I read The Tomb because Lance Storm (a former pro wrestler) chose it as a book club selection. I read the reviews from his website, as well as FPW's response to the reviews. It sounded interesting, so I read it, loved it, then continued with the series. Eventually I started reading other fpw works (Black Wind, then The Keep).

I visited this site after reading a reference to it on one of the RJ books (I think it was Legacies).

I was just curious (and perhaps other forum members are, also) as to which F. Paul Wilson book was your first?
How old were you when you read it?
Why did you read it?
Inquiring minds want to know how you got hooked...

Sincerely,
Srem

Here's my story on how it all started:
In 1985 (I was 13 and on summer break from school) my father brought me along on one of his "construction excursions." It was a cold, rainy day and due to the fact that I was too young to operate the heavy machinery needed to build the new indoor tennis court he was working on, I got stuck sitting in his cramped Toyota truck all day.
Sensing my boredom, he gave me some money and said I could go get whatever I wanted from the brand new mini-mart that had popped up next to the tennis court's construction site. After walking around the mini-mart for awhile, and armed with the usual kid-fare of soda pop and candy, I drifted over to the bookstand. Deciding that there was nothing of interest for a 13 year-old kid in the stand, I almost walked away, then my eyes suddenly fell on a creepy-looking greenish-yellow novel with the words THE TOMB emblazoned on the front cover. This was the first soft-back printing of the book, and it was larger than anything I had ever read, but I decided after studying the teaser on the back I was ready for the challenge.
I read and re-read the book several times over the course of 8 years, not realizing that after I had already bought and read another novel titled Nightworld, that this was part of a six-book collection called "The Adversary Cycle." From there I proceeded to painstakingly hunt down and collect the rest of the out-of-print series, which is still one of my favorites to this day.

The end of my story is a tragic one, however, as the worn but still intact remains of my first sentimental copy of The Tomb was torn to shreds by my ex-roommate's pet Beagle. No other book was touched. How could this be, I wondered in anguish?
My only thought was to conclude to the possibility that this vicious excuse for a dog had been touched by the Otherness...:confused:

Who's Paul Wilson? Isn't this the NORA'S FRIENDS board?

A couple of years ago I was wandering through a bookstore and immediately ran to the horror scifi section. I grabbed a collection of Lovecraft stories. As I was walking away I turned back because I dropped my phone and as I rose back up I saw HOSTS. That title shook me. I looked it over and it seemed fantastic. After that harbringers then the tomb and the rest is history.

A couple of years ago I was wandering through a bookstore and immediately ran to the horror scifi section. I grabbed a collection of Lovecraft stories. As I was walking away I turned back because I dropped my phone and as I rose back up I saw HOSTS. That title shook me. I looked it over and it seemed fantastic. After that harbringers then the tomb and the rest is history.

Welcome, Tyler. You'll like it here.

Nice to see another board member that can give insomniacs like me a little company by posting at 12:24AM.

Harbingers was a violent work of art, as was the "Subway Saviour" scene in Hosts.

With those two as your intro to Jack, you had little choice but to become an addict.

Like us.

...or is that "a member of the Unity"

Heh.

-Wapitikev

HEALER - when i first came out back in '77 (?). I had been struggling to understand my personal philosophy for a long time, and when I read the description of Tolive, I had the same reaction as the Healer... yikes... then, wow...

For me, an epiphany! I've read every book since, and try to always buy the first editions (and the other editions) to make sure the boss' publishers still like him.

There was a period when it was REALLY HARD to find his books - especially the laNague Chronicles... Thank goodness that is no longer the case!!!

Mine was The Keep, the first paperback edition in 1982. I was 16 or 17 and was reading the most god-awful books as long as the carnage was maxed out. Something about that light in the window struck a chord within me and so I bought it. It was by far the most sophisticated book I'd read and it produced enough corpses for my teen-addled mind so that when I stumbled upon The Tomb a couple of years later I picked it up and when Jack took out the cinder-block thrower I was hooked for life.

Started with Soft and Others. Followed by Black Wind. Then, history....

Soft and Others was a shiny, new book on a shelf in a new Used Book store. It called to me, though I didn't realize what that meant at the time. I've never been one for short fiction before. Bought it; read it; loved it. Found Black Wind on a clearance rack in a K-Mart. Wow!

Went back to the used book store only to find it out of business only a few weeks after I bought Soft. It's always seemed to be one of those cliched destiny things.

I used to pick up books at garage sales because the nearest bookstore (new or used) was around 20 miles away. And when you're a kid you don't have all that much money. So I'd go to garage sales and load up. One day I noticed that I bought The Keep and The Tomb at different garage sales. I read them (The Keep first) and later found that they were the first two books in The Adversary Cycle. So I went out and got the rest. This was in '95.

The Touch. When I was around 12 I found it on my Dad's bookcase. Scarred me for life.

I read the Tomb and the Keep back in the 80's ... my boyfriend at the time was into them and I read whatever he was reading, then I just didn't follow up and read the rest.
Then in 2007 we got back in touch with each other and I asked him if he had any suggestions of books to read and he listed off the RJ series. Since fall of 2007 I've read just about every book FPW has put out to date at least once, I'm currently working my way through the RJ series again, just finished reading the Tomb for the 3rd time now (took 4 days, and I only read at night before bed).