How Long Have You Been A Fan?

[snickerers]

I read The Hedge Knight when the hardcover of the Legends anthology came out and loved it. So I walked down the block to the library and borrowed AGOT. After finishing it I got online to look for info and found the predecessor of these forums. I specifically remember people discussing ACOK and wondered how the hell they were able to do that when it wasn't released yet. :shocked: Well, it wasn't released in the US yet at least. When it finally was released, I read it and reread the series 5 or 6 times before ASOS came out. For ASOS I orderd from amazon.uk to get it months earlier than I otherwise would have. :thumbsup: After ASOS time seemed to drag on and before I knew it 5 years had passed and AFFC came out. I foolishly believe the optimistic prediction that next book would be out in about a year. :owned:

In preparation for the show and ADWD I began my latest reread a couple weeks ago. I also ordered HBO and pimped the show to my brother, sister, and brother-in-law. I felt immense satisfaction when my sister asked, "So does the show always air on Sundays?" :thumbsup: This was from the woman who would often roll her eyes at me when she saw me reading any sort of fantasy.

[trickster]

Not sure of the exact year; I was a grad student when I read GoT. I had to wait for the Clash of Kings to get published; so been a fan for more than a decade.

July 12 plans: will hound the local borders from the 10th to make sure they have it on the 12th; taking leave from work to finish it that day. Will reread the 4 books in the next couple of months.

[The Sand Snake]

I've been a fan since right before Feast was released. The wait for that one wasnt fun and the wait for ADWD has been horrrrrible.

So on the 12th I'm gonna call off work, lay in my bed and read all day long. Until it's finished. I think it should only take me 3 or 4 days. I cant wait.

[lareplus]

Lady Sansa, if I had land and a castle I'd marry you.

I have read the first three books three times each and AFFC twice, starting just after the first book was released.

I would like to read them again, but I don't want too.

Do you know what I mean?

[Tears of Lys]

I started on the series just prior to FFC's release. I had read a review of the series and it sounded good, but it took me a while to pick up the first book. BAM! Rabid fan.

A reread is a must every so often, although since I've discovered other fantasy writers like Bakker, Rothfuss, Abraham, et al., I admit to not rereading aSoIaF as often. But it'll always hold a special place in my heart and mind.

When aDwD comes out, I probably won't read it the first day. I may want to savor it for a while, since I know any follow-ups will be a long time coming.

Oh, who am I kidding. I'll rip through it in one day.

[Greg]

I have been a fan since I read AGOT in 1997. I have been a Board Member since EZboard(Dec 2000 member 443).

[mashiara]

I first found the series in 2001.I had to practically force my -now husband, then new overseas boyfriend- to read it, he already owned 2 copies of the first book and he'd never bothered to read more than a couple of pages. I've read the series 3-4 times by now and I'll be doing a reread before ADWD comes out. I found the old board a couple of years later and I was checking in periodically, never bothering to register until 2007.

What I'll be doing on July 12th? Checking the board and trying to control myself so I don't read any spoilers, since my copy of the book won't be here for a few days. As soon I get it though, I'll be reading non-stop and it won't take more than a day or two.

[hero on the other side]

I'm going on three years.

Used to go through my public library's audio book section. Looking for books to listen too while I'm at work. Never got too many books that I could "get" too into since I was half paying attention to the book and half on the job at hand. I also grabbed audio books that were long to better pass the time. So I had picked up Storm of Swords (the only GoT book on tape, yes on cassettes) box because it was huge with all the cassette tapes several times and looked it over. I was a fantasy snob. I only could be bothered to read top notch stuff. And I didn't know anything about GrrM (other than I loved The Beauty and the Beast tv show) and I knew it was the third book so I passed on it.

Anyway,I finally grabbed it figuring it wouldn't matter one way or the other just something to kinda pass the time with at work. Put in the first tape and BLAMMO there I was with Chett and the hounds at the Fist of the First Men. I didn't know what was going on but I was hooked.

