Who doesn't enjoy shiny, shiny giveaways? CODEX BORN releases today!: seanan

Who doesn't enjoy shiny, shiny giveaways? CODEX BORN releases today!

My dearly beloved friend Jim Hines (http://www.jimchines.com/) has a new book out today: Codex Born, the sequel to Libriomancer. The magic of books has never been so real, or so incredibly dangerous.

I really, really loved this book, which I felt expanded and improved upon the world of the original, so when Jim asked if I would be willing to host a giveaway, I was happy to oblige. This is that giveaway. The rules:

1. Leave a comment on this post, naming the first book that really changed your life.
2. Identify your location in the world (US, non-US).
3. If non-US, confirm that you are willing to pay postage (for we are poor writers).

The winner will be chosen by RNG on Friday, August 9th, and Jim himself will be sending a signed copy of Codex Born to the winner. If you're not familiar with the series, you're in luck: book one, Libriomancer, is out today in paperback, so you can get all caught up.

Books! Magic! Awesomeness!

GAME ON!

ETA: Guys, I know it's tempting to discuss people's awesome taste in books with them, but please DO NOT REPLY to comments on RNG giveaway posts! It confuses the RNG, and has resulted in people NOT getting the prizes that they should have received!

deidre_

August 6 2013, 14:52:09 UTC 3 years ago

New comment

Mine would be A Wrinkle in Time. In elementary school, I'd mainly read series like the Black Stallion books (yes, there are many of them - all about a kid and a horse, it's how I learned the various names for horse colors), the Babysitter's Club books, and the Sweet Valley elementary and middle school books. Then, in sixth grade, I was in middle school and needed a new book to read. I saw this one that looked like it had been bound in burlap, all grey-brown and rough textured. I guess whatever protective cover it had once had was long gone. I took it, traveled with Meg and Charles Wallace and was hooked on fantasy novels for life. I live in the U.S., specifically Kentucky.

Alana Lee Rock

August 6 2013, 14:53:38 UTC 3 years ago

Random House Children's Book of Poetry... I can still recite at least two of those poems from memory, and my oldest son used that same book on a school project. I already had a love of reading, but at the time, it somehow marked a transition from golden books and Dr. Seuss into a bigger, wider world of literature.

US/TX

jasondrake

August 6 2013, 14:56:22 UTC 3 years ago

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

I'm in the US

Deleted comment

wenhaver

August 6 2013, 14:57:32 UTC 3 years ago

I'm another Wrinkle in Time person. I'm sure there are others, but I remember picking that up from the spinny wire racks at the library and reading it curled up on my Grandmother's old brown couch and feeling like I was home in my head.

I'm in the US (but would still be happy to pay postage, if Jim wants).

pickledginger

August 6 2013, 15:08:47 UTC 3 years ago

A Tale of Two Cities.
USA.

juglore

August 6 2013, 15:09:09 UTC 3 years ago

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton

US

almaeron

August 6 2013, 15:12:10 UTC 3 years ago

First book that changed my life? I think it was Tintin and the Black Island, the first book my elementary school librarian showed me that taught me I really liked to read...

(US)

taldragon

August 6 2013, 15:12:46 UTC 3 years ago

so many books changed my life... but i'd have to say Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern (i think. the first one). because OMG DRAGONS DO WANT (and also Female Lead Character! who has a Dragon!).

i'm in the UK and would happily pay for postage.

booniverse

August 6 2013, 15:13:04 UTC 3 years ago

I'd have to say 'Stranger in a Strange Land', even though I've never really warmed to it. What it did for me was teach me that there was a level of SF out there beyond the juvies and started me reading the "Grown up SciFi". Coming off "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" into Stranger was a little like running into a really solid brick wall though.

I'm in the US. Michigan more specifically.

etcet

August 6 2013, 15:15:27 UTC 3 years ago

'Salem's Lot was what kindled my goddamned goth/vamp thing. People who feel shame tell me that's what I should feel, but that's like telling me how it is to be six foot two. I'll never know.

I'm in the US, probably to our mutual chagrin some days.

ext_2100915

August 6 2013, 15:18:41 UTC 3 years ago

TARZAN, by Edgar Rice Burroughs ...

Ralph Smith
Phoenix, AZ

djbp

August 6 2013, 15:19:03 UTC 3 years ago

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Non-US (UK)

Definitely willing to pay postage

moongirli

August 6 2013, 15:19:31 UTC 3 years ago

Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg.

In the US. :)

briargrey

August 6 2013, 15:20:37 UTC 3 years ago

Put Me In the Zoo. I made my mother read it to me so many times I memorized it. Then it suddenly clicked - those letters on the page equated to the words she said, and I was able to match up words with my memorization. I was about 5. And from then on, you couldn't stop me reading.

U.S.

runedrum

August 6 2013, 15:24:00 UTC 3 years ago

The Boxcar Children, ha! Because it was first book I read of my own volition...

Location: Missoula, MT, USA.

Also, thanks for hosting the contest!

lietya

August 6 2013, 15:24:15 UTC 3 years ago

Isaac Asimov's _Prelude to Foundation._ First science fiction I ever read, and I was hooked ever after (and it was the gateway drug into fantasy for me too).

sirfox

August 6 2013, 15:29:44 UTC 3 years ago

first book(s) to really change my life: Spider Robinson's "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" Series.

I'm in the US.

I'm happy to pay postage anyway.

Thanks!

reedrover

August 6 2013, 15:39:07 UTC 3 years ago Edited: August 6 2013, 15:39:21 UTC

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court wasn't the first "adult" book that I read, but it was the first one that I found in the deep, dark, imposing room that was my grandmother's library. It wasn't on the "kids' shelf" over by the door. It was part of a series of thick, dark green books halfway up the wall next to the fireplace. It was one of many leather-bound series lined up in formidable ranks that marched around the room. But it was Twain, and it was funny and fun and silly and smart. And through that book I discovered that those impenetrable walls of faceless books weren't so scary. I learned that I should open those gilt and dark covers before I judged the contents dry and tasteless. Books without pictures on the covers were really OK after all.

And I'm in the USA.

tsukara

August 6 2013, 15:41:48 UTC 3 years ago

The *first* would probably be The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Lessons include the essential being invisible to the eye, and only visible with the heart; that one friend among a multitude can make all the difference; that death is scary, yes, but not so terrifying it cannot be faced; to see the elephant inside the snake, and not a hat, and how to draw a sheep, among many, many others.

I'm in the US.

free_reverie

August 6 2013, 15:46:06 UTC 3 years ago

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

I'm in the US! :)

childe

August 6 2013, 15:46:36 UTC 3 years ago

The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper

In the USA.

estelendur

August 6 2013, 15:50:38 UTC 3 years ago

Wild Magic and the rest of its quartet, by Tamora Pierce, taught me that transformation is possible, and that it can come out of the heart of you. Even though you might end up in a place you never could have anticipated, you can still be fundamentally yourself, and so much more yourself than you ever thought you could be.

(Am in US)