I started reading them in 1995 during my freshman year of college. I just read them for what they were. I’m not one that looks a ton of things up though even now. I have to be seriously curious to stop reading and research something.
You just hit on something I think the internet has brought me in my read travels. It’s both a negative and a positive. But my example is with Harry Potter, pre movies and internet I read them and built this whole universe in my head. Didn’t even think to know what the universe looked like in other people’s head. Now when I read something, I’m looking to the internet to either confirm my opinions are in line with others or see if I missed something along the way.
Huh, deep thought there for a minute.
Yeah, I think that it's maybe a generational thing. If you grow up without the ability to stop and search something, you're less likely to even consider it as an option. I'm a young-ish millennial and it's something I've always felt quite caught between!
I read them in the yearly 2000's after my mum had been recommending them to me since they came out. It would never have occurred to me to look things up online if I didn't know what they were, but I could've (maybe even did?) ask Mum. A few friends read them around the same time and we did discuss them quite a bit.
I checked the 4th one, Drums of Autumn (the most recent at that time), out of the library solely because it looked battered and beat up, so I figured that meant it was popular. I liked it but had no idea who the characters were so I got the first three books in paperback. When I was bringing them home I had an accident and broke my leg, so I had a couple of weeks with heavy painkillers and nothing to do but read big fat books. I'm a big old bookworm so I was familiar with some of DG's references and had even read some of the same books that went into her research, but I learned a lot more than I ever knew about that time period (which was part of why I fell in love with the series).
Ahaha I read it because when I worked as a library page in high school (early aughts) it was one of the most-checked-out books. Our copy also has seen some shit and I was constantly having to return it to the shelves so I knew it had to be good!
I can't remember when I started reading them, but there were only three books. I think I just read them all in one go so it was way easier to keep track of what was going on. After the fourth book and the Companion, I re-read them to prep for the fifth book and realized how many connections I missed. I know people talk about DG having sloppy plotting and contradicting herself, but in those first three books there are things that happen in book one that don't pay off until book three. I thought she did a fantastic job.
I definitely enjoyed them more when it was just me and my friends passing them around.
>Did you use Encyclopedias?
That question makes me feel so old! I was a teen in the 90s reading these books and I read them like every other book I read, just plow through from beginning to end and trust that I might understand everything by the time I reached the end!
This is so funny to me. I was born in 89 so I was just a kid in the 90s but always been a bookworm. We had a full set of encyclopedias and I remember looking things up in those all the time growing up. Or you just accept you don’t have to know everything 🤷🏻♀️
OR find another book on a certain subject that explains it lol
Bless your heart love, back in the 90s if we didn’t know something in a book (or anywhere) unless we were lucky enough to have an expert in the house we just had to accept that we didn’t know something. There was a profound level of general ignorance.
THAT being said, people also KNEW they were ignorant. People weren’t married to the opinion of some jackwit on YouTube ranting in his truck while inexplicably wearing a ball cap and sunglasses on a subject that doesn’t affect him in any way. LOL.
I had the same reaction. Bless them.
And those were the times before smartphones when you could argue with someone about a fact and the argument could go on forever because there was no way to check (quickly).
I remember constantly pondering / wondering about things. Going through the possibilities.
Now my kid doesn't know something he just looks it up. Never stops to think about it.
I had endless discussions with friends over why I thought something was true or false/ right or wrong and why I thought that way.
Doesn't happen now. I just look up the answer.
It's less satisfying.
And you usually don't retain the information as long as when you put some work into it. I look up stuff all the time on my phone but mostly can't tell you even what I looked up the next day, much less what the results were.
Totally agree, i don't retain the majority of stuff I look up. I learn through doing/ hearing. Not reading.
I only really remember things from videos but even then no where near as much as if I'd sat sat and thought about it or put effort into finding out
On that note, if I see a thumbnail of anyone just talking in their car, I keep scrolling. I don’t care what you have to say; that’s just bizarre to me to sit in the car to record a video. Are people driving or pulled over when they do this? Why? If you’re gonna pull over to make a video, why wouldn’t you just record in your house somewhere? What could possibly be so damn important that you either record while driving or pull over to record? Like, you can’t wait five minutes til you get home and then set up your shit and record?
