WoTaLong (Wheel of Time Readalong) discussion

Hey Bookworms!

I thought it would be a good idea to start an introduction thread. Some of you I know already but some I don't! Tell us about yourself, feel free to include and social media links, and tell us about your experience with the series. Is this your first time reading it? Is it an old favorite? Have you, like so many others, read parts of the series and never finished it? What are you wanting to get out of this group?

I'll go first :) I'm Jade and I have booktube channel and blog by the name of Bedtime Bookworm (aptly named as I get most of my reading done in bed before falling asleep). I'm also fairly active on Twitter and less active on Instagram under the handle @bedtimebkworm.

I've reread the beginning of this series multiple times, most recently starting about a year ago. I believe I've read through books 11 or 12.... Possibly 13?? but it's honestly been so long that I'm not even sure where I stopped the last time I attempted to finish the series. I'm really looking forward to finishing it this time, and it's going to be so fun to finish the series along with a group of people (YOU GUYS!). I'm so excited to have people to discuss the series with for once in my life! :)

Ok, YOUR TURN!

Well, I'm Lalita and I first started reading WOT about a year ago, recommended by a friend of mine. I've only read through books 1-4 but that's because I tend to stop in a long series and take a break with a different book. I love this series so far. I don't really have any social media but I do write on this website called Quotev and I'm writing a book. I love to read and I tend to stay up late at night reading. I'm glad I found this group and I'm excited to be hearing about other peoples thoughts on this wonderful series :P

Hi all, I'm Shannon. I started reading the WoT a little over 20 years ago. At that point the series was only 4 books long, which I quickly read and adored. I would eagerly await the next book, and reread the entire series to remind myself of all that had happened before reading the new release. I did this until about book 7 or 8 when my life got a little too busy and I had switched to reading other genres.

Last year my husband and I decided that since neither of us had ever finished the series (I think he got up to book 9 or so), it would be great to reread it together. We love reading out loud to each other and decided this would be a great multi-year read for us. We started last summer and are currently in the beginning of book 3. I'm not sure if we'll keep up with the pace of this readalong, but I'll participate for as long as I can! I'm definitely enjoying rereading the series since my memories from my original reads have faded almost into oblivion and it's like reading an entirely new series (but one I know I love).

Hi guys! I’m Roya, and my Booktube channel is Unicorn Hunter Books.
I have never read the series before (I’m currently 200pgs into book 1), and I’m determined to read the whole series by the end of the year.

Hey everyone, I'm Sarah and my Booktube Channel is VoyageThroughWor(l)ds. I have never read the series but it's been something I wanted to do for a long time already :)

Hey, I am Jeffrey. It's nice to meet everyone. I first read Wheel of Time over a decade ago (only about the first six or seven books). I stopped reading them when Jordan passed. I loved the series but having known (thought) it would not be finished I decided to stop reading to keep from getting anymore invested. About three years ago, I reread the first three books after findng out that Sanderson had finished the series. I have been thinking about starting over again and this group caught my attention, so I decided now is as good a time as any. I look forward to reading along with all of you.

Hello everyone, I am Leanne, from Greenwich London. I have only just started this week, so I'm a little behind. It is the first time I've ever read a fantasy saga and I am so pleased that this the series I have chosen to read. I am hooked.

Thanks to everyone who has introduced themselves so far! I'm so excited we have some people who are reading for the first time. I think you're in for a treat (although I'm biased since I love the series already!).

Hello! My name is Kailee. I've never read Wheel of Time before, but was recommended the series in middle school by a friend and have always wanted to read it. I just picked up a copy from the library yesterday, and am excited to begin reading! I haven't read anything as long as this series, so I'm thrilled to start something this epic.

Welcome Kailee, I'm on week 2 so it will be good to have someone who is round about the same week as me.

I'm really enjoying the Eye of the World and the people in this group are really friendly too. Enjoy week 1

Hey Kailee! I hope you enjoy it :) It's definitely a long series but its quite the adventure! I think reading it with a group makes the experience so much fun. :)

Hey everyone! I'm Adam, from Sweden. I've read roughly half of book 1. I've never been in a book discussion group before so I'm looking forward to this experience.

I'm really enjoying the book so far.

Nice to meet you guys!

