How I Came to Love Reading Fantasy Books
The story of how I discovered my favourite genre — and how it changed my life
I love reading fantasy. It is consistently my most-read genre, year after year. Fantasy books make up just under 36% of my total shelved books on Goodreads and 58% of all the fiction books I have shelved. Furthermore, over two-thirds (43 out of 62) of my all-time favourite fictional book series are fantasy and I am always reading more. However, it was not always this way. In fact, I only got into reading fantasy books a little less than a decade ago, but my life has not been the same since. Here is how it happened.
My memories of my early childhood years are vague and few in number, but one thing I remember vividly is my passion for reading. I began kindergarten at the age of four and possessed a reading ability beyond most of the others in my class, despite being one of the youngest. One of my favourite things to do was read the books I took home from school out loud to my parents, and I loved learning new words.
I advanced quickly and began reading chapter books in grade one, impressing many of the adults in my life. One of my clearest memories from this year of my life was when my teacher individually tested each student by having us read words out loud on printed cards. The test was effortless for me, and although she only tested me up to a grade-three reading level, I found even those words incredibly easy and was disappointed when she stopped the test to move on to the next student.
There are only two books that I specifically remember reading at this time, and it just so happens that both of them are fantasy books, Barbie as Rapunzel and Barbie & the Diamond Castle. (It was fun to look up these books because I did not remember their titles. I have a weird search history now!) If I were to read these books now, I would probably think them quite silly and poorly written, but five to six-year-old me thought they were amazing.
After that, I rarely read fantasy books until a few years later. Instead, I read books from the contemporary or realistic fiction genre, books about animals, some historical fiction, and a few 20th-century children’s classics. Some of the books I read between grades two and five consisted of (in no particular order) The Famous Five, Pony Pals, Judy Moody and Stink, Animal Ark, The Berenstain Bears Big Chapter Books and The Berenstain Bear Scouts, Charlotte’s Web, Junie B. Jones, Heartland, Ramona Quimby, The Mad Scientists’ Club, Because of Winn-Dixie, Freckle Juice, Safe as Houses, Dear Canada, Bridge to Terabithia, Our Canadian Girl, Elizabeth Gail, and The Roald Dahl Phizz Whizzing Collection. I read at least two fantasy books during this time, Tuck Everlasting and The Tale of Desperaux, though the fantasy elements in those books are more subtle than most fantasy novels and since I did not know much about book genres, I did not consider them to be fantasy when I first read them.
All of these books are ones that I loved when I read, but looking back now, I think I could probably read slightly more advanced books, especially in later grades. However, people rarely suggested books for me to read, so I discovered most of these books by browsing the shelves at my school’s library. I now wish I could visit my younger self and get her into reading fantasy books because I truly did not know what I was missing out on.
Everything changed when my grade six class started a unit on fantasy. On the first day of the fantasy unit, we were split into groups, each assigned a different task relating to the fantasy genre. My group needed to make a list of some fantasy book recommendations, and I could not think of a single one. It is crazy that I went from knowing next to nothing about fantasy a little over nine years ago to now writing a blog post about how much I love the genre and the way it has changed my life.
My teacher had selected either three or four (I cannot remember exactly) children’s fantasy books and divided the class into groups to read one of her chosen books. I was put in the group to read the most advanced book, Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. It is the first book in a five-book-long middle-grade fantasy series about a boy named Gregor who follows his toddler sister through a portal that takes them to an underground fantasy land where people ride on giant bats. There, Gregor discovers he is the prophesied hero the underland people have been waiting for.
I immediately became entranced with the book and read the rest of the series after my class group had completed book one. Despite having never reread those books, they remain one of my favourite series and I have nothing but love for them.
Shortly after that, my entire grade-six class read The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, the first book in the very popular Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. From the iconic first sentence, I was hooked and loved it even more than the Underland Chronicles. The chapter titles are hilarious, it got me interested in Greek mythology, and it was the first book I read with neurodivergent characters, though I was unaware of my own neurodivergence then.
It was my favourite book I had ever read at that time, and I wrote a review of the book in my diary on Tuesday, April 14th, 2015 which contains an absurd number of misspellings and an annoying lack of commas that I have typed out here for your amusement.
In school we are reading the best book ever!
Title: The Lightning Thief
Author: Rick Riordan
# of pages: 377
# of chapters: 22
Characters: Persus [sic] Jackson, Sally Jackson, Grover Underwood, Mr. Brunner/Chiron, Nancy Bobofit, Mrs. Dodds (Monster), Annabeth, Clarisse, Millions Others
It is about Percy, a half blood or demigod, which means that one parent of his is a god. His mom, Sally never married Posidon [sic] the Sea God (Percy’s Dad) but married Smelly Gabe Ugliano (the worst person ever). Sally is really nice and Gabe is the absolute oposite [sic]. Percy goes to Camp Half Blood where his dad wanted him to go, and finds out he has to go on a quest.
