My first time

[Kelwynish]

For me it was pure luck. I have a long commute for work and decided to fill that time with audio books. I picked WOK because it was really long and looked appealing. Best snap decesion I've ever made. 

[Rosharan A.C.]

I first learned about it from my cousin. I think it had been a few months actually since he first told me about it, before I really became interested. We were at a youth summer camp, and he was discussing this book called “The Wave Kings” with our other friend. I didn’t listen in too much, but enough that I was pretty intrigued. So, I asked if I could borrow it, and I got to work! When my cousin first lent it too me, I actually recognized the cover! I very faintly remembered seeing it on one of the bookshelves in our house I don’t know how many years ago. I’m pretty sure I thought it was some medieval story. But anyway, I started, and I loved it! I finished it and the next two, and then my cousin took the liberty of explaining the cosmere to me. At that point it seemed pretty essential that I own and read all of Brandon Sanderson’s books, so that’s what I did! 

[danex]

I can't actually remember if I read Mistborn or Elantris first, I think it was Elantris. 
I remember just finding it on a shelf in my house and picking it up because I was bored. 
I was in like 4th or 5th grade at the time so I'm not sure how well I understood it but I remember liking it. 
I found Mistborn later and loved it but I don't think I even knew they were by the same guy
Like 2 years later after reading Final Empire dozens of times I discovered that Mistborn was a trilogy and almost died
Soon after I discovered the Cosmere and all his other books inevitably followed 

[ShawnMC]

It was around the big holidays of 2010, October at the earliest, and I was getting ready to go on a rather long car ride with my girlfriend at the time. I think we were going with her family to visit her sister or something. I knew she was going to sleep most of the way and I can't sleep on car rides so I had her parents stop off at a bookstore (called BAM!) before we hit the road. My intention was to find some cheap paperback that I could (mostly) finish in a couple of hours. Maybe two since we were going to be staying there for a few days.

There was a shelf dedicated to The Way of Kings and one of the hardcovers had what I recall was a 60% off sticker but that wasn't even what I noticed first. I immediately recognized Michael Whelan's art on the cover. I try not to judge a book by its cover but we've all done it at some point, right? I remember I had just finished Stephen King's Dark Tower series around this time and Whelan had also did the artwork for that and so seeing his work on this pretty new fantasy book felt like fate. I'm not gonna' lie, the mistaken discount played a pretty huge factor and I'm something of a sucker for a beefy hardcover (I just like the way they feel). 

I had only heard of Brandon as being the guy who was finishing the Wheel of Time but since I had never been interested in that particular series, I never gave him a second look. I hadn't heard of any of his other novels despite some of them being quite popular (Mistborn comes to mind) so it really came down to the marked down sticker, the beautiful cover art, and the synopsis that had me throwing caution to the wind and diving into an unfinished epic fantasy series by an author I had never read and I've been a fan ever since.

Something that had struck me right away as I was reading it in the car was that we were introduced to our main character, Kaladin, from the perspective of someone else and I thought that was very well done, especially when you get to know him more and realize he is less (and yet somehow more) heroic than he was portrayed from the perspective of a young soldier.

I kind of gave a shorter version of my Sanderson discovery in my introduction post since I didn't know this thread was here so I thought I'd regale you fine folks with the unedited version. Also, I have word vomit. 

Edited June 6, 2020 by ShawnMC

[Cheat Commando]

I remember seeing someone reading Mistborn in one of my college classes (back in 2010) and while the cover intrigued me, I thought nothing of it. TWO YEARS LATER, I saw it on my older brother's bookshelf and asked him about it. He said it was awesome. Still skeptical, I read the back cover ("Once, a hero arose to save the world... He failed.") and THAT'S what hooked me.

And now I have an entire shelf on my bookcase just for Brandon's books.

[Shard of Reading]

I was going to dinner with my youth pastor, and he recommended the way of kings to me. I went home, got it from the library and finished it in like a week.

When he recommenced it he made it sound like an allegory for Christianity. It took me until about half way through WoR to figure out that it was not.

[Spren of Kindness]

Once upon a time, (about eleven months ago), in a small town library, I ran into a friend's younger brother, and he recommended Brandon Sanderson, specifically The Rithmatists.  A quick library search later, I was in line for Steelheart.  I read all of the Reckoners, and thought it was okay, not my favorite, though.  But then, I decided to give Sanderson another chance.  I got in line for Mistborn.  And I fell in love.  I read the first trilogy, and was devastated by the ending.

The rest is history.

[Goatbringer]

I never realised that this thread was here!

I first heard about Brandon after Robert Jordan died and Harriet had selected him to be the author of the final three books in the series. I was skeptical, but only because I hadn't ever heard of him. The first book of his I read was The Gathering Storm, but that doesn't exactly count as pure BrandoSando, but it was enough that I believed that he could do justice to the series I had come to love like nothing else (my wife and I eventually met and got married through a Wheel of Time facebook group), so I decided that this guy was worth a read on his own. 

