Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Azguard on October 05, 2008, 11:06:48 AM
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Oh man....I am a reader. BUT, I believe I can trace the origin of that all the way back to 3rd grade, when my friend was reading an Animorph book. He loaned it to me....the rest is history. It was like book #2 or something and the series was just under way. I thank that friend eternally, because I not only made TONS of friends (still making them today, thanks RAF ^^), but I believe that's when I got started in reading. From that, I believe I've had a better education because i was a good reader. But it all started with Animorphs. What would I do without it!
How about you guys?
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Your story kinda sounds like mine.
I know that before maybe second grade(?) I wasn't much of a reader. In fact, I thought reading was boring and a pain, much like a multitude of people today. (Except for when I was at the aquarium and was on a fish hunt, but that's a different story all together.)
However, I remember I went to the library with my dad one day. Not fairly unusual, since my parents were--and still are--avid readers. So, we seperated in the library for a bit, me sort of staring at the books with no real desire to read them, when my dad comes back with a few books. One was some story about a cat and the other was a book with a girl turning into a cat on the cover. (Are you sensing a pattern?)
I don't know what made me decide to give the second book a try, but I figured it couldn't hurt anything. Especially if the girl was becoming a cat. I was hooked almost immedietly. And so was my mom, to a point, since she was reading them to make sure that they weren't too mature for me.
As it is it was through Animorphs that I met my best friend and my other very good friend. And all of you Rafians, because where would I be without all you equally obsessed people? Why, probably in an insane asylum, talking to a blue wall as if it were Ax.
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I was an avid reader long before I got into Animorphs. It was, however, my favorite book series.
As far as the impact, when I read the books I got used to getting a new book every month. The books were around 150 pages long, give or take. I have read other book series where the books were around 400 pages, but am confused as to why it would take a year to put out each book.
If it only takes a month for a certain writer to put out 150 pages of masterpiece, then why would it take twelve months for other authors to put out 400 pages? I find that weird.
That's one way Animorphs impacted me as a reader.
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Because KAA's books were fairly formulaic. They're children's books, after all.
It also can depend on how many other books the author is working on, if the author has a fairly formulaic pattern, if the author has ghostwriters, if the author tends to get writer's block, how big the font is, ect.
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You have a point. I just don't tend to think of that stuff.
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Your story kinda sounds like mine.
LOL, for some reason i read that as "your story sounds kinda lame."
hahahah
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My story's similar to some of yours. I had to take a test at the end of the week on some book at the library. Didn't know what to pick. Got one of the books in the 30's, I think. I was too confused, at first, but I picked up some of the earlier books later and became hooked. I don't think I would enjoy reading as much as I do now if it weren't for Animorphs. Really. One of the things I say now to people is, "You don't hate reading. You just haven't found a good book."
And it's true. In your childhood years, if you become an avid reader at all, you will find a book or series of a certain genre, that you absolutely love. Sci-fi is my favorite, thanks to Animorphs. I wasn't really interested in anything else at the time.
Animorphs is also the reason I'm here. Without Animorphs, I would never have met half of you wonderful, crazy people.
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you know what? that is totally true. I never thought about that. Animorphs is the reason why I'm into sci-fi! I also started loving science strictly because of animorphs!
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My story is different from you guys, I guess.
I was always an avid reader -- just not an avid reader of fiction. When I was younger, I always preferred nonfiction books about animals (which basically earned me the title of the "animal guy" in my later school days and enabled me to pass classes like biology and animal-related Science classes without really trying).
Then I got into Goosebumps. Then I got into Animorphs (after watching the TV show) in my late teens. Of course, with my speed of reading Animorphs, my family joked every time after I got a new book that it would be read by the end of the day. They were usually right.
Then my little sister and I made a bet where I would read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone if she read the first five books of Animorphs. She never finished the first one, but I finished the first Potter book, and became hooked on that.
So, naturally, I reread and re-reread my Goosebumps, Animorphs, and Potter books (in that order).
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I got into Goosebumps when my sister gave me a book for Christmas. There were already 150 books or so of that series, so there was never a waiting period. I never read the whole series, though.
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Neither did I, Nohensen. I only have a few because the collection that originally read from were my sister's and she let me read them for the sole reason of having power over me. . . . That's also why she wanted the Playstation in her room. So, I've taken to recollecting them (except for Monster Blood III, I kept that >:D).
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I read a lot from an early age, so I can't say Animorphs got me to read more. And it didn't really get me into science fiction either, I still prefer fantasy and historical novels in general.
I think Animorphs did get me interested in animals though, particularly raptors. When I went to a wildlife museum as a kid I was going crazy over the peregrine falcons and red-tailed hawks.
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Animorphs was a huge childhood obsession of mine, of course, but it's also done a lot for me more recently. The books chased away my long-term depression when I went back to reread them. KA slipped a staggering amount of really strong wisdom into the books, and this has impacted the way I live my life. Like in book 30, Tobias says "You're a jerk, Marco." Marco goes, "Yeah, I love you, too." That's become my standard response now when people heckle me, and that's how I was able to become friends with the guy who's now my closest friend.
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Animorphs definately made me read a lot more.
I still read heaps when I was a kid though, but yea I definately became a book worm after Animorphs :P
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I was like Sylaire, I read mountains of books, bu read even more after reading book 2, the Visitor.
