Thursday Thirteen

SciFiChick posted her thirteen favourite science fiction books, and I decided that I am going to post my thirteen favourite fantasy books.

1. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I first read this book about 4 years ago. It was the first present that Tom ever bought me, and I do not even remember the reason. I enjoyed all the sequels as well, but I have not read Ancestors yet. There is a new book coming out in the series this summer, Ravens of Avalon. So, I will likely read Ancestors before it comes out.

2. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. A fantasy list would not be complete without these books. I first read them a few years ago. It was a summer read, and I always wanted to go back and read them again, but we all know how great I am at rereads...

3. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. This was one of my favourite series when I was little. I reread them a few years ago when I got a gift certificate that would cover the purchase for either my birthday or Christmas.

4. The Wrinkle in Time quartet by Madeleine L'Engle. I read A Wrinkle in Time in junior high. It was a kind of funny story, to be honest. I had to read a book for school, and my mother had bought me A Wrinkle in Time, so I read that, and then it turned out by searching through my books that I had already bought it for myself, so I had two copies. This was before amazon.ca, although I would eventually go on to order some of her books from the States, so I had a hard time tracking down the rest of her books forever! By some fluke, this was the days of the book club newletters at school, and low and behold, one day there were five books in there by her. In order to get the rest of the quartet (and I think An Acceptable Time), I had to buy A Wrinkle in Time again. I got her Austin series and few of her other books when I went to Texas to Barnes and Noble, and her adult novels I ordered second hand off Barnes and Noble. There are still a few of her books that I want and cannot find, but I am impressed with how many I do have. The book that I generally only ever see in stores in A Wrinkle in Time. (Oh, at its peak, I owned four copies of A Wrinkle in Time. I bought myself a 4-in-1 copy about one to two years ago because it was easier to carry around.)

5. The "Light" quartet by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I have actually only read two of the four, Ghostlight and Witchlight, but I hope to read the other two maybe this year. A good mix of the modern world and fantasy, usually in the appearance of witches and magic.

6. The Witches' series by Ruth Chew. I am not actually sure that this is the title of the books, but this is a youth series that I really used to like when I was little. I think they were out of print even when I read them because I always had to find them at the second hand store. I do not have all of her books, maybe one day I will see if I can order the rest online, but I used to love them when I was little. They were an automatic buy anytime I saw them because they involved witches and were entertaining. Likely would be termed as very light fantasy, though, in many cases.

7. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. A really entertaining look at the apocolypse that I read a couple of years ago. It was the first time I read Gaiman, and I think my second time reading Pratchett. I enjoyed it a lot!

8. The Princess Bride by William Goldman. I am not sure when the first time I read this book was, but I remember thinking it was very entertaining! I reread it a couple years ago, and I still love it.

9. Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne-Jones. A very well-written fairy tale retelling sort of book. I really enjoyed it when I read it for the first time a couple years ago.

10. The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey. An entertaining read.

11. Several series that I feel I should read more of before commenting on, like Elizabeth Haydon, Jack Whyte, David Gemmell, Sharon Shinn... etc.

12. Naomi Novik and Maria. Snyder. I only tentatively put these two on here because Snyder is not done yet and I still have a book in the TBR pile from Novik.

13. All the great books that I have not read yet, but I will.