Welcome, Adam! If you'd like, you can look at the Jan Week 1 and Jan Week 2 discussions (which cover the first half of Book 1) and add your thoughts there! If you finish Book 1 by next weekend and the timing works for you, Roya is hosting the first liveshow discussion for this readalong (listed under the "Events" section on the WoTaLong homepage).

A friend of mine recommended this series to me in 1994. I was hooked pretty quick and read the first 6 books or so. As new books were released I didn’t always have time to really reread the previous and would get bogged down. Finally in 2015 i finished the last book. Looking forward to a reread this year.

Hi, Scott! Neat that you've completed the series before - it'll be really interesting to get your take on everything as we go through. Jade has mentioned seeing a lot of foreshadowing of things to come in later books even in the first novel.

Hi there. I am Kevin from Michigan. I have read the first 6 books and am in the 7th. Not looking to start over as it has taken me a long time to get this far. (I am a slow reader!) I took a couple year break from the series in the 7th book as I found it started to lag a bit. I am back at it and ready to enjoy the last half. I am looking forward to seeing what others think and trying to remember all that I already read years ago by listening to others and reading your summaries. Thanks for all the work put into maintaining the group.

Hey Kevin! I think its general consensus that books around 6-10 lag a little but it picks back up in the end! I hope you enjoy participating in the group :)

Hi my name is Carrie, I have read The Eye of the World twice now and each time I wanted to give it more then 5 stars. Why have I not read book 2 The Great Hunt? Because I get so distracted by other shinny's....I am guilty of doing that to so many series that I start. Many book ones read, book 2s not so much.

Oh, you should definitely read The Great Hunt! I think it's even better than the first book.

Not sure where to post this, but this thread seemed general enough - I ran across this list of stats for braid-tugging etc in the Wheel of Time which I thought was amusing:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WoT/comments...

I guess I should introduce myself (better late then never right?).

Hey guys I'm Danni. I have a book channel on YouTube called: Danni Buxton. I have never read the WOT before, but I remember always seeing the books as a kid when I'd go to the library, and swore to myself I'd read them one day. So a decade later here I am :)

Hi everyone, my name is Raul and I'm from Mexico :D This is the first time I'm reading the books.
Currently I'm reading "The fires of heaven".

While I was in Toronto last summer I discovered the books. I was talking with someone in a bookstore, I was reading "The Name Of The Wind" and he convinced me to read WOT. I made my reasearch.. 14 books? Wow. I must read it. So far, one of the best decisions I've made.

Greetings from Mexico!!

Hello Raul,

Welcome to the group. The Name of the Wind is on my TBR list. may be a long time till I get to it as I'm just at the end of the Eye of the World.

Hello,

I'm Kairit. I found Wheel of time in 2010 and read all the books that were published by then and after that when new book came out. did a re-read before the final book came out as well. So I had about 5 year break before this re-read.

To me this is one of the best fantasy book series. I love it.

Looking forward to discussing the books :) I'm already at The Shadow Rising.

Hello to all the new comers to this thread/group! I'm so happy to have a great mix of new readers and rereaders :) I wonder if it's inspiring or discouraging to new readers to know that even when you've read the series all the way through once, you're most likely going to want to read it again LOL.

On the one hand its great because it shows how much people have enjoyed the series, but on the other hand 14 books is a lot of reading and when you start doing rereads, it becomes even more books haha.

Hi all,

I’m glad to have found this group because I’ve been doing a WoT book a month challenge as well. I just finished the Great Hunt. It has taken me about 2 weeks to read each of the last 2 books so I’ll be starting Dragon Reborn in about mid March.

What's up yall. WoT is one of my favorite series. I've read all 14 books twice and did the audiobooks once. I'm friends with Thomas J. and saw that he's joined this group which I didn't know it existed. I'm glad to be around some fellow lovers of WoT Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson.

And yes this series takes forever but highly worth it. There's is not one book in the series that has less than 820 pages.

I'll be throwing in my 2 cents in here and there when I can.
Right now I'm reading The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington and there are many similarities in this book compared to how the The Eye of the World starts off. Well you can say there are many similarities with book one Lord of the Rings and Eye of the World too. Either way glad to be here. Thanks to Thomas!

