Which book got you started on science fiction/fantasy?

A good topic!

1. Chronicles of Narnia. A great introduction.

2. The Hobbit

3. Lord of the rings.

4. Dragon lance chronicles and the Twins trilogy.

5. Forgotten realms particularlly the Drizzt books.

6. Wild-Cards
 
A friend loaned me two books when I was in college, The Hobbit by Tolkien and Foundation by Asimov and I was hooked. Before that Mystries were my favorite.:D
 
It was a long, long time ago now but it was the Anne McCaffrey books that got me started on SFF. A few years ago my interest was rekindled through reading Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy.
 
Thie first Sci-Fi novel I ever read was "Quest Crosstime" by Andre Norton, when I was 11.

As for Fantasy, apart from all those fairy tales you have read to you, and then read yourself when you're really young, we read "The Hobbit" in grade 5 for a book report, and at roughly the same time I read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" just for fun. I followed "The Hobbit" up with "Lord of the Rings" in grade 6, just for enjoyment.
 
The first Fantasy novel I can remember reading, was The Hobbit when I was 6 or 7, and LoTR after it.

I was also a massive Narnia fan around that age, too. And I liked the Redwall series before I grew out of them.

Then I found Pratchett, bombed through the Discworld series, and spread out to find more of the same.
 
Bit surprised I didn't see anybody mention John Christopher. I think in 4th grade I actually got him confused with the author of sports books for boys Matt Christopher. Boy was I confused when it wasn't a book about basketball, baseball or football. And what the heck were all those tripods? :p

I also read the Hobbit at just about the same time, so I think it is a tie in my case.
 
My first SF books were those of Andre Norton. Started off with a children's fantasy, "Steel Magic" and that led into the Janus books, the two Beastmaster books, the Witchworld series, "Moon of Three Rings" etc. Somewhere in there I also read John Wyndham's "The Chrysailds," Michael Moorcok's "Stormbringer" and a slim collection of Asimov's stories called "Through a Glass Clearly."

Can't remember the exact order. These were all when I was about 13... and I'm quite a bit older than that now. :(
 
I don't believe it! I forgot about Alan Garner's Weirdstone of Brisingamen. I loved that! I think I got it out once a month for about 6 months when I was 8.
 
Good question. I wasn't really fond of reading when I was little, but a particular book by Tamora Pierce dragged me into the fantasy reading world and since then and am now, I'm still a captive there.
 
The White Mountains by John Christopher. My 4th grade teacher read this to us in class, and I enjoyed it so much I went and read the other 2 in the series (got them at the library). After this I was hooked, and only wanted to read science fiction and fantasy. I now own the series, including the prequal that was written later, and like to re-read them occassionally.
 
Read a lot of fantasy at first -- Terry Brooks, plus the Dragonlance stuff, etc. -- and then started in on The White Mountains trilogy, which began shifting my focus to sf by fifth grade. Also, Alan Dean Foster, Douglas Adams, and Ray Bradbury (though it wasn't all sf in the strictest sense of the term)... they pretty much cemented things within the next couple years, and I more or less bailed on fantasy for good (not counting Bradbury, Lovecraft, and Weird Tales type stuff).
 
2001: A Space Odyssey, from the first sentence of the introduction:
"Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living."
Completely accurate science extrapolation, almost as good as seeing the future for real. I didn't even know that was possible. Completely different from most other sf, though Larry Niven sometimes came close.
 
Definitely the Lord of The Rings, followed by the hobbit and the Silmarillion, then a follow up by a compilation of stories in three books called Arabian Nights. After that I started playing something called Rpg's and that pushed me further into fantasy literature and finally, I got hooked.

I never "enjoyed" reading until I discovered the fantasy genre, I read the Lord of The Rings in 1998 when I would have been 8 years old so I urge you, those who are older and have children, introduce them to fantasy books at early age :).
 
It was A Wrinkle in Time for me, at a very young age - maybe 7 or 8 years old. I then read the usuals - The Hobbit, LotR, etc. I have fond memories of Piers Anthony's Xanth series - the first six books or so, anyway. I think I read them as an early teenager, and those really got me started into all sorts of other things. Haven't looked back since.
 
It was either The Secret Garden or Narnia... and I still enjoy reading them!
 
The Magician's Nephew was my introduction to the fantasy genre...quickly followed by the remainder of The Chronicles of Narnia. My first step into Sci-Fi was a collection of 9 stories in an old tattered and dog eared book belonging to my grandfather at the time, I, Robot.
 
The Hobbit
The 'Mars' books of Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Time Machine
War of the worlds
 
Thinking back, I remember reading a book called Spiderworld by Colin Wilson.
It was a book I just couldn't put down. There was a sequel, although I can't remember what the title was. I think I'll see if I can get them again and have a read.
 
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