For many of us, the series was able to "sneak up" on us because we found ourselves falling in by degrees. I had a friend in college who relentlessly promoted the books to me (there were 4 out at the time). I read the first, thought it was a bad Tolkien ripoff, and was told to try the second one. After the second book, I said, "Yeah, it's okay." It was really the third book that started to entertain me, and I thought the fourth was fantastic. Then the fifth came out just as I finished the fourth, and it was even better, so I got enthusiastic. When Lord of Chaos came out, I said, "these books are great" and started recommending them to people.

Then things slowed down, and I found myself stuck reading a series going nowhere because I wanted to know how it ended, and because the theories were running around like wildfire on message boards (thank you, wotmania).

I did a re-read of WoT in 2002 because I had forgotten a lot of events and characters, and it was a move that I regretted. All of the flaws I had glossed over by TDR came back. I saw just how bad the first book was (Hell, the same scene repeated itself word for word and not even the editors caught it). I did like TGH better on the second read, oddly, but I found myself wondering why I let myself get drawn in in the first place.