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I still remember that #31 was the book that convinced the library to let me check out chapter books from the library :) in around 3rd grade. :)
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;D
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Cloaky, my story is similar to yours. I was a very very avid reader before Animorphs. I used to check out books from my school library as if they were candy, a book practically everyday. The librarian once even took me aside and asked me if I was just playing around checking out books and returning them the next day, but it was just that I loved to read.
Anyway, some Animorphs books were in the library and I thought they looked interesting enough for me to start reading them. Not surprisingly, I got hooked right away. Before I knew it, I was in every book fair and library in town to try to find more books.
So, how it did help was that it got me interested in following up and being as dedicated as one can get to reading those books. Before I would just read the synopsis on the back and check out random books, Animorphs got me more focused on what I want to choose. It added to my collection at home which I still cherish. It also got me more interested in animals. For example, when I read Cassie's The Message, I was so intrigued in dolphins and loved to know more about them. Also, ants, I wanted to know the nature of their living and such.
So, yeah animorphs did effect me as a reader quite positively.
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Not at all, as a reader, but a tiny bit as a writer. I co-wrote a Power Rangers fan fic series awhile ago, and the intro as to how they got their powers in our series', was slightly based off the intro for Animorphs.
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awesome to see how animorphs still continues to affect us. KA should read all this! ;D
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i can sum it up pretty well, hugely. i hated to read. i went to a private christian school, and we read chapter books in kindergarden. All the books were dumb,like diarys and stuff. One day, in 2nd grade my mom drug me into the library and lined up all of these books for me to read. i hated all of them. so, on my own, i looked around. Eventually, i found the Invasion. and after 15 mins, i couldnt put it down. Through the rest of gradeschool, i finished the sieries. marco was always my favorite, and i basicly modled my self after him from 3-5th. its safe to say that teachers hated marco.
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lol champion. i love your story. do you still contain those traits?
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yep. and the teachers still hate me. :P
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Animorphs provided me, A geeky kid with little social skills an escape into a place where I felt...Just enthralled with the world. Not being able to trust surface features really intrigued me. It made me who I am today.
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are you still a reader?
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well, I read a lot now, before, I never had any books on my bookshelf, now it's filled with all sorts of books. I've gotten better grades in english ever since I started reading them. (I recieved an a+ on something! I never get those, and it was actually loosely related to animorphs I got it on!)
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Animorphs are the single greatest influence in my life, I think its safe to say (except maybe my dog). Aside from them (and Goosebumps, okay) getting me into being an avid reader, helped mold me as a person. Being in college when I have to lead a group of people to do something, I ask, what would Jake do? Wow, I like that new motto, WWJD. In groups I try to look for a person that is closest to each of the Animorphs and rely on them for those attributes, because in reality, the Animorphs really weren't missing much in terms of a skilled diverse group. If a character is missing, I try to interject their view points.
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hahaha, what would Jake do. hahaha
nice, i never thought about using it that way...
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Animorphs are the single greatest influence in my life, I think its safe to say (except maybe my dog). Aside from them (and Goosebumps, okay) getting me into being an avid reader, helped mold me as a person. Being in college when I have to lead a group of people to do something, I ask, what would Jake do? Wow, I like that new motto, WWJD. In groups I try to look for a person that is closest to each of the Animorphs and rely on them for those attributes, because in reality, the Animorphs really weren't missing much in terms of a skilled diverse group. If a character is missing, I try to interject their view points.
When I was being trained about leadership stuff as part of my job, all the stuff I learned/read about facilitating conversations and leading a group perfectly described the way Jake would act, the way he'd lead discussing about strategies and stuff.
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I read a lot before Animorphs, but Animorphs was one of the best worlds to dive into. It made me want to write, and it made me love stories that weren't afraid to explore morality, and it taught me vocabulary. It didn't talk down to its audience, and I thought that was really cool. It even helped me on the AP Biology exam in high school, thanks to Visser One and the "corpus callosum"...x3 I got into Animorphs because I loved animals and science fiction, and the great story and characters were the icing.
It also made me realize I love characters that look human but really aren't, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It's so creepy, but at the same time, the moral ambiguity of sci-fi characters like that (including vampires, angels, demons, parasites, cyborgs etc.) is very interesting from a storytelling point of view.
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If it only takes a month for a certain writer to put out 150 pages of masterpiece, then why would it take twelve months for other authors to put out 400 pages? I find that weird.
That's one way Animorphs impacted me as a reader.
a lot of her stories were ghost-written as well.
i started reading the series many years ago, i own every single one (some dupes).
animorphs will stay in my mind forever.
somebody needs to get k.a. to make another animorph book :D
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yeah, if only if only!
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NO! Leave it in all its glory. Or else we will find Animorphs and the Crystal Skull
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hahahaha. true true. if only she didn't stop...
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:P >:(Am I the only one who thought Crustal Skull was a fantastic movie?
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i actually haven't seen it yet.
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Buy it on DVD :)
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:P >:(Am I the only one who thought Crustal Skull was a fantastic movie?
naw, i'm sure there's a few others.
i haven't seen it myself (after hearing reviews)
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The only new book I want from KA is a rewrite of the last book, that the vast majority of her fans would actually like. But since any fanfic writer can make a noncanon rewrite to their personal taste, then it's not really worth it.
I wonder if she's still working on Remnants. And if not, is she doing any other writing? I probably wouldn't read it until it ended, just to see if she ended it tragically or not.
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Nah, I'm like 90% sure Remnants ended.
I know some of the core people died........I dont know if that exactly counts as tragic, I guess it would depend on who they were.
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you mean the core people in the book right? not in real life?