Age of EU Readers

Let's see if I can recall my EU journey from start to finish... and by finish, I mean... well, not finish. Umm.... yeah. Here we go!

The first EU I read must have been the Junior Novelization of Shadows of the Empire by Christopher Golden. This would have been early '97, as I saw the Original Trilogy for the first time in late 1996. I think that might have been all that I read at the time, but some time between then and 1999 I read the novelizations of the Original Trilogy. Oh, and Tales from Jabba's Palace, too. Kind of lost interest in Star Wars until prequel hype kicked in in late '98, and read a bit more EU in 1999. It was all stuff from the Classic Era, though, such as Splinter, Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, Shadows (regular one ).

Then in 2000, I read Jedi Search, Truce, and The Thrawn Trilogy (Lando adventures too, randomly enough), and was really excited about the Post-ROTJ era... but kind of fell out of reading in general for a bit after Rogue Planet (not... because of Rogue Planet. I like it. Good book.).

Read some misc non-SW books until hype for Attack of the Clones started happening, and I randomly bought The Approaching Storm. I read through the New Republic Era (amidst non-SW books), and started the NJO in 2004, finishing Christmas '05. Non-SW books, as well as being a University student keep me otherwise busy.

I didn't start reading comics, save for Dark Empire and Union which I eBayed, until I picked up Republic 79 in late 2005. Today, I am 20, and just read Sacrifice! Hooray!

 

Jeff, now you got me thinking!!

First EU book I read was Vector Prime
Then I read Heir to the Empire
Then The Last Command (I still haven't read Dark Force Rising)
Then I read Rebel Dream
Then The Jedi Acadamy Trilogy
Then The Dark Nest Trilogy
Then a bunch of New Republic Novels
Then I read Dark Lord
Then I read some more novels until I got to LOTF, Bane, and Allegiance.

 

27

grew up with Marvel Comics around and a copy of Splinter on the shelf that I just couldn't read at 8 or 9.

Christmas '91, 11 years old, Heir to the Empire...been at it ever since.

 

I'm 29. Read Heir to the Empire when it first came out in '91, when I was 13, but didn't finish the series at the time. Only got into the EU again in the leadup to ROTS in '04. It was the early Clone Wars TPBs that really got me hooked, and I moved on from them to other comics and then to novels. First SW novel that I read that really hooked me was Cloak of Deception. Anyway, I've basically been an obsessive ever since.

 

I'm 17 and I think I've been reading the EU since about 8 years old.

I'd become a huge SW fan after watching the Special Editions at the cinema. I strutted around my school putting other would-be fans in their place, armed with information that was often simply made up ("It's called Episode 4 because this is the fourth time it's been released," I explained on one memorable occasion). I thought I knew it all.

So imagine my shock when I saw the YJK sitting on the shelves of my local supermarket. Han and Leia had children? Jedi? How is this possible? Why wasn't I told? I felt like I was taking my first steps into a larger world.

 

38 now, and I started reading EU with the Brian Daley Han Solo books, as well as the Lando Calrissian books wy back in 1984...

 

I'm 21 now, and I've been reading since Heir to the Empire came out (1992?). My grandma got it for me, and even though I remember not understanding a good portion of what was in it, I read the whole thing, and I've been doing it ever since.

 

I'm 27 started reading the EU with the Thrawn Trilogy back in 1992 when I was 12

 

Hey, it's just nice to see the franchise adding new fans! One of the coolest things about Celebration III (didn't make IV this year) was seeing the generational aspect of SW, and the international aspect. It was really amazing and something I'm glad I got to see and be a part of.

 

Eddie, I can't not bow down to you. Seriously, that's fricking awesome.

 

When I was 13 I read Shadows Of The Empire and Truce At Bakura for book reports. Soon after that I stopped reading all together. Also, I lost my love for Star Wars for a good deal of time.

Around the time that Republic #52, me and a friend of mine were heavily into reading comics. And he had been collecting Republic since the Clone Wars had started in them. So, I went back and read the few issues he had... and it just went into a downhill spiral after that.

I'm 22 now, and own all the novels and good portion of the comics. I've read ALL the comics, and am still working my way through the novels. If it wasn't for the EU, my love of Star Wars would never had returned. In fact, the EU trumps the films for me, only because of the stirring it caused in my own mind. It made me want to read and write all over again, and just jump started my imagination in a way I hadn't felt in years.

 

18 now.