Series: Percy Jackson and the Olimpians [sic]
I read the next four books, and they introduced me to a whole new world of reading. Something that I thought I knew was suddenly so unfamiliar. Books were my biggest passion, but I realized there were so many other books out there that I knew I would love. The next fantasy series I read were The Kane Chronicles, Artemis Fowl, The Land of Stories, Dragonsdale, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, House of Secrets, Descendants, and Warriors. All of them became favourites of mine as I read them from the summer of 2015 to the fall of 2018 (ages 11-14) and Warriors was especially influential, as it introduced me to online fandoms.
However, not everything in my reading life was going well. Though I had discovered many new favourites, there were other forces at work beyond my control. Namely, my parents. They were not impressed with my newfound love of fantasy and repeatedly insisted I spend less time reading and more time in “the real world.” My books were taken away on numerous occasions, and there was even a time in early 2017 when I had to ask them permission to read every time and could only do so while sitting at my desk (where they could see me from the kitchen).
There were also instances where I was not allowed to take a book to school with me, one of which happened on Wednesday, March 7th, 2018, when I was in grade nine. My class had a free reading time that day, during which all the students were expected to read a book. Since I was currently prohibited from taking books to school, I wrote in my notebook instead and hoped that no one would say anything about it. Thankfully, no one did, but I still felt guilty even though there was nothing I could do about it. Over the next few days, I began doing a cross-stitch project during free reading time at school. Then, on the 23rd, I secretly took a book with me to school that I had already read because I was scared of getting in trouble for not reading when I was supposed to.
All of this was… hard for me. Special interests are one of the ways autistic people cope with the demands of life, and they give us meaning and purpose. During these years, I was something of a social outcast at school, and although I loved my classes and got high marks, other things were much more challenging. I had a group of “friends” in junior high but was never really a part of it. They often hung out after school and on weekends, events I was not invited to. That was all right with me since I knew I was no fun to be around, though I admittedly found it irritating when they talked about what they did on their hangouts while sitting at a lunch table with me.
Given my social failures and extreme shyness, I felt lost and alone in a world I did not understand. Books were the main thing that brought me comfort and hope and I do not know what I would have done without them. So, I went to desperate lengths to keep reading; I used deception.
I began hiding my books in grade seven after my parents became concerned about “questionable content” in said books, even though they were mostly all written for children. They seemed to disapprove of books that did not have an explicitly Christian worldview and wanted me to read more books where all the characters constantly talked about Jesus or something. Now, I have never had anything against Christian books in general, but I wanted to read good art. Many Christian books are overly preachy and place more emphasis on Christian themes and messages than the actual story.
From my perspective, it looked as though my parents viewed fantasy and magic as something pagan and even demonic. It felt like they were treating me like an idiot incapable of discernment. Yes, I read some books about pagan gods, but not to worship them! I have always been fascinated by studying history and ancient cultures to learn more and I realized I could do that while reading some pretty awesome stories.
So, I developed some methods to trick my parents. One of my favourites was reading while sitting on the floor next to the dresser in my room. I placed something else on the floor beside me to be the “distraction,” such as my diary, my phone (when I finally got one at age 14), some sewing or knitting, my Chromebook, a craft, or sometimes a book other than the one I was currently reading. Then, when I heard my parents approaching, I surreptitiously slid my book underneath my dresser and pretended to be doing whatever I had placed on the floor beside me. Additionally, I found ways to take books with me by hiding them in my clothing or my Bible case when we went to church. There was even a time when I would curl up in an empty cupboard at church after the services with a book and my phone flashlight because I knew no one would find me there.
I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I felt I had no choice. The thought of being some mindlessly compliant daughter who submitted to the invasive control of my parents disgusted me. Fantasy was my much-needed escape and an integral part of my identity, so there was no way I was going to give it up. And the truth is, I do not regret any of it. Without fantasy books, I would have never become the person I am today and those years of my life would have been significantly more miserable.
It was in this moment, when all hope had faded, that Rachel, daughter of controlling parents, took up a new fantasy series. (I apologize for the very cringe LotR reference. It just fit too well for me to pass up the opportunity.) On Sunday, December 9th, 2018, I started reading Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger. The series is currently ten books long with at least two more books yet to be published, the books ranging in page length from 496 to 848. Given all that, it is a pretty big time commitment but I think it is 100% worth reading. My love for these books quickly exceeded that of anything I had read before, and my sister read them too, so we talked about them a lot.
