Is This Just Fantasy?

Oh, my favorite topic.  Books!  I have loved to read ever since I learned how, and most days (before I got a laptop, and even then...) I could be found hiding in my room with my nose in a book.  This topic of favorite books, though, is a difficult one.  I have many books that I enjoy, and if I tried to name them all I would be typing for a week.  That said, I'll try to just pick out my favorites and make this just a semi-long post instead of a novel... Haha, puns...

First off, my taste in books is pretty much anything that can be labeled "fiction."  I dislike historical books and biographies, instead choosing fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, and other fiction genres to read.  Fantasy may be my favorite type of book, specifically because there is nothing tying you to this world within their pages.  I suppose this includes books of a supernatural element, with vampires, witches, and magic everywhere.  Sci-Fi is alright, although I'm not much in to outer-space-type books.  Mysteries are also a good read, and trying to solve the case before the end is fun.

The other section of books that I love are myths and legends.  A surprising amount of space on my bookshelf is dedicated to variants of some ancient legend.  Stories of gods, goddesses, kings, and heroes are fabulous, especially when I can tie characters from one legend into another legend and create a sense of the world that may have existed at that time.  Greek and Roman stories, as well as British and Celtic legends, are probably my favorite to read.  Actually, I'm a bit obsessed with these stories, and can probably rattle of a good deal of them.  I suppose the Percy Jackson books should fit here, which were much better then the movie.  I'm currently reading a book that is a variant of Robin Hood, and I just finished one called The Fire Sword which mixed all of these European-based legends into one book, which was interesting.

Fantasy is a great genre.  Harry Potter, for example.  I am an extremely obsessed fan of the Harry Potter books, and have read them all multiple times.  If you would like an exact count, I can tell you, but they range from 3 to 22 times.  First off, J K Rowling is a phenomenal writer.  She created this entire world filled with magic spells, strange creatures, witches and wizards, and more.  The other great writer this connects to is Tolkien.  To my great shame, I haven't read all the Lord of the Rings books.  I have read the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring, but I can't make it through the Two Towers.  Reaching the second half where it is just Frodo and Sam, and I couldn't bring myself to continue.  I do plan on rectifying this, however.

One of my favorite authors is a woman named Tamora Pierce.  She writes semi-children books, by which I mean I read most of them in 5th grade.  Even though they are extremely easy to read and rather childish, I will read them over and over again.  She has two separate worlds for her 27 books, 10 in one and 17 in the other.  One world follows the journey of four children as they learn how to use magic through everyday objects.  The other books split into smaller series that follow different females through their teen years as they become knights (secretly and dressed as a boy or later openly as a girl), or ambassadors, or policewomen (for lack of a better old-time description).  It's kind of difficult to explain her books, but they are great in a very simple geared-for-pre-teen-girls kind of way.

I think that just about covers the long series that I read.  Most of the rest of my books are individual books, or just a few books to a series.  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a great series.  I'm reading a series that starts with the first book Dhampir, about a half-vampire vampire hunter and her half-elf partner.  Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey are good authors, although they have way too many books to keep up with.  Brandon Sanderson's books are also good, as are the dragon-based books of Naomi Novik.  R.A. Salvatore is another fantasy writer, with some of his books based on a drow elf who is banished to the surface world.  Another semi-childish series starts with Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer, about an orphan girl who dresses as a boy and goes to sea in 19th century London.  Mickey Zucker Reichert's Nightfall series and some of her stand-alone novels are really good, and I need to read more of her books.

Okay, I think I'm going to wrap it up.  I hope you enjoyed reading the post, even if most of my books are childish and short.  Kathleen's up tomorrow, and I can't wait to read everyone else's posts (and then take a trip to McKay's Used Books).  Enjoy, and don't forget to read!