How old were you when you first read TCOTC?

[LoricsKrill]

I was 14 (1979). I was so blown away that I got SRD's phone number and called him.

[StoneandSea]

I was 14, started with Wounded land and had to backtrack. I've read all 6 books several times, but I'm still a little more familiar with the Second Chrons-

[Variol Farseer]

Me: 14 when I bought Lord Foul's Bane in an airport bookshop in nineteen-mumblety-mumble. That was in June or July, as I recall; by the end of September, despite much other activity, I had read straight through The Wounded Land and was waiting on tenterhooks for the rest of the Second Chronicles. (That tells you pretty accurately when mumblety-mumble was . . . oops!)

It took the rest of the 1980s to flush the SRD virus out of my writing style. (Nowadays my style has settled roughly at the midpoint between SRD and P.G. Wodehouse, if you can imagine such a thing. Hmm, Thomas Covenant and Jeeves . . . there may be possibilities!)

[Dragonlily]

It took the rest of the 1980s to flush the SRD virus out of my writing style.

I may add, SRD himself could be proud if he had written this bit of Farseer's:
www.reviewers-choice.com/blackadder_the_third.htm

[Torrent]

I was 18 and I'm going to re-read them now for the second time, at 31/32.
Took me a long time to feel ready for it again. But this is probably the perfect age to read them. Thomas was about 30 during the First Chrons, Linden during the Second Chrons. It will be interesting to see if it will be different this time.

[variol son]

I'm a bit troubled that a 14-year-old was reading "Covenant" in the first place. I didn't intend the story for someone so young.

Interesting. Does that mean that many of us were mature before our time, or maybe too eager to grow up?

Sum sui generis
Vs

[I'm Murrin]

That is interesting, Vs - from what I can see, the large majority in this topic were 13 or 14 when they read the first chrons...

[Tranquil Hegemony]

I must have been 11 or 12 when I first read them... I remember not even knowing what a leper was, although I figured it out in context :)

[Furls Fire]

I found that interesting too, Vs. I was 14, and I gave them to my brother Stephen when he was 12. I remember literally inhaling them at that age. It had me mesmerized. It is true, that alot of the deeper themes escaped me at that time, and it was only thru my many re-reads of the Chrons that I was able to fully understand the undercurrents and more subtle nuances. But, at 14, it was a world of wonder, tragedy and triumph. Those feelings have stayed with me all these years.

So Mr. Donaldson, whether you intended for us to read them or not at that age, most of your fans did. And we aren't scarred for life...at least I'm not. You gave us something that has stayed in our hearts all these years. Thank you for that. Such magic never leaves the soul.

BTW, Brooke my oldest, is now reading LFB. She loves it. She turns 14 next month.

[Harri]

I first read the books after borrowing them from the public library at about 11. I admit I didn't understand many of the themes but read because I had just finished Lord of the Rings and wanted something as epic.

I reread them several times over the next decade but stopped reading them while I was at university (partly because I lost all six books of TCOTC in a house fire). I started rereading this year when I saw the complete works sold as a package lot on Ebay including the Gap Series and Mordant's need set.

Needless to say at each different reading the books felt completely different because new experiences I had in between each reading were changing my perspective. Now I look forward to the Third Chronicles, wondering how it will effect my perspective of the earlier books!

[I'm Murrin]

One ponders - having "stayed in our hearts all these years," could it not also be thought of as having scarred us for life, in ways we ourselves would not realise?