J.J. wrote: "What's up yall. WoT is one of my favorite series. I've read all 14 books twice and did the audiobooks once. I'm friends with Thomas J. and saw that he's joined this group which I didn't know it exi..."

Awesome! I'm glad you joined as well! It will be nice having a WoT expert around :)

I'm Alexia and I just finished The Eye of the World a few days back. I took a week off from the series then I picked up the paperbacks for Books 2 and 3. I'll probably be a bit behind the read-along but that's fine with me since I like reading discussions more. I do hope I'll be able to contribute something though.

It's great to have so many different people joining! Welcome everyone, and looking forward to reading all your insights into the books!

Hello, my name is Roy. I'm just starting to read the series for the first time. I know I'm way behind, but I hope to catch up. I find that in reading a series as long as WoT you need some place like this group, so I hope we all have fun.

Hi Thomas, JJ, Alexia, and Roy! JJ - I'm sure your expertise will come in handy throughout the discussions :) Roy and Alexia, don't worry too much about being behind. There are people in our group who are at all stages of their WoT journey. The book specific discussion boards will always be up so feel free to go at your own pace. If you do get caught up with the group though, Roya and I do liveshows on YT every month and you can join us!

Hi everyone!

My name is Margaret and this is my first time reading the Wheel of Time series and being part of a readalong...and being active in a group. :D I was introduced to the series by my fiancée who has read it several times. It's his favorite. I started reading The Eye of the World last year and have been taking my time with each book. So far I'm enjoying it. Currently I'm on The Fires of Heaven. I joined this group for two reasons. The first being I'd like to read what other people think of the story as I'm going through it. The second being I hope participating in a group will help me get through the books at a faster pace. I look forward to chatting with everyone!

Welcome Margaret

Hello :) I go by Midnight or Angel, as I like to keep my real name a secret. I read the series as a child, but have recently began rereading it late last year. I'm currently on book 6, but I might take a pause so I can stay on track with this wonderful group.

I actively roleplay and write, and have always been an avid reader. You can find me on Tumblr under MidnightAngel51-ooc. I'm currently in a Discord group for Wheel of Time and will be telling them about this read a long <3.

Hi group. My name is Brandy. I am reading this series for the first time. I am a little behind but I think I can catch up quickly. It’s the slowing down part that I am concerned with, lol. I’m so excited to find a group doing this series! It is long and I’m not sure I would complete it in a timely manner on my own. I have read the prequel and book 1 so I am ready for The Great Hunt.

Hi Margaret, Midnight, and Brandy! I'm so happy to have some more first time readers discuss stuff with. It's always so interesting to hear first impressions or theories you might have!

Midnight, that's so cool about a Discord group! Discord isn't something I haven't gotten into yet, but I've considered it! Thanks for spreading the word, the more the merrier! :)

Hi, my name is Don. I started reading the WOT series when I was a kid in 1992, and stopped when Robert Jordan died. I just started to re-read the series in December after my daughter Ember was born. I hope to read these again with her when she gets old enough.

15 years ago I was an active member of Dragonmount. I have always wanted to attend JordanCon, and maybe when my daughter has read the books we will.

Hi Don, welcome to the group! Sounds like you're a WoT Veteran :) I hope one day your daughter enjoys the series just as much, that would be so fun. I have heard of JordanCon but I wasn't sure if it was something that was still ongoing, that's so cool!

Hello all, Michael here. Started reading WOT about a year and a half ago but found Sanderson's Mistborn series during my read of Lord of Chaos. I plan on picking up in June with this group and reading along, as I cannot wait to find out what is going to happen! Love the world, the characters, and the detail that Jordan provides in this most epic fantasy series.

Glad I found some like minded people, really wanted to read along with others as this is indeed a great journey to finish this series!

Michael

Hey Michael! Welcome to the group :) This series definitely leaves a lot of room for discussion and I'm glad you found the group in time to jump in with where you are in the series!

Hi, I'm Justin. I started reading WoT for the first time in November. I had been thinking about getting into the series for a while before then but the length of the series was always daunting enough for me to not start. Then I saw the news articles about the TV show they're supposedly working on and a friend strongly recommended WoT, so, I decided to dive in.

