didn't have much by way of sci-fi, and that's what I was after at the time). Read through those, and then a few other Asimov books.

Fantasy kicked in when my sister loaned me Salvatore's Icewind Dale Trilogy. Followed that up with the Dark Elf Trilogy, but lost interest somewhere in the 2nd book. Found the Deathgate Cycle at the library, and read through those, but was getting bored with the last 2. Then I found A Crown of Swords, thought the cover looked cool (hey, I was 16, cut me some slack), and went on to read all of WoT (up to ACoS, as it was the most recent). Soon after that I had recommended to me "the big new thing, and most awesomest book ever" (paraphrasing, of course) A Game of Thrones.

From there my fantasy addiction took hold, and sci-fi completey forgotten until a couple of years ago when I read Anathem and my interest rekindled. Went on to read Dune, Starship Troopers and some of Stephenson's other books. But I'm still sort of hesitantly exploring the genre.

[Jojen]

I forgot to mention Fred Saberhagen's Swords books, which I read in high school/college.

AND I forgot to mention Fritz Leiber! I loved his Lankhmar books, but only recently got around to reading them.