Age of EU Readers

23, I read TTT and some other stuff way back when I was 12 or so, but I really got back into the EU properly about 3 years ago and I think I can say that I now have a copy (one version or another) of every EU novel except for some of the young readers books.

 

Currently, the average age we are now is: 21.9

Currently, the average age we had our first taste of the EU is: 10.9

(The latter of the two figures is quite likely to be off, since not everyone gave a specific age for when they started)


Edit: Not including Alpha-02... ***damit!

Though I think that, if we do, that brings the averages up to 22.45 and 11.45.

That swear word isn't allowed.

 

I'm 35 now. The first "EU book" I read before the term was even invented was Splinter of the Minds Eye back when I was a little girl. I dreamed that there would be more books even if there were no more films after StarWars. I didn't know we were going to get a sequel like the Empire Strikes Back. Heir To The Empire changed everything.

 

35, myself. My first EU was also Splinters of the Mind's Eye, followed by the discovery that there were comic books. Much allowance went into catching up my collection and then later on to the first Han Solo trilogy and the Lando trilogy. I've been reading ever since with a small lapse in Dark Horse series due to financial restrictions, and a later relunctance to acknowledge Chewbacca's demise that delayed my reading of the NJO series. I was reading EU material for the PT era, though, so that wasn't total non-involvement. That was me coming to terms and getting 'over it' in regards to Chewbacca, and now I actually like the way they killed him and ended up enjoyed a good deal of the NJO.

 

I'm 28. The first EU novel I ever read was The Crystal Star. My local bookstore was pretty rinky dink at the time and didn't get any Star Wars novels that I remember up until that point...or maybe Crystal Star was the first hardcover that I saw and that's what got my attention.

But it was the Crimson Empire that hooked me, all the way.

Bring back Kir Kanos in LOTF!!

 

I'm 27. Started reading with The Last Command when I was 13 I think. Picked TLC and Jedi Search up at a Sam's Club. Took me a minute to figure out they were different stories, went and found HttE and DFR. Then I started reading Dark Empire II because it was on the racks, then hunted down a DE TPB and found TOTJ as well. Eagerly awaited each successive Star Wars title. Then I fell away for a couple years, which had me miss a few of the last Bantam titles that I've still not gotten around too. NJO was about 4 or 5 books underway when I jumped back in. Been banging away ever since.

 

I'm 20. Casually read the EU from about the age of 12, 13 (after the SE's). First novels were the Jedi Academy Trilogy, Darksaber and some random YJK books. Didn't really take much interest in the NJO until I was around 17, when I finally decided to get into it. It was Chewies death that got me interested in that series and has kept me hooked ever since. Although, it was really coming to this place a couple of years ago looking for info on DNT that made me expand my interests fully into Prequal Novels, the Games (especially KotOR) and the Comics.

 

...wow.

Now I feel REALLY young.

--HW

 

25.

Started with Droids and Ewoks comics some 15 years ago, later saw Special Edition Trilogy and realy got into EU with TTT 10 years ago. Loved it ever since, except for LOTF, and for the last two years I'm focusing on comics, mostly KOTOR and Legacy.

 

I'm 23, and my first Star Wars book I read was the GODV series, when I was about 7-8

My first serious EU books were Heir to the Empire and Dark Force Rising, bought together. I musta been about 11 when I bought those.

 

I'm 34.

My dad took me to see Empire and ROTJ in the movie theater when they came out, so I've been reading ever since Star Wars first started printing books and comics. The first books I actually bought for myself with my own money was the HTTE series.

I gotta say though, I certainly thought the average age here would be a lot higher. I had no idea this forum was full of teenagers and college kids.

Of course, that does explain the poor reading comprhension and subliterate posts...

 

I'm 56 and I've read all the books as they are published. Not the comic books though. So I read the Bantam era and Splinter in Mind's eye, etc. I was quite happy with the Zahn series showed up, though.

 

23, and started about 11 years ago with Shadows of the Empire when I was 12.

 

I'm 35 and also started with Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and every Marvel comic I could get my hands on. I read the Han Solo books, though I need to find them somewhere. Im read most of what came out between the Thrawn Trilogy and NJO series. Only read a couple of NJO, had too much to do at the time, not enough time to read. Now I'm reading LotF and am quite enjoying it. I may have to go back through the NJO and finish it all.

