So, I thought I’d talk about some of the stuff I have read. I really do enjoy reading some good books and my favorite are the stories that have multiple novels in a series, especially if it is fantasy based (my favorites are those set in a medieval type setting or the Epic Fantasy genre). I have got into reading quite a bit over the last few years, before that I never really used to read much outside of school, except for perhaps looking into and reading the odd fact books now and again.
My first step into regular story reading were the Harry Potter books, which I found to be stock full of lore, information and extra story that I never even knew of since it wasn’t included in the movies or was simply just done in a different way and after reading the books I for sure prefer them over the movies, but the movies also have its own great and unique spot as well bringing at least a lot of the world to life in a way people didn’t see it beforehand. But the books really do bring you so much more and I really enjoyed reading them and it is an 100% recommend to anyone who has seen the movies and not read the books.
You might be thinking “well since I’ve seen the movies already, what’s the point in the books since I already know what will happen?”. Well for one I’d have to say that is a rather narrow-minded view and two, from my own experience once I read the books there was so much more to the Harry Potter world and story that I didn’t get from the movies, so it really is like learning it all over again in a sense and is 100% worth it, you will be still wondering what’s going to happen next.
This is also true for a Song of Ice and Fire, the books that Game of Thrones were adapted from. There is so much more to the world and characters in the books that you don’t get out of the TV series adaptation, in-fact the further along the TV series goes the more it diverges from the books and so it is another big recommendation to read the books if you are a GoT fan. It is a big dedication though as each book is very long, but if you read simply one chapter a day it is easily doable, the chapters don’t tend to be overly long, which I found to be the case in the LoTR books. Anyway, now us book readers are waiting for the next edition of Song of Ice and Fire… if it ever comes. There are still meant to be two more books to finish off the series currently titled as Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. In total there are five currently released books.
I have also read through The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings books. The Hobbit is only one book, which I didn’t know at first since there are three Hobbit movies adapted from it, but it is a somewhat long-ish book, not as long as a Song of Ice and Fire book or one of the Lord of the Rings books and I would say it is much more easily digestible than an LoTR book as well and so is a recommended starting point as it is also a prequel to LoTR as well. I found it was an enjoyable read after LoTR (I read LoTR books first and then the Hobbit which I don’t recommend, although I did find it to be a nice come down).
The LoTR books are of course a masterpiece in the literary fiction world but can be hard to digest for the average reader, the chapters tend to be quite long and there is a lot of complicated lore and in-world language stocked inside as well, you certainly aren’t going to get everything out of the books from just one read through and you need to make sure you are certainly in the mood to read LoTR otherwise you will find it hard to follow along, that was at least my experience. I am planning a 2nd read through of The Hobbit and LoTR after I have finished reading my current book series.
I am also planning to get The Silmarillion as well which builds upon the lore of the world.
The current series I am on right now is something called the Stormlight Archives, there are currently three of these books out at the moment (I have nearly finished the 3rd one) and there are I believe at least 7 more books planned in the series (and this isn’t including any possible novellas in-between of which there is already one). If you are into old fantasy worlds with strange creatures, various lands, peoples, races, unusual contraptions and weapons and much more then I very much recommend this series. There is much lore packed into it and the books are each very long (typically at least 1,000 pages or more). So again, it is another one to be dedicated to.
Any novellas in-between are worth reading if the first novella can be counted on for how good any others may be. The novella also gave a bit of a nice break to the more complex main novels, the first novella called Edgedancer is set between the 2nd and 3rd main novel books. The Stormlight Archives as a whole is one of those book series you can really get into and love the characters, with a good amount of humour at points as well, but also dark parts and much to learn from all the story, locations, races and lore.
So yeah, after I have finished the 3rd book and while I wait for the 4th book to come out I am planning to re-read both the The Hobbit and LoTR books as well as the Harry Potter books as well. I am also planning on eventually getting round to reading other books series that I have not read yet such as The Saxon Stories (of which I have been watching The Last Kingdom adaptation series on Netflix, which I loved) and also the Series of Unfortunate Events books as well (again of which I watched the Netflix adaptations).
Before that I had only seen the Jim Carrey movie adaptation which only covers a small portion (which I didn’t realize at first) so you can imagine my surprise when watching the Netflix series at how much more there was to the story and also my even bigger surprise upon discovering it was originally a book series. I will also very much be planning to read the Wheel of Time series as well.
So, they are my next two series I plan to read and I am sure there will be much more as well I will want to read.
Another suggestion and also a book that isn’t too long is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, a mystery novel about a deceased dog, with a kid who has a developmental disorder as the main protagonist. It is a really interesting read to see how someone like that chracter experiences the world differently to the typical person, as well as the unraveling of the mystery of what happened to the poor dog.
It is also to note that many of these books would be a great way to pass the time while under a lockdown during this ongoing pandemic. So you may as well try and get into it if you haven’t already!
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