I first discovered Battletech from the Harebrained Schemes game (loved the Shadorun games) then i found Tex from the black pants legion YT channel and fell in love with the universe, played a little of mech warrior (stopped because it keep crashing my computer) and now i considering reading the books.
Fell in with a group of nerdy friends in high school 35 years ago who played the tabletop game. Can’t say I’ve ever read any of the books, but I’ve enjoyed the game ever since, both the tabletop and the HBS game (which is what I play these days).