Oh, fantasy novels, how I love thee! Let me count the ways...

I live in a perpetual state of guilt.  Most of it is due to my extreme lack of time.  I'm always in my car driving to derby (which I have been slacking on this last month -_-;;), and have too many options for when scheduling my free time.  Shall I craft?  Shall I cook?  Shall I read?  Shall I catch up on Star Trek? (seriously people!  Why didn't anybody ever tell me how fucking amazing TNG is???)  And then I need to make sure to spend time with the boyfriend and to remind the cat he belongs to me.

I can watch TNG while curled up with Burn and torture Herb between rows while cookies are baking, but reading is the one thing I can't overlap.  Hence the guilt.

I love reading!  I miss reading.  I really need to catch up on waaay too many books.  But there are several that I have read!  And boy have they impacted my life.

NEVER ENDING STORY

I used to read a lot in elementary and was addicted to things like Baby Sitter's Club and Madelein L'Engel.  And then I got to middle school and was forced to read crap, and I completely lost my love for literature.  Until high school, when I was made to read The Never Ending Story.  Damn.  I love this book!  I gave it away to someone I'm pretty sure was special Back In The Day (I can't remember who, though), and have repurchased it another three times since then.  Unfortunately, I keep on giving it away to some poor soul that had never read it before being able to get back to it.  But one day!  I swear I'm going to read it again and I know I'll still be in love with Atreyu and The Multi Color Death.

HARRY POTTER

I jumped on this wagon a bit late.  I just didn't get the draw of some children's book.  Until the fourth one came out and the guy I was dating's little sister convinced me to read them all.  And I was hooked.  Addicted, you might even say.  My entire social circle since I moved to PA is due to me getting up the balls to go to a Harry Potter university club (The Three Broomsticks) when I first moved here.  I love Harry, and I love people that love Harry.  My favorite of the seven books was the fifth (Order Of The Phoenix), probably because I read it while I was in a very similar whiny position about a year from finishing college.  This also presents one of my favorite characters ever: Severus Snape.  Yes, he does follow some trite tropes in characterization, but he is beautifully done.  Lily was blind and the Marauders were assholes, and I really just want to hug Snape until everything is ok.

VAMPIRE CHRONICLES

I read several Anne Rice novels during my College Goth phase while waiting for the next Harry.  I was young, and damn did I love them!  Mnemnoch The Devil is one of my favorite books ever, mostly because I read it while I was still young and naive enough to still be philosophical about religion and I really loved the presentation of the main character.  While I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to read those books again with a straight face, IwtV is still one of those movies that I can watch over and over and over and over again.  }}swoon{{

TERRY PRATCHET

He is so adorable!  I've read all the books involving witches, wizzards and DEATH.  And damn do I love DEATH and DEATH OF RATS!  And the witches.  Granny Weatherwax!  I just love these books and want to hug everybody in them.  I just can't articulate at all right now, but I love them ^_^

JIM BUTCHER

Oh, Dresden...  This is what I'm currently reading and am completely enthralled.  I love the characters, the plots, the tone.  Especially the tone!  I'm currently reading Small Favor and am kicking myself that I am so far behind.  My roommate took off work today to read Cold Days and is grinning from ear to ear.  I've managed to listen to one of the books on tape read by the ever so dreamy James Marsters while I had a knitting deadline, but it really doesn't compare to reading it myself.

JOHN DIES AT THE END

I... have absolutely no clue whether I liked this book or not.  It took me forever to finish it due to the spastic storyline, but I am very eager to watch the movie.

TOLKIEN

I read them early in college.  I absolutely loved The Hobbit.  I struggled through the other three and died about 1/6 from the end of the last one.  Meh?  It was a good series, and it definitely did a great deal to progress the genre, but I very much do not live in such a slow paced world to be able to completely appreciate it.


CHARLAINE HARRIS
I also read all of the Sookie Stackhouse novels a couple of summers ago in one week.  They got very good once she got rid of that horrible Bill.  I haven't read the last two, though, since I've been stuck on Dresden.  I really enjoyed them (yes, you can have vampire stories without it completely devolving into poorly written smut) and I fucking hated the abomination that they made into the show.

I love reading.  I want to read more!  And I am very excited for this next swap.