New to S.? Start Here!

You bring your purchase home from the bookstore, carefully, full of hope that for a time, it will enthrall you with its mystery.  You gingerly carry it though your door, carefully, holding it like a small child or a briefcase full of bearer bonds.  Or perhaps the mailman just delivered it.  You open the package by ripping it apart, or you carefully cut the tape to open the box. Giddy with anticipation, you take the shrinkwrap off the slipcase.  Giddy transitions to jittery, perhaps that cup of coffee wasn't such a good idea.  Or instead, you are exhausted from your day and you wistfully put the package in a safe place for later.

Regardless, there will be a day when you are ready.  The coffee is brewed, the tea has been steeped, the chair pillow has been elbowed and the cat or dog has settled at your feet or on your person.  Or perhaps you are in your favorite coffee house, or you are sitting in bed, sans pet. It doesn't matter where you are.  What matters now is that you are settled.  What matters is that you are ready.  The shrinkwrap is history.  You are about the remove the S. sticker with small scissors or sharp knife, cautiously.  You remove the sticker.  Oh my, you think, where should the sticker go?  So much agony over such a small thing. On the book? In the book? On the slipcover? Or somewhere else?  Then the writer of the blog you are reading mentions that she placed her sticker on the slipcase.  It's okay, take your time and breathe.  It's likely when you pull the book out of its case you will forget to.

You crack open the book and skim the pages.  Oh the joy!  It looks like exactly like an old book that was sneaked out of a library.  And the words, the amount of words crammed into the very corners.  It brims with marginalia and several pieces of ephemera.  You may even be salivating at the thought of such a book.  You start to read, but lose track because of the margin notes, or perhaps you are simply overwhelmed.  Or unbelievably, when you opened the book, an insert or two fell out, and you have no idea where they should go.

Befuddled, you go to your computer or smart phone or tablet.  You google or bing or ask your preferred search engine about S.  And one of the links you clicked kindly brought you here.

Don't Panic.

1.  First go to see Mystimus.  He has written an excellent guide for newcomers completely free of spoilers.
2. Then head over to the SFiles22 blog and dig deeper into Mystimus' Blog.  Justin Garver has created an excellent time line if you have problems keeping events straight.

http://whoisstraka.wordpress.com/the-ship-of-theseus-by-v-m-straka-a-beginners-guide-to-reading-s/

You breathe a sigh of relief as you realize this is exactly what you need to get started.  And you begin to read.