The Hobbit The prequel to Lord of the Rings, I'll never forget my fourth grade teacher reading this to the class. It made me long for adventure in far-off lands.
The Lord of the Rings The classic work by J.R.R. Tolkien... beautiful, complex and absorbing, LOTR inspires me to create a detailed and immersive world of beauty.
The Silmarillion A work that delves more deeply into the ancient times of Middle-Earth before LOTR, this book is not for the faint of heart... but it just reinforces the sheer depth of Tolkien's folklore.
The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set These seven fairy tales by C.S. Lewis are relatively short and written for children, but they are among the enduring favorites in my library. My mother read them to me as a child, and I can't wait to someday read them to my children.
The Wheel of Time: Books 1-3
Robert Jordan's addictive and best-selling fantasy series is at its best in the first three books. The others aren't quite as good, but once you've read these you'll probably buy all the rest anyway to satisfy your newly-developed but voracious addiction.
Time Quartet These four childrens' books by Madeline L'Engle, including the award-winning A Wrinkle in Time, have always captured my imagination, melding science fiction, fantasy and reality in a most intriguing sort of way.
Harry Potter Box Set JK Rowling's wonderful novels captured my heart and mind and took their place among my favorite books to read again and again. The idea of a magical world hidden within our own modern society is a heady concept for me. I can hardly wait for the seventh and final one!
The Neverending Story Michael Ende's fairy tale was originally written in German, but this translation is excellent and a wonderful read... and, in my opinion, much, much better than any of the movies.
The Complete Brothers Grimm Watching the Disney movies inspired me to further explore the world of fairy tales. I found a dusty copy of Grimm's fairy tales in the elementary school library. I found, much to my fascination, that the original tales were much more gruesome and shocking than their contemporary versions.
The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Andersen's fairy tales were very beautiful, but often sad... The Little Mermaid and the Match-Girl made me cry when I was a little girl, but they plumbed the depths of emotion so much more than the versions we know today.
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights Before Disney ever came out with "Aladdin," I read of his exploits as well as those of Sinbad and Ali Baba in yet another dusty old library book... it delighted me that a woman was able to enchant a murderous sultan and save her own life through remarkable storytelling skills. I do not know that I have the skills of the exotic Scherezade, but fortunately I doubt that I will ever need to find out.