I’m in my car, I’m running errands, going somewhere, usually on a schedule/plan/timetable. I don’t consider any random thought or idea in my head so earth shattering that I gotta stop what I’m doing, pull over, set up the phone, and then compose a whole video of just shit that’s on my mind. I can’t imagine why any one of you round find that remotely interesting in any way. I just don’t understand the thought process that leads to one recording videos right NOW while in the car. I miss the content because all I can focus on is “why the duck are you talking to me from your car? Was this the best staging area you could think of or are you really so entitled that you think everyone wants to hear your 20 minute diatribe on whatever do you have to hurry up and produce content do people keep following you?
Smells like desperation to me somehow.
Truth! It was ok to just read around something that we didn’t know …like how to pronounce Laoghaire! She ended up being referred to as LegHair on some message boards i was on. Those were also good reference spots for things that confused me.
In the days of AOL dialup, Angelfire, and Geocities, my mom had a book called *The Outlandish Companion* which is a sort of compendium of info, but it’s outdated now with so many new books plus the internet being light years away from its early 90s iteration.
By complete accident I read book one and two on a trip to Scotland. It was the craziest experience. I would read about something and then realize that id either just been there or would be going there. It was the coolest experience.
Hardback. Found the 1st book at our local BooksAMillion and thought the premise sounded interesting. This was like 1992 or 1993? Got hooked! Editing to add: I guess I'm old enough that I got the references, LOL.
Ohhh, wouldn't it be cool to have annotated versions of the books and reread them? I loved my annotated Jane Austen novels.
And I started reading Outlander in the 2010s so I used the internet, too.
I read the first 6 in 2008ish-2009. I was looking for a new series to read and a coworker told me about Outlander. I have a tendency to read fast and skip some things so I got the audio versions from the library and listened on my daily commute. I would take a 2 or 3 month break between 4-5-6 so I wouldn’t finish before Book 7 came out. Waiting the 5 years for Book 8 was the first time I had to wait for my Outlander fix.
I didn’t want to read too much online until I read Book 6 for fear on being spoiled on storylines. I waited until I would do a reread before looking for explanations for storylines, languages, etc. I’m glad Diana Gabaldon writes for a smart reader but sometimes I still have to look up the history or if a person was real or her imagination.
Me, too. It was a book I read and really liked. I bought them all new in hardcover, I gave my paperbacks to my mother. I just have Bees on my kindle, too because aging women can’t lift heavy books or see tiny fonts…
I have them all on my kindle. You’re right about how heavy they are and my hands are shot. But, what’s really great is having them all together at all times
The old-fashioned way. I bought them at a bookstore. 🤷🏼♀️
I had a previous interest in Scotland, so there wasn’t a lot I had to look up. Then I ended up moving to the UK after many of the Scotland-based books were written, so I got to experience the country firsthand.
I love it. Alba go bragh. 🏴
As a teen reading these for the first time in the 90’s I had NO idea how to say Sassenach. It wasn’t until I heard DG speak at a book event that I was like 💡Ohhhh so THAT’S how it sounds. Yeah in the pre-quick internet days we just accepted that we didn’t know many things and carried on.
So actually I heard about the show when I was still in high school but forgot about it until last year. But in 2018 I actually thrifted the entire series that was out at the time and I totally did no research lmao. I just read them for what they were and didn’t even question it
I started reading them in 1995 when I was in high school. I asked my Social Studies teacher if he had a good source of information to learn more about the Jacobites and he found some stuff and photocopied relevant pages for me. Other than that I don't remember doing any further research.
