If you’ve talked to me at all, you know that one of my passions is fantasy. Sometimes I’d rather live in the world of text than the real world. My first experience with the magic of fantasy was when the teacher read us the Magic Tree House books in 1st grade. That shit was incredible! That being said, I’ve been a fairly avid reader most of my life. My mom used to take us to the library on a fairly regular basis: every 3-4 weeks. I would go look at the same couple of sections: Redwall, Dragonlance, and Greek/Roman mythology. This was my zone. This was my first love.

I may have vehemently denied it in recent years. But I am, and was, and always will be a NERD. There is no changing that. But for the first decade of my life or so, the nerd was created and fed by mostly internal factors. My days consisted of reading and playing with Legos. I was in my own head all day. But I have two very distinct memories in my early days, of being affected by outside influences.

The year was 1999, we had just moved to Massachusetts in October. There was a kid named Elijah who took it on himself to be my friend, show me the ropes as it were. One day several months later, I was at the school library with my class for one of our special periods. I was wandering around, and Elijah came up to me, and was like, “why don’t you get something?” Me, being the weirdo that I am, was always hesitant to borrow books from school. I much preferred to borrow from the town library in the center of town. The town library let you keep a book for 3 weeks at a time, the school library made you renew it week after week. I was always afraid that the book would be due before I finished it. But once, just this once, young me decided sure, let’s borrow a book, why not? So I told Elijah, “ok, but I don’t know what to get.”

He said, “follow me. I know the perfect book. Let me find it. I’m sure you’ll love it. Let me know what you think.”

He handed me Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone. I was hesitant to take it, I knew my mom wouldn’t approve, plus it was such a big book for such a small kid. My mom as did many other moms at my church disapproved of magic and witches and wizards. They thought it was devil worship. Harry Potter was a wonderful scapegoat, simply because it was the biggest thing at the time. But little did she know, this was my introduction to a genre that I’ve learned to love and appreciate throughout my life. I don’t remember what thought crossed my mind, but something caused me to reluctantly take the book and try it out. Maybe it was fate, I’d like to think so.

So I took the book home with me, and I hid it under my bed. I read it only at night (when I was supposed to be asleep), to ensure that I didn’t get caught. I only ended up reading about a third of the book before I returned it, but this was the start of something new, and different, and exciting. What I read ended up sticking with me, so much so that I still remembered the little that I had read, when I finally got around to reading the entire series in 2014.

There were two other catalysts that kicked me into a higher gear of nerd-dom. The first occurred two years later. I had a church friend whose parents had a massive home theater with a projector; before big screen TV’s were a thing. As a collective, we were having trouble picking a movie, so he said, “I’m going to put on this movie. Trust me it’s good. Don’t tell anyone cause it hasn’t technically come out yet.” He put on a bootleg version of The Fellowship of the Ring, and my whole life changed. These movies meant so much to me, and I wanted LOTR everything. I was probably way too young to read the books, but read them I did, and re-read them, and re-read them, and re-read them.

All of a sudden, me and several friends from church were hooked. We roleplayed and pretended at church, at home, on hikes, at church retreats. We were lost in the wonderful world of imagination. Smartphones didn’t exist back then, and videogames were limited. So this was our entertainment: role playing, Pokemon, and Magic cards. What a wonderful and simpler time…

The year is 2002. In comes broad band, out goes dial up. The Internet is still pretty new to mostly everybody, but Xanga and AIM started their respective heydays. The more time I spent on the computer, the less time I spent reading. From 7th grade on, I read only as much as I needed to. My intake consisted of comic books and books for school (I’m not a good liar so Cliffnotes wasn’t enough).

It wasn’t until 2012 that I picked up a book and read for the joy of it. The third catalyst. The day we refer to as The Day Adam Injected me With the Neckbeard Gene. I can’t pinpoint the exact day unfortunately, but it was sometime between spring of 2011 and spring of 2012. Freshman year of college, he showed me the pilot for Game of Thrones. He ranted & raved to me for days about it. A Song of Ice & Fire was his brothers’ favorite fantasy series for more than 10 years, and all three of them were so excited to see it come out in a visual medium. This was before the fame and the fortune got to George R. R. Martin’s head. Y’all know how I feel about him so I’ll spare you the details.

So Adam showed me the series, and I thought nothing of it. But we happened to be taking a walk around campus a few weeks later, and we stopped by the campus bookstore. We walked by a shelf and he was like, “look, look look! Here’s the series I was telling you about. You should buy the first book.” Again, I was hesitant, like do I really wanna read a book? But eventually he convinced me, and I was like, “should I just buy the whole series?” Adam said, “nah, just try out the first one, See if you like it.”

So I bought the book, and I did nothing with it. It sat on my shelf, gathering dust for a whole year, and I was content with that. My interest wasn’t piqued, until the following April, when I read and watched The Hunger Games. I was told I wasn’t allowed to watch it unless I read the books. My eyes were reopened. I figured I would start reading A Game of Thrones, and I fell in love. A couple days after I started reading it, I bought the rest of the series, and started buying used books on eBay. This was the start of my journey. A journey I will follow until the end of time.

All this is a long winded way of saying what I’ve read, what I need to finish, and what I have next. Like I’ve said and realized recently, writing is my talent, and reading is my passion. What’s the point of all this reading? It’s to give me ideas so that I can one day write something or somethings. The thoughts are still stewing, but something will come to fruition one day. If you really really think about it, the fantasy genre is all the same. It’s just each author coming up with their own take on the same tropes. Nothing is unique, but that’s ok. That’s what I love so much about this. We can all tell the same stories, but the twists & the turns and the paths will be different. Each story is intricately woven and spun into something very different. The beginning and the end may be the same, but the path through is distinctive.