My strategy so far has been to read the ebook version and then listen to what I've already read when I can't sit down and read from my Kindle. Unfortunately, I have read a lot more than I've listened to. I recently finished Lord of Chaos but only at The Shadow Rising in the audiobooks. This group seems like the perfect way for me to discuss the books without worry of spoilers (Although i have wandered into the wiki's occasionally and spoiled stuff for myself; I try not to do that anymore), plus, maybe with this outlet I will stop talking about WoT with my friends who have never picked up the books. Lol.

Wow, not a single mention about me bullying you into it. I am very very offended. VERY OFFENDED.

My friend told me to read this series. After months of owning the book, I finally did. I haven't stopped reading it since. I tend to re-read the entirety once a year, then read Leigh Butler's re-read books/blog posts, followed up by reading the books one more time. Thats a yearly thing I do.

So to say I enjoy the series might not be strong enough. I have bullied Justin (The post above) into reading this and I have been struggling as he asks questions that I can not answer, and I have to give Aes Sedai answers to things just because I don't want him to not have the fun of discovering stuff himself.

I am not sure when I'm going to start re-reading the books, since I'm currently crawling through Dune, but when I do I'll be sure to jump in with both feet into the discussions.

Hi everyone! My name is Mo! I heard about the WoT series last year and I shelved them to get to later. I've been reading like crazy at work so I figured I should start the series! I just got the first book from the library last night but I hope to catch up with the readalong soon!

I'm mostly worried about characters in longer books. Should I make a character cheat-sheet for myself? Would that help when reading the books? I usually read 2-3 books at a time so going back to intricate stories can be a bit difficult sometimes.

I'm so happy I found this group and I can't wait to tackle the series with everyone!

It might help to make a character sheet as the series contains alot of characters. Also there are several wiki's that have information on all the characters. Most of the main characters are introduced in the first few chapters of the first book. A few main characters appear later. A lot of minor characters also appear throughout the series.

Scott wrote: "It might help to make a character sheet as the series contains alot of characters. Also there are several wiki's that have..."

Ok, thanks!

Hey Justin, Jen, and Mo! Welcome to the group!

Glad you got bullied into finally picking it up Justin! It's really hard to avoid spoilers for a series like this so I totally get the struggle. I actually just recently spoiled myself on something and was pretty devastated! We try to keep things spoiler free around here but its not easy :)

Wow Jen - you reread it EVERY year?? That's some dedication, I love it! And I know what you mean about having to give Aes Sedai answers sometimes. I just have to nod and smile mysteriously LOL.

Mo, I think having a character cheat sheet isn't a bad idea if you're up for putting in the work! There are definitely a lot of characters and often minor characters introduced in a book become more important later or at least keep showing up.

I made a YT video before that is and intro do the series along with some tips for reading if you're interested (https://youtu.be/P7wuMx2LgoA - no pressure to watch!) I mention in the video that there is a glossary at the back of each book which will have character descriptions. I said that they were spoiler free for that book, but i've had one person tell me the glossary spoiled them for something - so maybe err on checking the glossary of the previous book? Has anyone else had that happen to them? Just curious :)

Hey guys. My name is Kevin and I stumbled into this group today after reading the”Eye of the World” for the first time and was totally floored by how much I loved this book. I have not read any of the others in the series but just picked up the second book today (same day as finishing the first). I have some catching up to do! I have read all the biggest fantasy series and don’t know what took me so long to start this one (probably the length of it) but sooooo glad I did. Wow so pumped up to continue. Looking forward to reading all comments and opinions and maybe giving some myself. This book made such an impression on me. I have never joined a group or even given a written review on any book before this one. Thanks for starting it

Welcome Kevin glad you enjoyed the first book enough to join this group.

Hi everyone. I only joined goodreads at the end of last year and I never took part in any group or discussion, so I'm very much looking forward to give this a try. I started reading the Wheel of time series for the first time in January (unaware of this group though, otherwise I would have joined earlier). I started the Lord of Chaos this week, which means I'm almost perfectly on time.
I don't know why it took me so long to read the Wheel of time, I love fantasy and read many of the other big series. I'm enjoying the series very much so far (even though there are some aspects that are a tiny bit annoying). I'm reading the kindle version and now for book number 6 I also bought the audiobook to listen to on my way to work (made me realised that I had been slightly off when it comes to the pronunciation of some of the names...well, I'll get used to it). Looking forward to reading your opinions about the books!