Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: geeky
  • Music: The Band Perry, "Done."

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!
Tags: giving stuff away, good things, jim hines
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druidspell

August 7 2013, 07:05:34 UTC 3 years ago

US reader
First book that changed my life was "There's a Wocket in My Pockeet" by Dr. Suess--this was the book I learned to read with, and being able to read (and write) is one of the things that's kept me alive through some pretty difficult circumstances.

ext_2102007

August 7 2013, 07:31:52 UTC 3 years ago

Jurassic park

I'm in the US

arcaneblades

August 7 2013, 07:55:27 UTC 3 years ago

The Last of the Very Great Whangdoodles, by Julie Andrews.
US

I was in I think the second grade and our teacher was reading this one aloud. It said so much to agency, in children, and respect for them, and the power of imagination that I was in love. I desperately needed my own copy. Only problem, it was out of print at the time, and this was in the days before internets. I remember that someone in the bookstore at the local mall did the lookup work on print status, and that there was some way to order a copy. My mom was willing to do it, and I remember reading it several more times as a child. It has since come back into print, and this has inspired me to go looking for a copy for a child I know and buy books for.

rose_clover

August 7 2013, 10:11:45 UTC 3 years ago

1. The Chronicles of Narnia - they first introduced me to fantasy :)

2. Non-USA

3. Willing to pay postage

ext_2102224

August 7 2013, 10:26:06 UTC 3 years ago

The Fellowship of the Ring, JRR Tolkein
I'm in the US

silvormoon

August 7 2013, 11:26:42 UTC 3 years ago

The first book to change my life was The Ghost in the Garden, by Carol H. Behrman. It was the first real chapter book I ever read without pictures of any kind, and changed my perspective from "Books without pictures are for grownups, and boring" to "Books are awesome and I need more of these!"

I'm in the US!

tobinsguide

August 7 2013, 13:07:54 UTC 3 years ago

The Stand, by Stephen King
Non-Us (Canadian!)
Willing to pay postage!

Alyssa Delgado

August 7 2013, 13:57:46 UTC 3 years ago

1. Bridge to Terabithia - the first book that I was so attached to the characters that I was thoroughly devastated when she died.
2. US

Yay! Jim Hines! Books!

dickgloucester

August 7 2013, 14:28:22 UTC 3 years ago

The first book to change my life was "Jane Eyre". I first read it when I was eight-and-a-half, mostly to prove to my sister that I wasn't lying when I said I was a good reader. That motivation lasted about two pages - and then I was swept away. "Jane Eyre" showed me very clearly that an adult can speak to a child and be understood - that a child is capable of understanding on a very sophisticated level: both Jane in her early years and I, reading her story, showed ourselves capable of interpreting what other people said was too complex or challenging for us. I also learned at that early age that books don't have to be about people my own age to be interesting - and that led me on to reading all sorts of things which opened up my world and my imagination. And, of course, I had my second-ever experience of falling in love (Captain Kirk was the first!), which was magical.

Since then, I have read "Jane Eyre" about every two years. Each time I read it, different things stand out to me, but it hasn't lost the magic of that first time. I still feel very, very brave reading the Red Room chapter (after the first time, I always skipped that bit until I was fourteen and screwed my courage to the sticking-place); I still feel indignant for child Jane; I still fall in love with Rochester; I still feel Jane's desolation and then the rightness of her reward at the end. If any book is magical, this one is for me.

I'm in the UK, and yes, I will pay postage if you should choose me!

wendyzski

August 7 2013, 14:47:41 UTC 3 years ago

The Hobbit
US (Illinois)

cainle_bean

August 7 2013, 15:43:39 UTC 3 years ago

"All Creatures Great and Small" by James Herriot was the first, but many have done so since.

US

tamry

August 7 2013, 15:46:20 UTC 3 years ago

US reader - Camber of Culdi by Katherine Kurtz.

marence

August 7 2013, 16:55:22 UTC 3 years ago

The Saint by Leslie Charteris. I was an early reader growing up in a house full of Mystery and Detective Club and Reader's Digest Condensed books, and was allowed to read anything I could read. Reading that book at 8 cemented my Anglophilia (instigated by Agatha Christie a year or so earlier), and the concept of both capers and Justice have informed my life ever since.