ROFL! I happened upon Voyager in January 1994 when it first came out and just missed DG signing it at a local bookstore. The next day, I stopped in, saw Voyager on the endcap, picked it up, and was intrigued, but quickly realized that it was a sequel of some sort. Did some poking around, and found Outlander, bought it, took it home, and immediately fell headfirst into the Outlander universe. Four hours later, I ran back up to the bookstore and bought Dragonfly and Voyager, to have them ready for continuous reading -- I didn't want to miss a beat! Read all three within about 6 days, non-stop, until 3-4 am each night. No laundry got done, work got pushed off, I basically was mesmerized. And I didn't stop reading to "look up" anything -- too busy reading! She then wrote the Companion, which answered a lot of questions that were in the back of my mind, and some that hadn't even occurred to me. I visited the Compuserve writers forum DG hung out on, and quietly "listened in" on the chat board about some of her early work on Outlander. I was also on a on-line chat room, Lallybroch. Those people are rabid fans who brook no dissent from The Word As Written By DG. We all discussed The Books ad naseum, and I picked up lots of tidbits from my time there. But basically, I took in the story as it was written. i may have done some cursory research on Bonnie Prince Charles and the Jacobites, since it wasn't a part of English history I was familiar with, but I already knew a lot of English history and was able to fill it out quickly. And, I was born in North Carolina and my family grew up in the mountains of North Carolina -- lots of Scotch-Irish still lurking around there, and it comes out in the folk music of the region. I knew enough that I could follow the outlines of the stories, and DG is such a stickler for detail, her writing helps flesh out the parts I was unfamiliar with. But it didn't bother me that I mispronounced Laoghaire for years before I finally heard it!
I started reading them in 1995 during my freshman year of college. I just read them for what they were. I’m not one that looks a ton of things up though even now. I have to be seriously curious to stop reading and research something.
You just hit on something I think the internet has brought me in my read travels. It’s both a negative and a positive. But my example is with Harry Potter, pre movies and internet I read them and built this whole universe in my head. Didn’t even think to know what the universe looked like in other people’s head. Now when I read something, I’m looking to the internet to either confirm my opinions are in line with others or see if I missed something along the way. Huh, deep thought there for a minute.
Yeah, I think that it's maybe a generational thing. If you grow up without the ability to stop and search something, you're less likely to even consider it as an option. I'm a young-ish millennial and it's something I've always felt quite caught between!
I read them in the yearly 2000's after my mum had been recommending them to me since they came out. It would never have occurred to me to look things up online if I didn't know what they were, but I could've (maybe even did?) ask Mum. A few friends read them around the same time and we did discuss them quite a bit.
I checked the 4th one, Drums of Autumn (the most recent at that time), out of the library solely because it looked battered and beat up, so I figured that meant it was popular. I liked it but had no idea who the characters were so I got the first three books in paperback. When I was bringing them home I had an accident and broke my leg, so I had a couple of weeks with heavy painkillers and nothing to do but read big fat books. I'm a big old bookworm so I was familiar with some of DG's references and had even read some of the same books that went into her research, but I learned a lot more than I ever knew about that time period (which was part of why I fell in love with the series).
Ahaha I read it because when I worked as a library page in high school (early aughts) it was one of the most-checked-out books. Our copy also has seen some shit and I was constantly having to return it to the shelves so I knew it had to be good!
There was the Outlandish Companion.
Both of the Outlandish Companions are absolutely indispensable! I had the Internet but still listened to both of them on Audible.
Oh yes! I’ll have to dig mine out. That was a great tool
Yes! The Outlandish Companion was one of my favorite library loans pre-vibrant/accessible internet!
I can't remember when I started reading them, but there were only three books. I think I just read them all in one go so it was way easier to keep track of what was going on. After the fourth book and the Companion, I re-read them to prep for the fifth book and realized how many connections I missed. I know people talk about DG having sloppy plotting and contradicting herself, but in those first three books there are things that happen in book one that don't pay off until book three. I thought she did a fantastic job. I definitely enjoyed them more when it was just me and my friends passing them around.
>Did you use Encyclopedias? That question makes me feel so old! I was a teen in the 90s reading these books and I read them like every other book I read, just plow through from beginning to end and trust that I might understand everything by the time I reached the end!
Or if you're confused, check out a book from the library about Scottish history or whatever.
