Here is my somewhat long story.

I was 14 when I found it in a christian bookstore (a bad joke would be they were only selling it the way people in the middle east sell American flags). Well it could have been a regular store with some christian stuff in it. I'm not sure. Either way I bought it and devoured it in seclusion. Before that I had read The Artificial War (even though I haven't read Ender's Game, I am sure TAW was a rip-off of it) and some lit fiction about an over weight kid's coming of age, where he works on this estate mowing grass and losing weight (I never did return that to the school library and it's around here somewhere).

Anyway after HP, I had to get the other books in the series. Once I made my way through them, I wanted more fantasy. I remember searching amazon for some good reads, ignoring Wheel of Time because I thought it actually had something to do with a huge 'wheel of time' that they made a long and boring journey to. So instead I bought A Game of Thrones, and yeah. Not exactly a book to read when you are just starting out in the fantasy world. It was amazing, but so damn grim. I also bought the LotR trilogy and was disappointed by the lack of characterization. Later on I ended up buying WoT after I read some more about it and it seemed more to my liking (in the classical fantasy sense). I also bought the first book of Shannara because of my disappointment in LotR and was even more disappointed in that. Anyway I fell in love with WoT as I read each sequel.

I still haven't discovered that one fantasy book that is traditional like LotR, yet does it with great characters and 'a world that is crammed to the brim with life and bustle' (stole that from amazon EotW review btw), but I am no longer interested in searching for it. Fantasy is a wide and deep genre and I got over looking for a good book with elves and dragons where the world didn't have a sense of bittersweetness about it. Okay, I did pick up Eragon, but that taught me my lesson... Well I also picked up Sword of Truth too, but that drove the lesson home... Also Dragonbone Chair and Belgariad, but dammit I finally learned my lesson. The Magician's Apprentice too >_<.

And the rest is history.