I have been doing a lot of reading over the last year so I thought it would be fun to start a thread where we can all share books that we are currently reading, have read in the past or considering to read in the future.
To start us off, I recently finished the Wheel of Time series.
It was truly an amazing series. 14 books, a prequel and thousands upon thousands of pages filled with great characters, battles and worldbuilding.
I’ve been wanting to read a lot of the big fantasy series so now that I’m done with Wheel of Time, I’ve decided to go to the father of high fantasy himself, J.R.R Tolkien. I just read the Hobbit and am almost halfway through Fellowship of the Ring and I am thoroughly enjoying myself!
Also when I want a break from that I’m reading The Atlas of Tolkien’s Middle Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad. She took a lot of care to map Tolkien’s world, based on his descriptions. It also reads a bit like a journey through the landscape. I highly recommend it for any Lord of the Rings fans.
Imagine that Family Guy episode in which Peter says out loud at a party that he never read a book. That is me, just not that bad. I have recently bought the newest Dan Brown but have not even started the first chapter yet. Cannot find the peace of mind yet to start a book.
But the last book I finished… might have been the newest Dan Brown at that time… or… Homer’s Illiad. Talking about a difference in genre.
I read Harry Potter last year! They’re always a fun read. I’ll need to check out the atlas because I’m constantly looking back at the map. I’m like 150 pages in, checked the map and thought “they’re still in the shire?”
This is a book that I recommend to people over and over, The Tao of Pooh (pronounced "The Dow of Pooh). It is a book that explains the basic tenents of Taoism as shown through Winnie the Pooh. It is a book about learning to accept life and its ups and downs exactly as it is, and how by doing so enables you to be more at peace. I would have thought it was a book about religion, but it is really just a book about the philisophy around Taoism. I highly, highly recommend it.
Great thread idea. I do a journey to Middle Earth every year. Never gets old reading that. I love the books so much more than the movies, same with harry Potter. I went on a Brandon Sanderson binge a little while ago and read The Stormlight Series. I really enjoyed it as a whole though there were some books I found less interesting. I’m thinking of starting Mistborn. Any others read that yet?
I’m about halfway through and really enjoying it. The book chronicles how the comanches went from a relatively ‘insignificant’ tribe to the most powerful (and feared) tribe in American history. If you are into history I recommend it. I’m finding it difficult to put down.
I always loved the Harry Potter series. It’s what got me into reading when I was a kid. It’s funny thinking back to the 90s when it was controversial . Was never able to get into the movies though. The books are just way better.
What a coincidence! I’m currently reading it (rn midway through the second book). After the first book I already decided to buy the entire 15-book series, which are now on my bookshelves.
Some of my other favorite book series I’ve finished[1] already:
Terry Goodkind’s The Sword of Truth series [27 books in the same universe, although 11 for the core series]. I know some of his books are a bit controversial, and one of the books in the core series is pretty hard to get trough unfortunately, but overall this is still my favorite fantasy series, and I’ve read all books of the universe more than once, especially the first book.
JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series [7 books]. I’ve enjoyed both the books and the movies. My little brother had the Dutch book series which I’ve borrowed to read, but I’ve bought the English (UK) series myself when I started living on my own. (Haven’t read those yet, though. )
James Clemens’s Banned and the Banished series [5 books]. I’ve last read this series as a teen, so I might change my mind if I re-read it now 15-18 years later, but overall it was a solid series with likable characters and good, although maybe a bit cliché/standard, worldbuilding.
James Clemens’s Godslayer series [2 books atm, but 3 more ‘planned’]. Unfortunately it’s unfinished.. The first and second books are from 2006 and 2007, and I remember I hated that it ended with a cliffhanger without a third book in sight.. After looking it up just yet, apparently the author mentioned in 2023 he finishing the draft of the third book and working on the fourth in the series (with additional fifth planned) before they’ll release all three six months apart. But I’m honestly expecting it somewhere in 2045 at this point, haha. Because it’s unfinished, I’m not recommending this series, since it’ll just leave a bad taste in your mouth tbh.
Patrick Rothfuss’s The Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy [2 books atm, but 1 more planned]. Just like the previous mentioned, unfortunately this trilogy isn’t finished yet. The first book was released in 2007 and second in 2011, and there should still be coming a third finishing book, but we’ve yet to see a date for it.. This series was recommended to me by a colleague, and I’m glad he did.
As for of my favorite standalone books:
Dan Brown’s Deception Point. Although I’ve also read a few of Dan Brown’s more well-known books that also have movies, like The Da Vinci Code and Angel and Demons, his Deception Point book is still my favorite, since it’s about extraterrestrial fossils on a meteorite and I used to collect fossils as a kid/teen.