A lot of it had to do with Roy Dotrice's voice work on the tapes. The man is a talent beyond reason. Every character from the main characters all the way to the small bit players had a distinct voice. To this day I still here his version of Tyrion when I read the books.

[EvilClosetMonkey]

I've been a fan since a friend told me about the series in mid-2003. It was my first summer after college and I didn't have a job yet so I plowed through the first three books. I've been semi-patiently waiting for the rest of the story ever since. I will be reading Dance on July 12th, already put in for time off from work :read:

[LacyinTX]

I picked up AGOT when it first came out in hard back in 1996 and started hanging around the boards in 1997. Dang... 15 years.

[amore]

I read AGoT in 1997. Was browsing through an airport bookshop getting some reading material for a holiday and though it looked good. Read it on just over a day lying on a beach in Morocco and have been hooked ever since. Had been a Tolkien fan for many years and have always read loads of fantasy but had become very disillusioned with the genre. But then Mr Martin came along and gave me something to get excited about again.

Never really considered myself a fan though until recently. Mostly because other than constantly recommending the book to friends I've never really encountered other fans to discuss it with. The concept (or existence) of online forums having only become apparent to me a few months ago.

But absolutely cannot wait for July 12th, the last five years have been torture!

[Ferrum Aeternum]

Bought the first three books in paperback on the recommendation of a friend during the summer of 2004, finished those within a few months and read AFFC as soon as it was released. I've since reread twice and am currently working on a third reread (nearly done with AGOT). Needless to say, I am a huge fan and have gotten no less than 4 other people (my older sister included) into reading the books as well.

I plan on taking a vacation from my job during ADWD week so I can devote plenty of time to the book and hopefully finish it within a week. I tend to take my time while reading, but this is a special case!

[Glow]

...since a friend brought me the books somewhen after I was diagnosed ESKD, after 2002. I ran out of books (of good books, those where long time finished) and I only had Dragonlance at hand: my friend saved my life I think, it was like well, there's hope I'll read good stuff again :D

In a way I don't regret finding them so late, I read the books from cover to cover, non stop, and last time that happen with a book so huge (and in a foreign language) I was about to turn into a teenager and got It from Stephen King. It was good to feel it was worth to stay awake all night again (and if I have had all three books together the first night I would have gone nuts trying to read them right away, so my friend was brilliant giving them to me one at the time).

I didn't have the chance to reread the books, so I'm waiting for them to arrive (maybe next week) that way I can take a second look at them, cause I'm sure now I'll get some facts from a different point of view (maybe because I'm a lot more lively right now). The only series book I remember reading that fast was LOTR, which was my best book ever for years (and got me to learn some english to get the original taste of the writing, and that was a titanic task as many teachers couldn't get right half of the words, far worse than reading A Midsummer Night's Dream with no dictionary around).

[shadow catlady]

I first read these books on a recommendation from a childhood friend in December 2007. It was a lovely January hibernation till I finished them. I read them twice through mostly from the library, except for AGoT which I'd taken from a mutual friend who didn't ever get into the first guy's recommendation. (He knows I have it, but maybe not that I plan to keep it.) I found this forum during that second re-read, and got the rest of the books during my re-read, so I could look up stuff that members were referencing. I read these a third time and tried to do a back-to-back fourth re-read but got distracted by other books. I still plan on that fourth re-read before July 12th.

I am thankful I didn't have to live through that AFfC wait but am willing to do as many more as it takes, even if GRRM splits another title down the road. Today I reserved a copy at a bookstore in the next town over so I will supposedly not have to camp out all night. The customer service woman was young and adorable with dark-framed glasses and long dark hair and has been waiting since before AFfC. She is also very excited for July 12th; I hope the rest of you fans find such friendly support in your quest for the next book!

So I am driving back to the island after I get the book and hopefully will make it safely despite my habit of reading at stoplights. It would be disappointing to die before I find out what happens next. I'll read it on the beach if it's sunny, indoors if it isn't.

