# How did you discover your favorite authors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-discover-your-favorite-authors/486020 "2009-02-16T01:45:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-discover-your-favorite-authors/486020/21 "2009-02-16T15:21:50Z")
> [@Mrs.Cake](#): > > A lot of my early ones came from my parents. When I was about 9, the San Diego Library decided to unload a metric buttload of books, literally setting them out in cardboard boxes for people to take. Dad came home with a station wagon full of books, some of which turned out to be quite valuable. I had stacks of Victorian books to play with, so that is how I discovered Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and a slew of others. > > Dad also gave me a copy of The Hobbit when I was ten. > > Most others I found by accident - Barbara Peters at a thrift store when I picked up _Curse of the Pharoahs_, Charlotte McLeod at the library with _Something in the Water_, Terry Pratchett by randomly picking up _The Light Fantastic_ with a Walden’s gift certificate. I’m re-reading a couple of McLeod’s right now. I finished “Rest You Merry” and I’m in the middle of “Wrack and Rune”. As good as I remembered. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-discover-your-favorite-authors/486020/22 "2009-02-16T15:40:45Z")
This place. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-discover-your-favorite-authors/486020/23 "2009-02-16T16:30:07Z")
I discovered Patrick O’Brian after watching the movie _Master and Commander: Far Side of the World._ I found Heinlein on my dad’s bookshelf when I was a kid. My mother introduced me to James Herriot, Dorothy Sayers and Georgette Heyer. I don’t remember how I discovered Diana Gabaldon or Sharon Kay Penman. The SDMB directed me to George R. R. Martin, Lois McMaster Bujold and Neal Stephenson. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-discover-your-favorite-authors/486020/24 "2009-02-16T16:31:25Z")
I got my first Robert Heinlein novel (_Glory Road_) as a birthday present. My junior high school library had large collections of both Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton. My older brother had a large collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs. When he went away to college (he was 11 years older than me) I started reading the books he left behind. Playing D&D got me into J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard. A reference to _Ringworld_ in a Traveller game got me started with Larry Niven. The movie _The Hunt for Red October_ started me with Clancy. ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-discover-your-favorite-authors/486020/25 "2009-02-16T17:38:45Z")
Apparently, I discover a lot of authors through movies and tv. - Tolkien through the Rankin-Bass animated Lord of the Rings; - John Irving through the movie version of The World According to Garp; - Roddy Doyle through the movie version of The Commitments; - Umberto Eco through the movie version of The Name of the Rose; and - Arturo Perez-Reverte through the movie The Ninth Gate. I never really noticed that before. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-discover-your-favorite-authors/486020/26 "2009-02-16T18:25:39Z")
I was 13 or 14 and just starting to develop an interest in science fiction. My mom brought me some books from the library one day, including a “young reader” sci-fi novel titled “Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury” by some guy named Paul French. I enjoyed it and ended up reading several books in the series, and soon discovered that Paul French was the pseudonym of some guy named Isaac Asimov. I ended up reading nearly every piece of fiction Asimov ever wrote. I think a handful of his “Black Widowers” collections are all I’ve missed. In my late teens/early 20s I got into mysteries, and discovered H.R.F. Keating (Inspector Ghote series), Georges Simenon (Inspector Maigret series), and Lawrence Block (the Bernie Rhodenbarr “Burglar” books) by browsing the “mystery” section at the library. My best friend gave me a copy of Tad Williams’ “War of the Flowers”, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Most recently, I’ve got y’all here to thank for prompting me to investigate Terry Pratchett. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-discover-your-favorite-authors/486020/27 "2009-02-16T18:40:49Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > In my late teens/early 20s I got into mysteries, and discovered H.R.F. Keating (Inspector Ghote series) Inspector Ghote! I haven’t thought of those books in a while. I wonder if I still have some. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-discover-your-favorite-authors/486020/28 "2009-02-16T18:46:17Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Inspector Ghote! I haven’t thought of those books in a while. I wonder if I still have some. Trivia tidbit: around the time I was reading those, my church youth group visited a guy who was a retired missionary to India — he spent a few decades there — and I got to ask him how to properly pronounce “Ghote”. “HO-tay”, but with a gutteral, back-of-the-throat sound on the first syllable. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-discover-your-favorite-authors/486020/29 "2009-02-16T18:46:26Z")
My brother started me on my love of SciFi when i was just 12. He would send home boxes of paperbacks from his Navy ship every couple of months and my mother let me steal books out of it (probably just to shut me up. I can be relentless if I know there’s a book I haven’t read in the house.) From that I discovered quite a few of my favorite SciFi/Fantasy authors. English Lit class introduced me to Hardy and Austen. I stumbled upon Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, and Joyce Carol Oats myself. A friend recommended Pratchett. My mother gave me my first L. M. Montgomery and Frances Hodgson Burnett I have eclectic tastes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-discover-your-favorite-authors/486020.md?page=1)