David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. (Even if you prefer reading books in your native language, defintely read this one in English!) A very unique six-stories-in-one, where the writer used different writing styles based on the period the characters live in: 1850s; 1930s; 1970s; present day; futuristic Korea; post-apocalypse. So it uses 19th century English for the first story, yet a very original way of writing for the two futuristic stories (which I won’t go into detail about to not spoil it). I watched the movie before reading the book, but reading just the book is enough tbh.
Some other series I’ve started and will continue later on:
Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series. I’ve read the first three books and own the remaining four. Very unique magic and worldbuilding.
Suzanne’s Collins The Hunger Games series. I’ve read the first three books and own the fourth book (I’ve already seen all movies though).
Brent Week’s Lightbringer series. I’ve read the first book and own the other four. Also very unique magic and worldbuilding, although defintely a less mature writing style than Brandon Sanderson.
Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse series. I saw the TV series before I bought and read any of her books, which (atm) consists of just the first book (Shadow and Bone). Because of that, I first accidently read the first two chapters of the Six of Crows book, the duology after the first trilogy of the Grishaverse-universe, before I realized it has characters I recognized from the TV series (aka, the previous trilogy). So even though I had just finished watching the first season of the TV series, since I liked those two chapters of the duology very much, I read the first book covering the same stuff, and was about 1/3rd through the second book when I decided I wanted to read a different book. Will defintely continue it later on however.
But likely after the Wheel of Times series. And I’ll likely start another series in between as well that I recently bought: Ishio Yamagata’s Rokka: Braves off the Six Flowers series [6 books]. I’ve seen the anime that covers the first book, which I liked - excluding the last five minutes tbh, iykyk - so decided to buy the light novels to read how the story continues.
And unpopular opinion perhaps, but I didn’t like the Lord of the Rings books very much, even though I loved the movies. Too much singing and distractions from the story when I read it.
Then again, I read the Dutch extended edition 3-in-1-book, which I borrowed from my grandpa. I stopped near the start of the second ‘book’, so roughly 1/3rd through.. Iirc, the extended edition has a lot of those kind of those kind of extras I disliked, so perhaps I should re-read the regular version one day. This was also 20 years ago tbcf.
Also, despite all above (and I’ve read numerous other books not among my favorites, although still pretty solid ones tbh - e.g. Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy or Charles den Tex’s Michael Bellicher trilogy), I don’t read too often anymore these days. I’m more into watching movies/series, anime, and YouTube, and only read if I’m not in the mood for either of those. So it’ll likely be a couple of years before I’ve finished the entire Wheel of Times series, ngl..
@Mr.Garrison, @DeadManDriving both of those seem interesting! Maybe I’ll check them out in between fantasy series as good palette cleansers
@niece I definitely want to read some Brandon Sanderson books! He actually wrote the last 3 Wheel of Time books after the unfortunate passing of Robert Jordan. Jordan’s wife Harriet actually selected Sanderson to finish her husband’s work after reading the first 50 pages of Mistborn. It’s an interesting story that he’s told on his YouTube channel
Great political thriller and companion piece to the movie. I read before watching so I was familiar with the characters beforehand, and all actors did a stellar job.
i’m working my way through a didion anthology!! on slouching towards bethlehem rn. i’m pairing it with a lighter read called women’s hotel by daniel lavery, which is a period piece about sort of a boarding house for women. it takes place in the days when you were expected to live with your family or with your husband but if you didn’t want to live with your family and were unmarried, you probably lived in communal housing UNTIL you found a husband lol. it’s a rlly sweet slice of life sort of novel, all low-stakes conflict and kvetching.
i’m also always listening to audiobooks while i’m working, currently it’s under the banner of heaven by jon krakauer. it’s an exhaustively researched exposé on mormon fundamentalism spanning almost 150 years, and the narrator is excellent. i heard they actually made a tv show on it!! but i haven’t watched, a lot of the events they describe in the book are NOT things I’d like to see depicted on screen.
. Was never able to get into the movies though. The books are just way better.
)
After looking it up just yet, apparently the author mentioned in 2023 he finishing the draft of the third book and working on the fourth in the series (with additional fifth planned) before they’ll release all three six months apart. But I’m honestly expecting it somewhere in 2045 at this point, haha. 
Because it’s unfinished, I’m not recommending this series, since it’ll just leave a bad taste in your mouth tbh.
This was also 20 years ago tbcf.