At this time it was 2010 and I was wandering through my local bookstore when I saw a huge doorstopper with his name on it... The Way of Kings. Funnily enough, this was one day before the actual release of The Way of Kings was scheduled, so I accidentally got my first BrandoSando book a day early. Since then, I usually try to convince shop clerks to sell me the latest one a day in advance, but I've not had any luck. Also, I just get eBook versions now so it's less of a mission - I wake up and there's Oathbringer!

[HemalurgyIsMessy]

I was just about to finish my pharmacy residency and would finally have free time to pursue hobbies that interested me. I have always enjoyed video games for their fantastic stories and fantasy worldbuilding, and had always like the LOTR movies so I wanted to get into fantasy books. Unfortunately, as a complete outsider to reading in general and fantasy specifically I had no idea where to start, and I knew that fantasy could sometimes be a cheap genre filled with crap (like sci fi). As one of the last duties of my residency, I had to help with the next year's resident interviews, and that always involved the interviewees coming to lunch with us where we can talk openly and candidly about the program. One of the applicants was a HUGE fantasy fan, and when we started talking about it he would not shut up about this guy named Brandon Sanderson and how he finished the Wheel of Time series. He suggested I pick up Mistborn and see if I like it.

In about 1-2 weeks I had read the original Mistborn trilogy and was starting Elantris when I realized that I really dig this guy. LOTR is way too fantastical, and ASOIAF is very dark and shocking almost just for the lulz, but Brandon has a way of combining fantastical worldbuilding with gritty realism in a way that makes me feel like I don't have to take a shower after. Blew through Elantris, Warbreaker, Alloy of Law (new when it came out) and then read Way of Kings and just blew my mind. Bought Words of Radiance on release day (or soon after), and then to kill the time between books I read the Wheel of Time just so I could get to the Sanderson books. He has ruined me for other fantasy authors, nobody does it like Sanderson and so I am totally ok with just spending the rest of my life reading and waiting on his new books. 

[Sureblood]

I started reading the Way of Kings after a suggestion from someone at my church, and absolutely adored it. I have since become obsessed with the Cosmere!

[Bondsmith30]

Discovered Brandon pretty much when he was announced to be finishing the Wheel of Time...I was about 3 books in to that series, and I was caught up on WoT by the time Gathering Storm came out.  I finished Wheel of Time and then decided to dabble in Brandon's works.  Bought the Final Empire and then about 3 days into it I bought everything else I could find that he had written that was attached to the Cosmere.  This was in late 2013, I was in the Navy, and in my down time I liked to read after a long day of work.  I savored everything, and was so into the worlds, the magic systems, and especially the characters.  The subtle interconnected story between all of these seemingly individual series.  

[Hoidolasium]

I had a counselor that recommended Mistborn to me, which I instantly loved. Ironically, I had actually read Reckoners the year before, when it was recommended to me by a friend, but didn't realize it was Sanderson until years later.

Now that I put it on paper it's not that fleshed out of a story

[Darkfinder]

My uncle bought me Mistborn The Final Empire and Well and Accension as a present. I read through them both and afterwards bought The Hero of Ages, I loved the series and then promptly forgot about it until I eventually reread the series. After that I found out about the cosmere and read all the other books.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Darkfinder

[DramaQueen]

My brother was the one who introduced me to Brandon Sanderson books. I don't know how he was introduced though...

Anyway, he had read The Way of Kings and loved it, so he recommended it to me. I started it, and I hate to admit it, but I was bored at the beginning, so I stopped reading it. A couple months or more later, my brother convinced me to give it another chance, and when I did, I loved it. I started reading everything by Sanderson that I could get my hands on, talking to anyone and everyone about it, whether or not they had read it. So yep. Thats it.

[Bearer of all agonies]

Brandon is everything to us. What would we do without him? 

[Chinkoln]

My grandpa recommended that I listen to Mistborn on Audible. I loved it. That sparked reading and listening to books for me. 

Edited July 19, 2020 by Chinkoln

[FriarFritz]

Some family friends gave us an old Kindle what had TFE, WoK, and AoL on it. 

My dad started reading TFE, recommended it to me. I loved it, and then devoured WoK and was absolutely blown away. Then I read AoL and was... confused, to say the least. Especially since whoever had been reading it last had stopped at 70% of the way through. Somehow, I didn't notice the chapter number. 

 

[jjecholds]

I had a friend that had read The Way of Kings and recommend it to me back before Words of Radiance when Tor was giving it away. It stayed in my Google drive for a while forgotten about. Then when that semester ended and I had time to read I devoured The Way of Kings. I immediately got all of his books I could!