Keeper of the Lost Cities, or KotLC for short, became a part of my life like no other series ever had. I read a few fanfiction stories, watched YouTube videos about it, drew some embarrassingly bad fan art, and reread the first six books only half a year later. Part of the reason I loved it so much was because of the way the protagonist resonated with me. Sophie Foster starts off as a twelve-year-old high school student with telepathic powers. Like me, she was advanced for her age and lacked friends. When I first read the books in grade ten, I did not have any friends at school. After constantly feeling left out by my fake friends in junior high, I decided I was done. So, when grade ten began, I no longer spent time with them, and it was wonderful.
Suddenly, I no longer felt like I was failing all the time. I refused to waste my time with such people any longer, so I did everything alone. However, my parents were anything but pleased. They kept pressuring me to “talk to people” and “make friends,” but I could not. As such, I related a lot to Sophie’s character. Her telepathic abilities meant that she was constantly hearing the thoughts of everyone around her all at once. My sensory issues from being unknowingly autistic made it hard for me to be in places with many other people talking, so I ate my lunch in a quieter area of the school. In reading KotLC, I saw myself in a protagonist who was introverted, anxious, friendless, intelligent, noise-avoidant, and who felt like she did not fit in with her family.
In the story, Sophie finds out that she is actually an elf, hence the magical abilities (which she has told no one of). She is then taken to the elvish cities to live and makes friends with other elves. I liked to imagine that my life would turn out similarly and that I would be visited by a mysterious stranger who would tell me that the real reason I felt as though I did not belong among humans was because I was in fact, not human. For me as an undiagnosed autistic person, this series really spoke to me. Although I knew that Sophie’s story was entirely fictional and no such thing would ever happen to me, it was comforting to think that if I had been born into an alternate universe with magic and elves, I might have belonged somewhere after all.
The next fantasy series I read was none other than Harry Potter. Unlike a lot of other people my age, I did not grow up on stories of the boy who lived. To be completely honest, I knew next to nothing about the series for the majority of my life. Although I knew it was a very popular and much-loved fantasy series for children that had also been adapted into some movies, it had never occurred to me that I should read the books until that year. Growing up in a pretty sheltered Christian environment, no one I had a close relationship with ever spoke positively about Harry Potter. I was never directly told that I was not allowed to read them, but I certainly got the sense that doing so would be frowned upon, especially given my dad’s job as a pastor.
That all changed when my sister and I were gifted a set of the entire series by a woman who attended our church. She told us that she loved them when she was younger and thought that we would love them as well. So, I read the Harry Potter series in March and April of 2019 when I was fifteen years old. And I loved them all. While KotLC remained my top favourite series for a few more years, I got more and more into fantasy books.
Despite all the books I had recently come to love, there were still struggles in my reading life. My parents continued to disapprove of how much I was reading and took measures to reduce the amount of reading I could do. One such occurrence happened while I was rereading KotLC in June when my parents took away my book, which was the fifth one in the series. As the fiercely independent person that I am, I was angered by what they had done to me time and time again, and I had enough of being treated like a child. A passage in the Monday, June 24th, 2019 entry from my third diary reads:
It’s time I stop letting [my parents] do this to me. I need to stop telling them and [my sister] stuff, I need to hide it. I always should have a “fake” book that I’m not currently reading out for them to take. I can’t leak any more secrets… I need to learn to hide, to lie. I hate doing it, but I can’t let [my parents] shove me down like this… It’s time to enter into a time of not trusting anyone. I’ve tried. For years and years. I've trusted and told my family things. That time has now come to an end.
I felt deeply betrayed by my parents. They should have been the people I trusted the most, yet, I saw them as antagonists and often referred to them as dictators when talking to myself. Thankfully, our relationship has gotten better since I no longer live with them, but when I was in high school, it sucked. I had tried so hard to be the daughter they wanted me to be but I knew I was never good enough. So, I grew to resent them and became rebellious.
Reading was my place of comfort and safety, so for my parents to take that away from me was a betrayal of my trust. I wanted to infodump about my favourite books and share my love of reading. I wanted someone to nerd out with. I wanted someone to give me book recommendations. I wanted someone to buy books for me, or at least let me buy the ones I wanted. I wanted to know what it felt like to not have my heart rate shoot up in fear as my parents came into my room while I was reading. I wanted to live without feeling the need to hide the thing I loved more than anything in the world. I wanted. And I got none of it.
