How did you discover the OUTLANDER series?
Today (June 1) is World Outlander Day, celebrating the 32nd anniversary of OUTLANDER's publication in 1991. Congratulations, and many thanks, to Diana Gabaldon for creating this amazing story! Please join fans worldwide in celebrating with the hashtag #WorldOutlanderDay.
In celebration of #WorldOutlanderDay, I'm reposting the story of how I found Diana Gabaldon's books. Some of you may have heard this story before, but it's been a few years since I posted it, and this seems like a good opportunity to share it again.
Diana often says that these are "word-of-mouth" books, but that's not true in my case. I had never heard of the series or its author, I knew no one else who had read the books, and I knew nothing at all about the plot or the characters in advance. I found OUTLANDER completely by accident, browsing in a Barnes & Noble bookstore sometime in the fall of 2006.
It was the small-size (mass-market) paperback edition. I remember it was on a rack at the end of one of the aisles, or I probably would never have noticed it. My eye was caught by the striking blue color of the cover, and I picked it up (a little startled by the size of it, but not at all put off -- I like Big Fat Historical Novels, and always have) and briefly glanced through it.
Time-travel...that's good, I'm always up for a decent time-travel story. Hmm...Scotland? That could be interesting. BUT...it starts in 1945, and the main character is an Englishwoman. Is the author British too? Probably.* I often find British novels hard to get into, especially if they take place that far in the past [and by that I meant the 1940's, not the 18th century!]. Am I going to be able to, you know, relate to these characters? **
And so I put it back on the rack. Walked out of the store, and promptly forgot the author's name (quite unintentionally) ***. But I hadn't forgotten about the book, by any means, and I promised myself that if and when I ever saw it again, I'd give it a closer look.
A couple of months went by, and then I finally did find OUTLANDER again. I still hesitated. My thought at the time was, it's an awfully big book to buy if you're not sure ahead of time if you'll like it or not. So I went home without buying it, again, and with the name of the book and the author firmly fixed in my memory this time, looked up the Amazon reviews. Lots of talk in there about the Wentworth scenes, but I'd already had a bit of warning about that, having flipped through the book in the bookstore. The first bit of a scene I read was the part where Jamie tells Claire about the fortress inside him, so I knew something awful was going to happen to him. But I had no idea just how devastating it would be. Not a clue.
I was still wavering, undecided, and then my mom gave me a B&N gift card for my birthday. And I figured, why not? <g> Within a few pages, I was hooked! There were only six Big Books at that time. I devoured them in only about five weeks, then immediately started over. I read the series back to back four times in the first six months -- unable to put them down, unable to read anything else -- and felt the addiction growing with every re-read. Then I discovered the audiobooks, and eventually I learned how to slow down and pay attention to the details. I have been in a more-or-less continual state of re-reading or re-listening to the books ever since.
HUGE thanks to Diana Gabaldon for creating this amazing story, and for her support and encouragement over the years! Finding OUTLANDER really has changed my life, in more ways than I can count.
* It took me a LONG time to learn otherwise. For those of you who don't know, Diana was born and raised in Arizona, and currently lives in Scottsdale, AZ.
** Mea culpa #1. This particular thought makes me want to go back in time and slap myself. <g>
*** Mea culpa #2. I would have been hooked several months earlier if I'd just bought the darn book the first time I saw it! <wry g>
So that's my "How I found OUTLANDER" story. What about the rest of you?
I started my own bought collection with Fiery Cross - having bought this for Mum for Mother's Day she promptly told me she'd already bought it for herself, having read the previous 4 in 3 months!
For my initial re-reads I borrowed her copies but eventually had to have my own. I now have all the books and Audible of all the big books and most of Lord John.
TV series is good but I point out all the 'mistakes' every time!!
Does that COUNT?!?? Are you kidding me? None of us would be talking about OUTLANDER all these years later if you hadn't given Diana a place to post those early snippets on Compuserve!
Karen
I remember looking at the book cover and thinking "what a good art cover" (this is the link in case you want to take a look: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20444381-os-tambores-de-outono---1-parte?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=1hs0DTDN7h&rank=3).
I ended up sending the book back to the publisher but that cover was always on my mind. That was 2008-2009. Fast forward to 2014 when the show came out and I started watching. I became immediately obsessed, ran to a bookstore ( a different one because I had just quit the one I mentioned *_*) to buy the book but because it was being published by a different publisher I didn't recognize as being the same series as the book I had came across so many years before. Also, I didn't recognized the author's name. I finished reading the first book in less than a day and went to google to search for the other volumes. Can you imagine my surprise when I saw it was from the same series as the beautiful cover that had been "haunting" me for almost 5 years!!!!!??? I literally screamed and cried because the books were sold out/discontinued and the new publisher had no plans at the time to keep releasing the rest of the series. Thank God the show was a hit on Netflix and the publisher decide to release the continuation. Also, I managed to snatch the old/discontinued editions with the beautiful covers after spending a pretty amount of money and begging the person that owned the collection to sell it to me <3
I quickly became engrossed with the Outlander books and devoured them greedily, (too quickly the first time) to get ahead of the story and the series. The second time was to find fault with the TV series and all the changes in character and plot it has made. I am now on to my third reading and am loving the detail, humour, wisdom and subtleties Diana can weave into her story. Whilst the TV series presents an enjoyable adaptation, the books are brilliant. No TV series can capture the nuances and detail of a good novel in spite of terrific acting and good screen writing. I sometimes wonder though if the producers and writers are hoping to improve on Diana’s story rather than just present it visually.
I categorise myself now as an Outlander tragic, having immersed myself in blogs, articles, interviews, academic papers and relevant non fiction for two years, about both the TV series and the books. Moving back to other authors is proving very hard indeed. I hope I can become more accepting of the TV version in time because I appreciate it has broken ground in the TV world and it was through this medium that I found the books.
Great blog Karen. Thanks so much.
Alison S
I quickly became engrossed with the Outlander books and devoured them greedily, (too quickly the first time) to get ahead of the story and the series. The second time was to find fault with the TV series and all the changes in character and plot it has made. I am now on to my third reading and am loving the detail, humour, wisdom and subtleties Diana can weave into her story. Whilst the TV series presents an enjoyable adaptation, the books are brilliant. No TV series can capture the nuances and detail of a good novel in spite of terrific acting and good screen writing. I sometimes wonder though if the producers and writers are hoping to improve on Diana’s story rather than just present it visually.
I categorise myself now as an Outlander tragic, having immersed myself in blogs, articles, interviews, academic papers and relevant non fiction for two years, about both the TV series and the books. Moving back to other authors is proving very hard indeed. I hope I can become more accepting of the TV version in time because I appreciate it has broken ground in the TV world and it was through this medium that I found the books.
Great blog Karen. Thanks so much.
Alison S