Some of you make me feel real old =) but it's nice to see younger people with an avid Star Wars interest. I saw Star Wars when I was 5 years old, and it was a LARGE part of my childhood. Growing up in Northern Minnesota, every winter's day was like the battle of Hoth!

 

Ok, let me add my name to the growing list of "oldies" here. I'm 37. First started reading SW with Marvel SW #1. Also read the SW movie adaption novel, SotME, Han Solo books, etc. Pretty much anything I could get my hands on. I'm in the middle of Sacrifice right now. However, I must admit, that I haven't read all of the DH comics (though most I have), nor all of the PT novels.

 

I'm 27, and I started reading when I was 17 (with a long break in there). First ones I read werre the Thrawn trilogy (shortly after seeing the Special Edition - I'd never seen Star Wars before). Then some others, mostly X-wing series, Courtship of Princess Leia, early post-RotJ stuff. It was after my break that I jumped into the NJO and purely by chance. I was looking for a different book, and the library didn't have it, but they had Vector Prime, so I read that instead.

 

17 and started with Mission From Mount Yoda also. Except my sister bought if for me.

 

After seeing a similar thread in the collecting forum I was wondering, how old are EU readers? Also, when did you start reading the EU and with what book?

I'm a bit shy of 17. I've been reading the EU since I was... oh, heck, it was a long time ago. I'm going to estimate that I was around 9 or 10 based on which library I read the book in. I didn't take it out because I wasn't allowed to read those sorts of books back then.

The book I read was one of the Jedi Apprentice series... I can't be certain, but I think it was the first one, because I remember Xanatos being involved.

 

I'm currently 21

I started out reading HttE when I was about 10 or so.

 

I'm 25 now and my first EU books were the GODV books back when they were first published!

 

Lets see, I started reading the EU in sixth or seventh grade, which would have put me in the twelve to thirteen range. Sophomore year is when I started to become the poser I am now (thank you Dark Rendezvous) which would have put me at sixteen. Currently I'm eighteen.

 

I'm 14 (and a half) now and started reading the Thrawn Trilogy at about 10 (or 9 or 11, I'll go with 10). Oh noes, I appear to be one of the youngest.

 

I'm 32, and i suppose technically my first EU would be the Marvel Comics adaptation of ANH, which i think i first read (and re-read and re-read and ... ) not long after ESB came out but before RotJ; most likely sometime in '81 or '82, which would make me 6 or 7. After that, my only EU was some assorted Marvel comics, until the RotJ novelization, which i carried around with me almost everwhere in 1983 (a distinction later shared by another novel -- when i discovered The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy not too many years later).

After that though, no real EU exposure until Heir to the Empire was released (was it '91 or '92?) when i was 16 or 17 or so. Finished TTT and then Bakura, but after that i kinda dropped out of the EU until playing the SotE game in late '96 (21, early in my senior year of college). After that, aside from the video games (being a gamer going back to the glory days of the '80s), I and the EU parted ways for quite some time.

Then just this past fall -- 2006, 31 yo -- i picked up TTT again when i was looking for something to read. And from there it snowballed. I picked up HoT after finishing the TTT re-read, followed by Survivor's Quest (i stuck with Zahn at first) ... and now, about 9 months or so later, I've bought and read through dozens and dozens of novels and comics, including the entire NJO, the complete runs of pretty much every Dark Horse comic since Dark Empire, much of the Marvels, etc etc etc.

It's like an addiction now, seriously. Every now and again, i think about adding up how much $ i've spent since last fall on SW stuff, but then i realize it would scare me. Thank goodness for eBay and used bookstores!

 

I'm twenty-two now, and I first saw Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope when I was ten years old. I don't remember exactly when I got into the Expanded Universe, but I know it couldn't have been long after that (later that year most likely, the next year at the most). The first two Star Wars books I got and read were hardcover editions of The Courtship of Princess Leia and The Crystal Star which were on a clearance table at Barnes & Noble.

 

I'm 30 years old and my first Star Wars EU would have to be Splinter of the Mind's Eye, sometime in the early 80's (83-4?) (a paperback which has endured on my shelf to this day). I also had some of the old Marvel comics as well, though those were later lost to a parental cleaning while I was away at college. Fortunately they were so worn from reading that their value was primarily sentimental and content based.