How I met Lyra, Will and the others

[faze]

Oooh, The Bench

Can't actually remember how I first heard of HDM. It was about 6 years ago, and I've been hooked ever since. Each re-read and I notice new stuff...

[lyra_goldenmouth]

my friend kept talking about stuff i didnt understand sooooo.... and ive been obssed by it since!

[Numbat_62]

a friend gave it to me

[Libertus]

I heard talk of the christian controversy surrounding the movie release and was irritated by it. I then saw the omnibus edition sitting in a store at half off, and it wasn't a "Now a Motion Picture" mass market edition, so I grabbed it. I then read TGC before seeing the movie, and finished the other 2 and LO all in about a month (I'm a full-time college student and a single parent, so a month is fast for so many pages.). I'm a slow reader, in general, so that says something that I read them so fast.

As ridiculous as the controversy is, thank goodness for church silliness, because otherwise I may not have paid attention to it.

[Funkychikin]

WARNING!!!
Massive wall of text ahead!!!!!

Continue at your own risk.

Well, I can remember first seeing The Golden Compass on my local library's book shelves as far back as about seven or eight years ago, which would equate to me being about...nine.

I had gotten into fantasy about a year before with H-Pot, which was introduced to me by my Aunt, who taught fourth grade at time. I remember scouring the farthest reaches of the Fiction section, in hopes of finding something good to read. It was then that I found the book for the first time. I didn't check it out; on the contrary, the cover looked rather generic to me, and the title wasn't all that intriguing to me either.

Nevertheless, it wasn't until much later (this past December, as a matter of fact) that I stumbled across the trailer for The Golden Compass. All of my memories came rushing back to me then, and suddenly I found myself with a near unquenchable thirst to know more about the books. I did research, finding out about all of the controversy surrounding the trilogy, as well as uncovering the overall plot.

Fast forward to the day after Christmas, and where else should I happen to be but the book section of my local Wally-World. I spotted the omnibus (on clearance, of course) and subsequently thought to purchase a copy.

The rest, as they say, is history. I started The Golden Compass as soon as I got home, stocked with an electric blanket and about seven packets of mint cocoa, and provided with the most wonderful steel-gray sky under which to read. Much to my surprise, I was unable to put the book down, and remained as such until finally sleep claimed me, and I had to drag myself to bed.

Over the next month I read the books whenever the cance arose. I had the trilogy finished before the end of January, and now that I've read it, I can't believe that I had once thought the books to be "drab" or "dull", especially when compared to some of the works I had my nose stuffed into at the time.

*phew* Again, sorry for the massive text-wall. It's just that I was in a story-telling mood, and the topic seemed too good to pass up.

[delta10]

I remember during the summer and fall of '07 seeing the poster on the outside of the local movie theater (I live across the street and have to walk by the posters to go to the mini market, etc)

My reaction was, eh, that looks cheesy. Polar bear wearing some outfit, and a girl? Must be some kids movie.

Being an infrequent movie goer I never saw the trailer.

But I heard rumors that it was a pro-atheist story so that got me slightly curious.

I have no idea how I found out it was actually showing, just sort of by accident I think I saw some article about the controversy and decided to go see it on opening weekend. Of course I had no clue it was opening weekend. How I thought to look for the article I don't know. It's all foggy even though it was only a few weeks ago.

Anyway, I was completely amazed and astonished by the movie I figured I had to read the books. Got them a few days later, read them in 3 days, and found myself stunned that somehow in my many years on this earth I had not known about them before.

Was a big Tolkien fan before, but HDM is a far richer, more thought-provoking, and more modern story than LotR.

[VikingFjord]

In elementary school we used to have these "book fair" things where they sold a bunch of books in the library. I was in 4th or 5th grade (like 9 or 10 years old) and saw TGC. I thought it looked cool and it had won some award. I was also really into the Redwall books at the time- the whole british fantasy talking-animals thing (note: this is before the days of HP). I don't really remember. It was a long time ago. I remember I loved it though. Ah, the good ol' days when I actually read books.

[Areani]

My brother bought the book after hearing about the film, he gave up reading it so I swapped the NL for the Simarlian.

[Cheater]

I was bored so I watched this random movie my sister had downloaded on my laptop.
A couple of days later I had put the books on hold after watching it a dozen times.
A full set of books are now in the mail.

[rkidbrooksy]

Some cool stories
My wife had mentioned them to me (she's never read them) and thought it was bizarre that i like these sorts of books and had never read them. One of her friends had read them and recommended them for me so she bought them for our anniversary and it was the 1oth anniversary editions with all the letters and extras at the end of the books.
I read them each twice already since owning them in november and absolutely love them. I am a big Harry Potter fan too, but these have surpassed them, which i thought could never happen

[seyla]

I was in year six, about to leave for KS3 and I told my dad I wanted to read them. He said he did too and we went out and bought them. Ta da.