[Shardsplinter]

So, I've always been a fan of original and detailed magic systems, and I actually use to spent a lot of times thinking about the possibilities of different forms of magic and weird creatures that just came to my mind. Then the coolest thing happens: I asked a good friend to help me with some fan research I was doing on finding new kinds of magic. We talked about it 4 a while but came up standing pretty much the same way as when we started. Couple of weeks later she calls saying: "remember how u were looking 4 magic that felt sort of different, well...get ready to drop dead! U need to read Mistborn ASAP, oh! and there's this charachter who stores religions that I know u r gonna love" That's how I met the king of original and detailed magic systems. All 3 mistborn era 1 books were one jaw-drop after another and the HoA final I couldn't stop crying. When I finish it I reread the epigraphs and came to the part that goes something like"I have looked and researched and all I have been able to find is a name Adonalsium ,who or waht was? that I still don't know" One  quick Internet search, about a month and 12 books later and u have a full sworn Sanderfan.

PS: Now I spend a loooot of my time thinking about the possibilities of different forms of investiture and weird races and creatures born out of Brandon's mind. So the same as B4() but Cosmere obsessed.

Spoilered(Mistborn) PS:

Spoiler

Saze totally turned out to be my favorite Cosmere charachter ever, I really want Harmony to be a big deal on whatever the Cosmere Grand Finale is!!!!

 

[ElectrumSavant]

I was introduced first through the Alcatraz books, when I was quite young. I thought they were good, but I didn't know that Brandon had written any other books. A couple years later I read the Rithmatist and I LOVED it. I couldn't wait for the sequel, so I was like, "I'll read this guy's other books until Rithmatist 2 comes out. It says it comes out in 2014, how long could the wait be?"

I read Steelheart, then started reading the Cosmere novels. Reading Mistborn officially cemented Brandon as my all-time favorite author, and I now read all of his books compulsively. Rithmatist 2 still hasn't come out...

[pether]

My first one was Mistborn. I was bored and looking for something to read, never heard of Brandon ever before. So there is this guy on yt, HelloFutureMe, and he had some video about magic systems in books. In the back there was Mistborn cover along with some others. I rememember I thought the cover is meh, but whatever, I have nothing better to do so I give it a try.

I loved the book since the first chapter!

After that there was Stormlight, now I feel I am addicted... HELP!

[Cosmical Existence]

I actually read Steelheart way back in 2014, and to be honest I wasn't really a big fan of the series. That put me off of any of Brandon Sanderson's work for a long time, even though I had a bunch of people around me telling me I should read them. Finally last year I read Mistborn, and I was hooked. The Reckoners are now the only books by Brandon that I do not like. Everything else I've read, I've loved. Including Skyward. And I am definitely glad my friends kept pushing me to read his books.    

[Oakrobin]

My friend gave me way of the kings to read after we were discussing authors, she was flabbergasted to hear I’d not heard of Sanderson before then. 
As I finished way of the kings, words of radiance was released so I just carried on  

[ima willshaper]

My dad was in a book club with a bunch of his friends from church and Elantris was one of the books they were reading at one point. I was maybe about... twelve? My dad knew I liked fantasy and suggested I read it. I burned through it in about a day and loved it! I didn't actually read any other Sanderson books right after, but when I was visiting my family one summer after reading Elantris, I didn't have anything to read and my cousin let me borrow The Rithmatist, which I also loved. (Now that I think about it, I might actually have read The Rithmatist first, but it was all about the same time so I really don't remember.) Oddly enough, I still didn't get super into Sanderson books, and that same cousin gave TWoK to my parents for a Christmas present probably a year later. I got Mistborn either that Christmas or the year after, read it and loved it, then tracked down the copy of TWoK in our house and read that. After that I was obsessed. Now I'm a big fan of Sanderson's books and I can't believe it took me so long to get into them!

[OmniBident]

A friend and I were in a chemestry class in highschool, and I would often read during class and generally ignore everything (my parent was a chemistry teacher so I knew most of it and would get really bored), My friend was a huge sanderson fan, and I think she actually had a 17th shard account at the time too, I remember making a few posts on here. She had been telling me all about the cosmere but I didn't think to read it myself, I was more into old sci-fi and classical literature at the time. This chemistry class got boring enough however that I eventually caved and picked up Elantris, then the first mistborn trillogy. I thought they were interesting and it was fun to theorycraft with the magic systems, in particularly hemalurgy, though we didn't know anything near what people do now about it (at that time we were mostly discussing the possibility of a hemalurgic cuttlefish assassin with allomancy). I actually got into sanderson as a writer much later at university when I read Stormlight, and I continued from there, I definatly regret not having read Way of Kings earlier as that was definatly the catalyst to the rest of Sanderson's work for me.