Lit How Old Were You When You Began Reading Star Wars Books?

And what were they?

We began discussing this in the NJO re-read thread but I thought it might make for an interesting broader discussion.

I was about 6/7 when I began reading Galaxy of Fear/Young Jedi Knights as well as Thrawn Trilogy, TPM novelisation (adult version), Jedi Academy trilogy etc. which seems crazy young looking back at it.

 

5-6, I think - pretty sure it predated the Special Editions coming out, though not by much, and I was born in 1991.

 

1992 here, so maybe around the same time as you. I'm sure I didn't pick up X-Wing books and things like that until later but I have a clear memory of the Thrawn and Jedi Academy trilogies pretty early on.

 

That's hard to say. Probably 9 with a couple of the Jedi Quest book. My clearest memory is the Boba Fett young readers series because that was the first time I was actually intentionally reading an entire series of Star Wars books. I believe I read those when I was ten. After those I would have began reading the Del Rey novels with Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, the Han Solo Trilogy, then probably the NJO when I was 12.

 

In 2007 when I first watched Star Wars starting with The Phantom Menace I remember reading quite a few of the Jedi Apprentice books from the library when I was around 7 or 8 I think. Not that long after that I discovered the Star Wars section at my local second hand book store and picked up The Thrawn Trilogy and very soon after the Jedi Academy Trilogy and loved them.

They're still some of my favourite books not only for being my first but because they really made Star Wars more than just movies for me. They definitely played a big part in the obsession with the universe that I still have today.

Other early books I remember getting were Courtship of Princess Leia, Truce at Bakura, Cloak of Deception, the TPM novel and Death Star.

 

Actually that reminds me, I've completely forgotten about Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest which I would have read when I was very young too.

 

11, Thrawn Trilogy, which was just coming out at the time.

 

11 episode 1 came out

 

10, Truce at Bakura and Shadows of the Empire. Born in ‘86

 

Erm, I dunno when did the Planet of the Hojibs and Droid World readalong records hit? Yeah, that. I think. I did have an Return of the Jedi storybook too, though.

Since I've been reading, I've been Star Wars-ing.

 

Adult. First SW book was the film novelization back in 1977. (First edition pb. Still have it.)

 

I was a bit over 17 when I first dipped into the old EU (started Heir to the Empire which quickly disappointed me; loved the Darth Bane series, as it stood back then, without its final book; maybe enjoyed Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader) and a bit under 18 when I started reading it somewhat systematically (roughly the Bantam era, then NJO and LOTF; I remember reaching Invincible precisely on my eighteenth birthday).

 

If you are willing to entertain a very loose definition of "read" I was enjoying the heck out of the still photos in the ANH paperback novelization at around age 4-5 (born in '74). I'm pretty sure the iconic shot of the stormtrooper riding a dewback was the "trigger" for my still-going-strong love of everything Star Wars. My memory is vague but I'm sure the novelization ultimately became the first SW book I read "for real" around age 6-7 or so.

EDIT: As I think about it, I'm realizing I'd probably read The Star Wars Storybook well before the novelization. So I'll go ahead and call that my first actual Star Wars book read.

 

No joke, my first SW book was a paperback copy of The Glove of Darth Vader. I got it in first grade (born in '87), I think through a Scholastic Book Clubs classroom flyer or Scholastic Book Fair. The illustration of the Whaladons being butchered bothered me at that age.

My second was a hardcover edition of The Star Wars Trilogy. I did a book report in second grade on the ANH novelization and got an A+!

Around age 10, I bought a paperback copy of Heir to the Empire, soon followed by TPBs of the comic book adaptations of the Thrawn Trilogy novels and The Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook. Having never played an RPG, I had no idea what the stats or numbers really meant, but I enjoyed the illustrations and the additional lore.

At some point in my preteens, I bought a paperback copy of The Truce at Bakura. Because I heard it had dinosaurs in it.

 

About 10 when I read The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels, and about 12 when I read my first novel, Shadows of the Empire.

 

My elementary school library had the first five Galaxy of Fear books, which I suppose were the first novels of any kind that I read. I think they were only available for 2nd grade and up, so that would've been '00-'01. I also had the TPM Visual Dictionary which I really enjoyed. A couple years later I got the abridged audiobook 2 tape set of Champions of the Force, which I guess counts as my first "adult" novel. Maybe a year after that I was at a flea market and found Jedi Search, which I recognized as the first part of that trilogy. I think I had the ANH novelization before that, but I never read it. Still haven't. Probably should.

 

I think this might be exactly the case for me, as well. I also had Lost City of the Jedi and Mission From Mount Yoda.

I’m not sure of the chronology here, but other books I read in childhood were Tales From Jabba’s Palace, Tales From the Mos Eisley Cantina, and The Crystal Star, of all things.

I also was also subscribed to the single-player RPG Star Wars Missions and got those books in the mail every month or so.

My brother was also really into the Decipher card game and always forced me to play with him even though he beat me every time.

What’s funny is I don’t think my family actually owned any copies of the OT films until the DVD era (we did have Phantom Menace on VHS). So the EU was always the most prominent part of my fandom.



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I can't recall exactly, though I do remember enjoying Shadows of the Empire, and I'd been a fan for a while by then. I was quite pleased at having read the TPM novelization before the film came out, and tried to prevent someone spoiling my schoolfriend over Qui-Gon's death by saying they couldn't have read the whole book, because he turns up alive and well at the end of it. It... didn't work.

 

12, I, Jedi

 

8 or 9. Jedi Apprentice. Then Jedi Quest. I love Jude Watson’s series even though she wasn’t big on Sci fi elements.

 

I was 10 or 11, it was the novelization of A new Hope in the early 80's. "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes."

 

2000, with Dark Tide. So, 11.

 

Don't remember the specific age, but remember being in elementary school and finding Han Solo's Revenge in my local library. I had already read a lot of Asimov, so the book's reference to "Star's End" really grabbed me and made me wonder about a Star Wars/Foundation crossover. Later on I started the Thrawn Trilogy through the same library. I remember my first time discussing the EU with someone else was at a Barnes & Noble after Dark Force Rising came out, and us wondering what exactly the "hive virus" was.

The first Star Wars books I actually owned, though, were the original Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels, and the Guide to the Star Wars Universe.

 

Around 10ish. The first I remember was Splinter of the Minds Eye when it came out. Other than the OT novelizations, I don't think I read any more SW novels until after ROTS came out, so late 30s. I started with LOTF series and then filled in the backstory with NJO while waiting for the next book in the series to come out. I read everything I could with Jacen in it and the branched out.

 

Same here. I loved the Foundation books, too!