Same. Dragonsong was sitting out at the checkout desk in my middle school library. I just saw the cover and thought it was so pretty with all the firelizards so I gave it a shot. I had no idea there were books before it or after but i was so glad there were.
In subreddit r/pern
In a post titled:
When life imitates art: a post from another subreddit that made me think of Pern immediately