My love for the Expanded Universes began on Yavin 4, reading the Junior Jedi Knights Series. I think I was in fourth grade maybe, and ever since then I've never stopped reading.Without a doubt, my favorite EU character is .Anakin Solo

Now, I know this may seem wierd, but when I read these books, the characters become alive, and they are more than characters, they're real people, and it's realistic like a movie, only more so. I grew up reading and living in Anakin and Tahiri's world, re-reading and re-reading the books until the covers were worn off.

Then I moved on to the novels, and Woah! There he is geting kidnapped in Crystal Star, working his magic at Centerpoint and having more adventures in one chapter than in one whole JJK book.

And then came the New Jedi Order. We saw his heartbreak over the loss of Chewbacca, and his Dad's subsquent grief; we watched him become a hero on Dantooine and mature in his use of the Force. We looked on as his friendship with Tahiri became a little more closer. And we saw him become a leader in Star by Star. I have no words to describe that book.

And then in Traitor, when Jacen sees Anakin sitting in their old, busted up
overgrown apartment, what a scene. That got me teary-eyed and I re-lived Anakin's death all over again

I know it's crazy, but Anakin had become SO real to me, that his death affected me profoundly. Logically, yes, I know, it wasn't real, he isn't, Star Wars isn't, it's just a story. But somehow, it's so much more than that. It's not just a story, and Anakin wasn't just a character. and It's hard to describe.

But that's the magic of books, and especially the EU. The continuity of it all adds to the realness of it. You ever neeed to escape, just pick up a book, and it's just as real as any other vacation you would take to 'get away from it all.' Of course, when you read books like Star by Star, it's kind of like you're escaping to hell... But it wasn't that bad.