[Brett_Theo]

my family was going on holiday and the trip was like 5 hours long so mum got TSK on tape and so we had some thing to lesenrn to so we meet will first then went back to TNL and then though TSK agian then onto TAS lol rather round about way but hey i love it lol

[magicrat]

I first heard of the books when I was listening to a radio discussion about the last Harry Potter book. Someone texted in to say that although HP was pretty good, the story was no where near as good as His Dark Materials. Being short of something decent to read I went straight out and bought NL. I remember reading the first page and the description of Lyra in the Retiring Room with her Dæmon. From the depiction of that first scene I was totally hooked, and my interest never wained right through until the end of AS.

[Mils]

4 years ago, my aunt had been given a bunch of books by a friend,and she let me pick some. I had never heard of the GC beforehand, but i just grabbed it because i loved fantasy, and i liked the cover
I started the first couple of chapters, but for some reason, just stopped
Last year, i was bored so i began to read it from the begiinning, and when i finished went straight to the library to get TSK and TAS
now, i am the proud owner of HDM omnibus, and everyone is telling me that im obsessed with the books.

[KenBrasai]

A friend of my mother had given me The Amber Spyglass as a birthday present. Now I'm obsessed with HDM

[Vinleg]

i met them in the HDM trilogy, i found it when i was looking for a book in the bookstore, and that's the first novel i read and also the best one i'm lucky that time i choose HDM coz actually i don't know anything about HDM at all

[FuentesEnciso15]

I am a frequent movie-goer...and have always loved fantasy stories that trigger the mind to the point where you actually believe its possible...but for some reason i had never heard of the books. The trailer for TGC kept showin everytime i went to the movies so i was determined to go see what all the buzz was about. Me and my girlfriend decided we wanted to watch it so we went to a late late movie...one at 12:45 at night. (it was a last minute thing) Coming out of the theater...my brain was rushing with thoughts about the story and at this point i didnt even know if this was meant to be a triology. So i researched the title on the internet and went to Borders to buy the Omnibus. I was hooked since the first chapter and quickly fell in love with all the characters. Ive read all post books as well like Lyras Oxford and Once Upon A Time in the North. I love all these stories and they have incredibly affected my life in an extraordinary way. : ]

[missy]

For me its been four years since i discovered HDM. I think i passed them about a dozen times in the school library in 7th grade they didn't look very interesting to me. Then in march or april of 2004 a friend told me i should read them. actually i picked up The Subtle Knife first, because it had the cats on the cover and i was wouldering why that girl had her hand on the wild cat.

but my friend said i should start with The Golden Compass because it was the first and The Subtle Knife wouldn't make any sence. So i began to read them and emedialty went to the public library to find The subtle knife because it was checked up at school. i stubled upon Lrya's oxford insead and read all the way through that.

They are the best books i have every read and i cant find anything else that i would read over agian right after i finish it. I also got one friend to read them and a grandma, who is reading them with her grand children.

[Kyre]

Not sure how I got my hands on TNL, but about... meh... 5-6 years ago I started reading it, and didn't find it that interesting (me being around 11 at the time). Then, as for most people in this thread, came The Movie. *Poof*, interest reignited, read all of the books... and they are the ONLY ones to move me emotionally in such a profound way.

I don't know what I was thinking when I didn't pursue reading the series 5-6 years ago...

[Daryl]

With me it was actually the film that made me want to read the books, i thought if the film was as good as i thought it was then, the books should be even beter if they stuck to the usuall rule that seems to go with books that are made into films, that the book is always better. I wasn't disappointed, iasked for them for christmas and haven't looked back since.

As for Harry Potter i love all of the stories and even the ending but thats just my view, but Phillip Pullman and HDM are definitely in the same league if not better.

[HDMforever]

I discovered them by just sort of an impulse...I'd seen the trailers for the movie a couple times and thought it looked interesting, and I saw the movie poster in Chapters one day and I randomly said to my mom, "I want to see that." without really thinking. But I figured I'd better read the books first, so I bought The Golden Compass that night and right from the start I LOVED it! I got the second book for Christmas and I bought the third one in January. One thing was for sure right from the start--they're unputdownable!! And even before I finished, I was hooked--they're my absolute FAVOURITE series now, no question!

[Mils]

Yes, it's VERY difficult to keep away from the books. It's probably because over time, as one matures, you understand different components of the books that hadn't been realized before.

[redbaron12190]

I read them when I was young an naive. I didn't really understand the deep stuff at age 10. But this year, I had heard a lot of good stuff about the GC movie. So I went and got the movie. I started watching it and about 5 minutes in I thought "I should probably read the books first." So, without even thinking I wouldn't like it, I went out and bought the entire series and loved it. So I guess it was the movies that got me to read the books.

[Mils]

Hopefully some of the people who watched the film eventually read the books as well, so there is a bigger fanbase if they ever decide to make the sequel.......

[Sethela]

My friend had them and she told me they were the best books she ever read.....she pretty much forced me to borrow them even though I wasn't interested. Then one evening when I had finished the other book I had been reading I decided I should give them a read before returning them and then I was completely absorbed and couldn't stop!! After I finished them I became so obsessed with owning them because they were the best books I'd ever read so I bought the whole trilogy to have my own set! I still think HDMs is the best set of books i've read and I still can't believe I was about to not read them hahaha!