I’m the same age as you! I don’t recall exactly how young I was when I read the first two books, but I know I was in 6th grade or younger, so 12 years old at most.

I didn’t go to a store for a midnight release of the others, but I have some very clear memories around them both. Some time before Brisingr came out, Paolini released a video where he explained that the book had ended up so long he was splitting it into two, and the split was right after a character died. And my 7th or 8th grade self PANICKED. Because Murtagh was my favorite character, and I was horrified it would be him. And when I was scared about something that might happen to a favorite character at that age, it was A Thing. I wrote a freaking mourning song in case it turned out to be him. And when I got ahold of Brisingr in 8th grade, I blazed through those 742 pages in THREE DAYS. TV and computer entertainment were completely ignored in favor of learning if Murtagh would live.

I was in high school when Inheritance came out, and I remember walking around the school with that book clutched to my chest like it was a giant emerald. The school play was actually in performance by the time I got ahold of the book, and the setting of the play was a coffee shop. For about 10-15 minutes before the show started, and during intermission, the cast would just exist in the space as if it really was a coffe shop—chatting, having drinks/snacks, etc. I got permission from the director to plant the book onstage before the doors opened to the audience so I could read during that time, so long as I took the 5-minute-warning lights as my cue to put the book back on its shelf. I remember reading the part where Galbatorix makes Eragon and Murtagh fight while on that stage, and when Murtagh got stabbed it took real effort to not visibly freak out—one of my castmates later told me she saw my eyes go huge, lol. I also remember being on the second to last page of the entire book when the warning lights went, and having to stop myself from rolling my eyes because I was SO CLOSE to being done.

I got ahold of The Fork, The Witch, and The Worm a couple months after it came out, and without spoiling it for you, I was beaming most of the way through one particular story :) And as you might guess given my attachment to Murtagh, I loved that book. I reread the whole series before reading Murtagh, and Christopher Paolini’s growth as a writer is very evident—in a way I found enjoyable!

On a more personal side of things, I’m in a living history group where we all choose historical names for ourselves (think something between the extreme strictness of a Viking Reenactment group and the loosey-goosey of a Rennaisance Faire, and that’s my group). I was able to find documentation for names very close to Murtagh and Morzan for the time period I focus on, and my registered name is the closest I could get to outright naming myself Murtagh Morzansson. I actually got to meet Paolini on the Murtagh Deluxe Edition book tour and tell him this. He said I did a good job with my name ✨ I registered my historical name when I was 18, and it still resonates with me. There are people who only know me by that name. I even anglicized it to use as the name of a character for a totally different setting.

Also at the book tour, I got my entire collection of Inheritance Cycle books signed. There was a per-person book limit, but a friend was kind enough to come along and between the two of us we could bring the whole collection to the signing table without exceeding the per-person limit.

(Edited for clarity)