Cleveland, Ohio, US.

sistercoyote

August 7 2013, 16:57:36 UTC 3 years ago

Lavender-Green Magic, Andre Norton

sylviamcivers

August 7 2013, 21:14:45 UTC 3 years ago

That was an awesome book. Choose the right-hand path, indeed. Unless you're angry and go left...

sistercoyote

3 years ago

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sylviamcivers

3 years ago

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sistercoyote

3 years ago

  • New comment

Brendan Coffey

August 7 2013, 17:22:56 UTC 3 years ago

First book to have a direct, tangible impact on my Life? Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, by Mercedes Lackey. Second I graduated highschool, I ran off and joined the travelling Ren-faire, due almost entirely to this book. The experience was not entirely as advertised.

I live in the US.

sylviamcivers

August 7 2013, 21:16:43 UTC 3 years ago

Loved that book. Way to have long hair, people! And fighting wiht music. Cool.

kimberkit

August 7 2013, 17:28:03 UTC 3 years ago

Oooh. There are many books that have changed my life, but the very first one was... Ronia, the Robber's Daughter, by Astrid Lindgren. Lots of lessons there: adults can be wrong; there is more than one sort of love; it's okay to not act like a girl -- the book blew my mind =) The Brothers Lionheart, did, too, shortly after, when I wept buckets over dying and pain and thought about the concept of multiple afterlives.

I love this question, Seanan! And I can't wait til I get Velveteen vs. the Multiverse, which I pre-ordered in hardcover despite my vow to try to do things by ebooks, because I believe you probably deserve the extra cat-feeding money, and because, well, Velveteen.

I'm in the US.

replyhazy

August 7 2013, 17:54:48 UTC 3 years ago

Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising

(USA)

sylviamcivers

August 7 2013, 21:17:37 UTC 3 years ago

I loved the idea of one shape, different materials for different symbols.

chaoticgoodnik

August 7 2013, 18:09:22 UTC 3 years ago

It's a book I can't remember the name of - I periodically cudgel my brain over it. It was one of my mother's textbooks about the history of Virginia. On an 8+ hour car ride I sat there reading it. It opened my mind to the possibility that stories could be real and real life could make stories. I had read kids' non-fiction before - I was probably somewhere between 8 and 10 - and even made little books out of that paper meant for kids to practice their handwriting on and rewrote the books I read as book-report-ish things. I'd read the Little House books, but those were just things I read and was effortlessly engrossed in. This history book was different and more real somehow, and I can still remember having that neurons-firing, new-connections-being-made feeling.

I am in the US.

Thanks for this giveaway. Whether I win or lose, reading this thread has been interesting.

Deleted comment

allisonvirtue

August 7 2013, 19:02:39 UTC 3 years ago

Ender's Game, it was the book that got me reading sci-fi, and it's been a lifelong love ever since.

I am in the US!

sleightedge

August 7 2013, 19:14:35 UTC 3 years ago Edited:  August 7 2013, 19:16:13 UTC

Briar's Book by Tamora Pierce. Though I can't be sure now, I'm fairly sure that it wasn't the first fantasy book I read and it may not have been the one that got me hooked on the genre, but it was definitely the one that made me realize that I was hooked. Somehow, I read the Circle series completely out of order so that this is the first one that I picked up. And when I met Tris I had to read Tris's Book next, and then I was a goner.

I'm in the USA!

Amy Harlib

August 7 2013, 19:46:02 UTC 3 years ago

Dr Suess's HORTON HEARS A WHO changed my life! It was one of the first books I ever read, and it's pure SF - concept's of worlds within worlds and trying to communicate between them. I was a huge fan of everything SF & F forever after.

Thanks so much!

Amy in NYC.

jessicasix

August 7 2013, 20:54:01 UTC 3 years ago

This was really hard! Probably The Three Little Pigs since it was the first book I ever checked out from the library on my own, cementing my love of libraries forever. It was also the first library book I promptly lost.

I am in the U.S. :)

sylviamcivers

August 7 2013, 21:10:55 UTC 3 years ago

Lots of books changed my life in small ways, but "Memory" by Lois McMaster Bujold had the hero feeling depressed and too numb to be actively suicidal. Instead he just sat in a chair and watched the sunlight move in and out of the room. For three days. Until a relative pretty much broke down the door and forced him to eat something.

I thought 'oh, is -that- what depression looks life. Just like my life.' And I went to a doc, described my life, and got meds.

geojlc

August 7 2013, 22:09:42 UTC 3 years ago

Tamora Pierce: Alanna -- the first test. It was about a girl! Who got to follow her dreams and be a knight instead of what the world thought she *should* be!
I'm in the US.
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