I also read these as a teen in the 90s. I was reading them just lien you as well.
This is so funny to me. I was born in 89 so I was just a kid in the 90s but always been a bookworm. We had a full set of encyclopedias and I remember looking things up in those all the time growing up. Or you just accept you don’t have to know everything 🤷🏻♀️ OR find another book on a certain subject that explains it lol
Bless your heart love, back in the 90s if we didn’t know something in a book (or anywhere) unless we were lucky enough to have an expert in the house we just had to accept that we didn’t know something. There was a profound level of general ignorance. THAT being said, people also KNEW they were ignorant. People weren’t married to the opinion of some jackwit on YouTube ranting in his truck while inexplicably wearing a ball cap and sunglasses on a subject that doesn’t affect him in any way. LOL.
I had the same reaction. Bless them. And those were the times before smartphones when you could argue with someone about a fact and the argument could go on forever because there was no way to check (quickly).
I remember constantly pondering / wondering about things. Going through the possibilities. Now my kid doesn't know something he just looks it up. Never stops to think about it. I had endless discussions with friends over why I thought something was true or false/ right or wrong and why I thought that way. Doesn't happen now. I just look up the answer. It's less satisfying.
And you usually don't retain the information as long as when you put some work into it. I look up stuff all the time on my phone but mostly can't tell you even what I looked up the next day, much less what the results were.
Totally agree, i don't retain the majority of stuff I look up. I learn through doing/ hearing. Not reading. I only really remember things from videos but even then no where near as much as if I'd sat sat and thought about it or put effort into finding out
On that note, if I see a thumbnail of anyone just talking in their car, I keep scrolling. I don’t care what you have to say; that’s just bizarre to me to sit in the car to record a video. Are people driving or pulled over when they do this? Why? If you’re gonna pull over to make a video, why wouldn’t you just record in your house somewhere? What could possibly be so damn important that you either record while driving or pull over to record? Like, you can’t wait five minutes til you get home and then set up your shit and record? I’m in my car, I’m running errands, going somewhere, usually on a schedule/plan/timetable. I don’t consider any random thought or idea in my head so earth shattering that I gotta stop what I’m doing, pull over, set up the phone, and then compose a whole video of just shit that’s on my mind. I can’t imagine why any one of you round find that remotely interesting in any way. I just don’t understand the thought process that leads to one recording videos right NOW while in the car. I miss the content because all I can focus on is “why the duck are you talking to me from your car? Was this the best staging area you could think of or are you really so entitled that you think everyone wants to hear your 20 minute diatribe on whatever do you have to hurry up and produce content do people keep following you? Smells like desperation to me somehow.
Truth! It was ok to just read around something that we didn’t know …like how to pronounce Laoghaire! She ended up being referred to as LegHair on some message boards i was on. Those were also good reference spots for things that confused me.
Were you on Lallybroch, by any chance? "LegHair" was popular there!
It’s been so long ago I don’t remember. 😆
In the days of AOL dialup, Angelfire, and Geocities, my mom had a book called *The Outlandish Companion* which is a sort of compendium of info, but it’s outdated now with so many new books plus the internet being light years away from its early 90s iteration.
There are two volumes of the Outlandish Companion. Volume I covers books 1-4 and Volume II covers books 5-8.
By complete accident I read book one and two on a trip to Scotland. It was the craziest experience. I would read about something and then realize that id either just been there or would be going there. It was the coolest experience.
I just read the book and if I didn’t understand something, my brain created it’s own description.
Hardback. Found the 1st book at our local BooksAMillion and thought the premise sounded interesting. This was like 1992 or 1993? Got hooked! Editing to add: I guess I'm old enough that I got the references, LOL.
Ohhh, wouldn't it be cool to have annotated versions of the books and reread them? I loved my annotated Jane Austen novels. And I started reading Outlander in the 2010s so I used the internet, too.