This was my path through so far:

• I read the first 4 novels of ASOIAF from May-July 2012. A Dance With Dragons was read in October. I’ve jokingly said that if I was forced to burn books, the GRRM ones would be the first to go. In all honesty, I probably will read & purchase the rest of this if he ever writes another, but I highly doubt he will. I have absolutely no interest in reading Fire & Blood, and I have pretty minimal interest in reading his backlog.
• I slogged through some shit not worth talking about, but it showed me what to avoid when it comes to garbage fantasy. I’ve learned my lesson and I always do my research. I read all the negative reviews, so I know beforehand, whether or not it’s going to be a book I like.
•  The next series was Prince of Thorns/King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. He has a degree in physics & mathematics, and was previously a research scientist, so anything is possible! He’s written 3 trilogies to date, and I own them all, but I have yet to read past the second book so this is definitely still on the docket.
• Scott Lynch and his Gentlemen Bastards novels are some of the easiest and quickest reads, but he has had some personal issues and his output has been slow.
• Patrick Rothfuss has also been quite slow.
• Joe Abercrombie has some brutally violent books (he calls himself Lord Grimdark after all), but his writing tapered off a bit after 2015, but he does have a new series coming out so I will get back to him.
• Jim Butcher wrote at a furious pace since 2000, but seems to have taken some time with his latest Dresden book. I still have a couple more to read, and will go through the Codex Alera series at some point.
• Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings blew me away in 2013 when I read it during one of the worst summers of my life. This book was the only thing I looked forward to. I have one real book left to read, some YA stuff & misc, and his finishing touches of The Wheel of Time, otherwise I’m caught up. He’s the best author under 50 in the world, don’t @ me.
• Peter V Brett is a quick & interesting read. But a case of “I forgot what the story is about while I was waiting for the next one, and I didn’t feel like re-reading yet.” A typical occurrence for me… I have the last two books (one of which I bought twice by accident). I will do a re-read of the whole series at some point.
• Dan Wells. Not fantasy, more so horror/sci-fi. I’ve read everything he’s published so I will have to wait.
• Harry Potter is over and done with, but was definitely a good read. Will I read her Cormoran Strike series? No idea
• Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage group of trilogies has a unique take. But I’m caught up, even with novellas. Will need to wait
• Brent Weeks’ last novel in his Lightbringer series is coming out later this month. Maybe I’ll pre-order it. I also have his previous trilogy to read as well.
• I picked up a few Tad Williams novels here and there. He’s one of the fathers of modern fantasy, and I’d like to start digging into his bibliography at some point. He was writing dictionary sized novels before it became popular!
• I finished one trilogy by Anthony Ryan. It was quite interesting, and the first book was quick, but it seemed like it took forever to get through the other two. Maybe that’s what happens when this book is unofficially designated as “the one to be read during my lunch break.” I have his other trilogy, so logically this is also on “the list.”
• And last but not least I started listening to The Wheel of Time on audiobook in May of this year. So instead of music, Robert Jordan has been on the air on my drives.

So what am I reading now and what will I be reading?

1. Finishing The Wheel of Time obviously. I am about to start book 8 of 14.
2. I am reading Carrie by Stephen King, and I have created a Stephen King checklist. I’ve marked off everything “scary” for reading later or not at all. I will go through some of the shorter works first, then listen to The Dark Tower audiobooks after I finish WOT. I don’t think most people know, but King is quite a versatile author. He doesn’t just write horror/thriller/supernatural. He also writes fantasy, crime/mystery, sci-fi as well. I’ve read Under the Dome and 11/22/63 both of which are quite good.
3. Whenever I decide to go off my King kick, I will finish reading the Dresden Files. I have two left plus the one that will be published shortly. Codex Alera will wait. I have a habit of reading multiple books at once. I like to be reading one epic fantasy and one urban fantasy at the same time. Sometimes I may do three books at once: a physical book, audiobook, and something on Kindle
4. The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington is the “lunch break book”. I like it, but it’s been a slog. I’ve been reading this since July. Depending on how I feel after I’m finally done with the first one, I may finish the trilogy now or later.
5. Re-read the first two Mark Lawrence books, then finish the others
6. I guess you can mix & match the order of the rest of these, as I am undecided on what is next:
   1. Re-read and finish Peter V Brett
   2. Read Miles Cameron’s Traitor Son Cycle. Which funnily enough I had started reading years ago on Facebook of all places. His publisher had a 12 Days of Christmas promo where they were posting daily snippets of his first book
   3. Finish Brent Weeks Lightbringer series
   4. Read Starsight by Brandon Sanderson when it comes out in November
   5. A Little Hatred Joe Abercrombie’s new series and/or The Shattered Sea trilogy which I never ended up getting around to
   6. Blood of Empire by Brian McClellan, the last book in his second trilogy when it comes out in December
   7. Start Anthony Ryan’s Draconis Memoria trilogy or read his followup to Raven’s Shadow trilogy
   8. Switch it up and read Doug Pederson’s autobiography or Charlamagne tha God’s second memoir
   9. Read Nicholas Eames’ Kings of the Wyld. The next lunch break book perhaps?

And finally… further down the line

• The Witcher books
• Michael J Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations & Chronicles. Mix of audiobook (I’m not able to find all of them) and ebook
• Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms (novels based off of two different Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings). I’ve already created a checklist for reading order of Dragonlance
• Tad Williams bibliography
• David Gemmell bibliography, another father of fantasy who passed away too soon
• Neil Gaiman, I’ve read a few but I should finish
• And this is not reading per se, but eventually we will get our D&D group back together and I will DM Storm King’s Thunder