I started reading the EU when I was 7 -- My grandparents bought "Champions of the Force" after we came off of Star Tours. I read Star Wars books all the time (... I turned in a Star Wars fanfic for an assignment once in second grade) until my parents banned me from reading them when I was 8 or 9. Then I didn't read any Star Wars books until last December in the middle of my finals. The result is that I totally missed NJO.

At some point before I was 7, though, I do remember sitting down to watch Star Wars with my parents and asking if anyone died. They told me "no."

 

I'm 30. I started with Heir to the Empire when it first came out with the Science-Fiction Book Club edition. I was in junior high at the time.

 

Im 23 now, i think the first star wars was shadows of the empire and The Emperors Plague, after that i was obsessed with star wars books, i always had the newest books preordered, mainly the Young Jedi Knight Series, i was, and still am a huge Jacen fan. i remember reading the first two Han Solo books in junior high, i really liked them actually.

 

I'm 23. I started when I was 12 with The Truce at Bakura. Am I the only one who started with that book? I mean, it makes sense seeing as how it takes place immediately after the films, right?

 

That was interesting (I didn't get a chance to read all of it though). So what did you think of Anakin's force ghost's appeal to Leia for forgiveness and her reaction to it? That was kind of interesting huh....served to illustrate the differences in her personality vs. Luke's anyhow...

 

I'm 23 (headed for 24 in a few months). I started when I was 13 with the TTT.

I hadn't watched SW until the SEs came out in '97 when I was staying with my grandpa in NJ. I made my Ma drive me over about three counties to find a cinema that wass till showing ESB and then she lied to me and told me it was the one with the Ewoks. I spent the whole movie waiting for those bloody Ewoks!

Anyway, then my parents went back to Wales and I spent another few weeks staying with some family friends, one of whom was like, "Oh, you like Star Wars? Yeah, you oughta read these books! It's all about their next adventures."

And I was like, there's MORE?!

Someone mentioned wondering why they hadn't been told this before and like they were taking a first step into a bigger world? Yeah, that was me, totally. I read basically all the Bantam books except the X-Wing series and a couple of the DH comics too in the next 18 months. I dropped out of regular reading for a bit at the start of the NJO, but caught up again later.

Interesting to see how many of us get started relatively young...

 

Heck, that could be a whole different thread, but I'll share that here. I first saw Star Wars when my parents would go over to our neighbors several times a week for dinner and drinks, and at age...five/six I was sat down in front of the TV and shown the only kid-friendly movie they had...STAR WARS.

I watched it over and over and over again. God knows how many times. When we finally got our own VCR (this was early 1980's remember), the first movie (and only movie) was a pirate copy of Star Wars and Empire on the same VHS tape, and I watched them religiously and began to turn to the ESB is superior camp at an early age.

Suffice to say I'm really happy to have my SW love rekindled in my late twenties, and I still say that Celebration III was an absolutely eye-opening experience. Everyone should hit a Celebration if possible. I'm hoping they do it next year too, because it deserves it.

 

14, only got into Star Wars in general less than 2 years ago. Amazing how much info I can garner within that time period, AND that's considering I get nearly ALL of my knowledge off Wookieepedia and forums such as this.

I feel young

--HW

 

Yeah, but you're making the rest of us feel old!

 

I'm 19. First EU experience was renting a copy of SotE audiobook from the video rental place when I was about 9. I listened to that thing in one sitting on my Walkman one day during the summer. Then, I kinda forgot about it until I was around 13-14, when one of my teachers had some of the old YJK books in the classrooms that I read during free times. From there, I started looking in the public library, the used bookstore in town, and everywhere else I could think of. I thought I had done pretty well, reading what the public library had, but then a friend gave me his entire collection, which ranged the entire Bantam series. After reading those, I've been gobbling up DR stuff as soon as it comes out.

 

I'm 25. The first EU I read was the Han Solo trilogy be A.C. Cripsin. After that I was hooked for life.

 

i'm 20. i started the eu when i was 16 with ttt but i already was a huge fan of star wars since i was 8 years old. i'll never forget the day when my father first bought me the vhs of episode 4 and asked him: "what is this daddy?". my life was never the same

 

I'm 20. Though I liked Star Wars since I played Shadows of the Empire in my N64, it was not until just after Aotc was released that I turned into a Star Wars fan. Curiously, it was not the movie itself, but Jedi Knight 2 videogame (again) and finding aou Chewie had been killed off. My first book was Jedi Search, after reading TTT in comic book.

 

20, I started reading from the age of eleven and the first two I borrowed from the library were Children of the Jedi and The Courtship of Princess Leia. (I actually read nearly all the available EU before I got the OT VHS for my twelfth birthday even though I'd seen the movies in the cinema.)