I haven't decided if I'll skip my Tuesday morning yoga class or not.

[shadow catlady]

Please dont read and drive. Especially not on that day.

Consider yourself warned. seriously.

Yes, I am taking this seriously. Perhaps if I put the book in my trunk I can do it.

[Lady Alyana Hightower]

I met my boyfriend just back in September of 2010 and one of the first things we did was start recommending our favorite books to each other. Sometime in late October I started reading AGOT and I'm now almost halfway through AFFC. (Been reading slower than I normally would to facilitate lots of conversation with him along the way, as well as him reading his favorite chapters TO me.) So I've only been a fan for scant few months, but I am heavily addicted!

[Ghosts Companion]

Started reading the actual series in late 90's. My mom sent me the book when I was pregnant with my first daughter.

Some of his other stuff earlier.

[Werthead]

I first encountered GRRM's name in 1989 or 1990 in the pages of TV Zone magazine (despite the generic title, they mostly covered cult, SF and fantasy shows). They were big fans of Beauty and the Beast and ran reviews and articles of the show, noting that GRRM was one of its better-regarded writers. They also covered the controversy surrounding the final season (the death of a major character and the resulting fan apoplexy), which I was aware of since my mum was a fan of the show and wasn't happy with the bloody ending either.

He cropped up again during my fandom of Babylon 5 during its original run (1993-1998). J. Michael Straczynski mentioned GRRM several times as a writer he admired, most notably in a long essay in Foundation magazine where he named Martin and Melinda Snodgrass as fine examples of SF writers who were also scriptwriters rather than the other way around, and suggested that TV SF would be better off if more SF writers wrote for television, rather than leaving it to writers who didn't understand the genre. My whole class was then talking about the first episode of The Outer Limits, which adapted Sandkings (though the episode is quite different from the short story), when it aired in 1996, since it had been heavily trailed.

So I was aware of the name when I picked up a promotional booklet Voyager released for A Game of Thrones in early 1996. I flipped throgh a few pages, thought it sounded interesting, and decided to wait for the book to come out. And when it did, it got fairly roundly slagged off in the British genre press, so I didn't get it. By the time A Clash of Kings came out, a lot of people were talking about how great the series was, so I finally took the plunge and bought the first two books in paperback in the summer of 1999. Really enjoyed them, picked up A Storm of Swords in the first week of August 2000, just after it came out, and then promptly had a five-year wait for AFFC. And now a six-year one for ADWD. I'm a glutton for punishment :)

[Mike]

Christmas day, 1997. I bought it for my sister as a present, and then asked her if she wasn't going to read it immediately...

I finished it in just over 24 hours in a marathon I will never match, and by the end I was hooked so much that I read pretty much every other fantasy book on the shelf waiting for Clash to come out.

I joined the boards sometime early in '98. I think I just missed Dragonstone because the eesite board didn't have too many members on it at the time.

[Ellroy]

I readed Fevre Dream at the beginning of the '90s. It was one ofthe best vampire stories I've ever read. I was really in to the genre because of the Masquerade RPG. But I was not a fan of GRRM at the time and I do not even know that he was involved in Beauty and the Beast, while actually loving the series. I remember buying AGoT when translated in italian (1999-2000) not because it was a book of GRRM or because it was fantasy: I was really disillusioned with the genre at the times. But a friend of mine used the setting for a short RPG story and I really liked the world and its charachters. I admit that I was skeptical before I begin to read the book because the italian artwork seems silly and I feared it to be another Lotr clone. But as soon as I begun to read the book I loved it and at the end of AGoT I became what you would call a fan. I re-read the complete series in english, I read each of George's books (translated or not: I think that Armageddon Rag is really a gem!) and now I consider ASoiAf the best fantasy series ever (maybe, the best genre fiction ever). Yes, even better than LoTR and all the other classics.