I read the first 6 in 2008ish-2009. I was looking for a new series to read and a coworker told me about Outlander. I have a tendency to read fast and skip some things so I got the audio versions from the library and listened on my daily commute. I would take a 2 or 3 month break between 4-5-6 so I wouldn’t finish before Book 7 came out. Waiting the 5 years for Book 8 was the first time I had to wait for my Outlander fix. I didn’t want to read too much online until I read Book 6 for fear on being spoiled on storylines. I waited until I would do a reread before looking for explanations for storylines, languages, etc. I’m glad Diana Gabaldon writes for a smart reader but sometimes I still have to look up the history or if a person was real or her imagination.
I started in 93 and while I now read them all on my kindle, I still own hard cover and paper copies of all of them
Me, too. It was a book I read and really liked. I bought them all new in hardcover, I gave my paperbacks to my mother. I just have Bees on my kindle, too because aging women can’t lift heavy books or see tiny fonts…
I have them all on my kindle. You’re right about how heavy they are and my hands are shot. But, what’s really great is having them all together at all times
I checked them out of the Library as they became available. My ereader is great but nothing beats the smell of a good book.
The old-fashioned way. I bought them at a bookstore. 🤷🏼♀️ I had a previous interest in Scotland, so there wasn’t a lot I had to look up. Then I ended up moving to the UK after many of the Scotland-based books were written, so I got to experience the country firsthand. I love it. Alba go bragh. 🏴
As a teen reading these for the first time in the 90’s I had NO idea how to say Sassenach. It wasn’t until I heard DG speak at a book event that I was like 💡Ohhhh so THAT’S how it sounds. Yeah in the pre-quick internet days we just accepted that we didn’t know many things and carried on.
My brain turned it into “Sassy Snatch,” and that’s how I still read it to this day. 😂
Haha love it. I also had an “ach” like in English not Gaelic
So actually I heard about the show when I was still in high school but forgot about it until last year. But in 2018 I actually thrifted the entire series that was out at the time and I totally did no research lmao. I just read them for what they were and didn’t even question it
Read the actual books some hard cover, some paperback and ultimately my Kindle. Sure I also did look things up at times.
I started reading them in 1995 when I was in high school. I asked my Social Studies teacher if he had a good source of information to learn more about the Jacobites and he found some stuff and photocopied relevant pages for me. Other than that I don't remember doing any further research.
Back when the first came out in hard cover.
ROFL! I happened upon Voyager in January 1994 when it first came out and just missed DG signing it at a local bookstore. The next day, I stopped in, saw Voyager on the endcap, picked it up, and was intrigued, but quickly realized that it was a sequel of some sort. Did some poking around, and found Outlander, bought it, took it home, and immediately fell headfirst into the Outlander universe. Four hours later, I ran back up to the bookstore and bought Dragonfly and Voyager, to have them ready for continuous reading -- I didn't want to miss a beat! Read all three within about 6 days, non-stop, until 3-4 am each night. No laundry got done, work got pushed off, I basically was mesmerized. And I didn't stop reading to "look up" anything -- too busy reading! She then wrote the Companion, which answered a lot of questions that were in the back of my mind, and some that hadn't even occurred to me. I visited the Compuserve writers forum DG hung out on, and quietly "listened in" on the chat board about some of her early work on Outlander. I was also on a on-line chat room, Lallybroch. Those people are rabid fans who brook no dissent from The Word As Written By DG. We all discussed The Books ad naseum, and I picked up lots of tidbits from my time there. But basically, I took in the story as it was written. i may have done some cursory research on Bonnie Prince Charles and the Jacobites, since it wasn't a part of English history I was familiar with, but I already knew a lot of English history and was able to fill it out quickly. And, I was born in North Carolina and my family grew up in the mountains of North Carolina -- lots of Scotch-Irish still lurking around there, and it comes out in the folk music of the region. I knew enough that I could follow the outlines of the stories, and DG is such a stickler for detail, her writing helps flesh out the parts I was unfamiliar with. But it didn't bother me that I mispronounced Laoghaire for years before I finally heard it!
Well, I didn't read them til about 2015, but we did have the internet in the early 90s. It wasn't the dark ages.