I read two more fantasy series that year, Bravelands and The Unwanteds. Then, at the beginning of 2020, I found out that there were people who talked about books on YouTube in a community known as BookTube. This was revolutionary for my reading life. At that point, my Goodreads want-to-read list had never been more than 300 books long. As I write this post a little over four years later, it is at 2660. It turns out that I watched a few too many book recommendation videos and got more book recommendations than I knew what to do with.
In 2020, I read more fantasy series than any previous year of my life. These consisted of Throne of Glass (I did not like this series and do not recommend it), Wings of Fire, The Lunar Chronicles, The Inheritance Cycle, Septimus Heap, and Sea Witch as well as some recent releases in series I had already started. I also read the fantasy standalones Heartless and The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, which brought the total number of fantasy books I read that year to 60, over 67% of my 2020 books.
Reading this much was certainly impressive given the situation I was in. In addition to being in grades 11 and 12 in 2020, I took biology during the summer and spent a large portion of my free time doing homework and studying. Furthermore, my books and devices were frequently removed from my possession, limiting the amount of time I could spend reading even more. The COVID lockdowns certainly did not help my reading, as I had to stay at home all day which only served to give my parents more control over my life.
One good thing that happened that year was my dad giving each my sister and me a Kobo e-reader in June, something I still use to this day. I was surprised by this, as he did not seem to approve of my reading. Of course, there were certain rules about Kobo usage put into place, though I found ways around these. Specifically, we were expected to place our Kobos in the living room at night. Instead, I removed my Kobo from its case and replaced it with a Kobo-sized notepad so that I could read in bed and my parents never found out.
I did not like using such extreme measures and felt very guilty about doing so. Yet, I continued using deceptive methods of reading throughout high school because I could not imagine a life without books, specifically, fantasy books. Going back to in-person school for my course in July, and later, for grade 12 was a much-welcome change.
At the start of 2021, I picked up The Heroes of Olympus, the sequel series to the original five Percy Jackson books which I had just reread. I had wanted to read them for quite a while beforehand but never got around to it until I finally decided to make reading them a priority. They are so much fun and I loved getting back into the world of Camp Half-Blood. Then in March, I fell in love with The Trials of Apollo, the sequel series to the sequel series and decided that Rick Riordan is officially my favourite author.
It was also this year that I read the entirety of the Narnia series for the first time. Previously, I had only read The Magician’s Nephew and Prince Caspian, so it was great to read these books again but with the addition of the others in the series, though I do wish I had read them all at a younger age. My sister read the books around the same time and after reading them, we watched the movies together. I do not think they did a good job of adapting the series, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the worst of the movies even though it is my favourite Narnia book. However, the two of us became obsessed with the movie soundtracks and I still listen to them regularly.
I read several more fantasy series that year, most notably Marissa Meyer’s Renegades trilogy. The series is 1572 pages long, yet I read it in a little over four days because I loved it so much. It is a fantasy and science fiction superhero series with an antihero protagonist and one of my favourite romances.
Then, just before I began my first year of Bible college in September, I read The Hobbit at age 17. I thought it was a fun and sweet story, so I went on to read The Lord of the Rings, though I took breaks between each of the books. To be honest, it was not exactly what I expected and I found it somewhat boring at first. I mean, how many songs did J. R. R. Tolkien have to put in those books? As I went on, however, I began to love the story more and more.
After reading all of the books in late 2021, I watched the movie adaptations of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for the first time. As of May 2024, I have watched The Hobbit trilogy twice, The Fellowship of the Ring five times, and both The Two Towers and The Return of the King four times. I frequently find myself singing songs from the soundtracks and quoting lines from the movies because they are honestly amazing.
The next year, I read some more Middle-Earth books and truly came to love this fantastic fictional world. The Lord of the Rings will always be a special series to me. In fact, I could even say, “it is precious to me.” These books were the first adult fantasy books I read and I began following other LotR fans online, including many here on Substack.
Starting in the fall of 2021, I was able to spend more time reading than ever before. I was in college from this time until April of 2023, with a four-month summer break between school years. But the greatest part about it was… I was in complete control of what I read (aside from my course textbooks, that is). Since I was living far away from home, I experienced greater freedom than I ever had before. There was a library near my school that I frequently visited, though I also borrowed ebooks and bought some books online. And guess what? No one ever took my books or my Kobo away from me. It was wonderful.
Since then, I have read many more fantasy books. Most of these were written for children and teenagers in the 21st century, but I have read a few other kinds. One of these is the Earthsea Cycle series by Ursula K. Le Guin, a beautiful six-book series written over several decades that I read in January and reviewed in this post. Then, in early April, I read what is now my number one favourite series, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. As of the writing of this post, I have 801 fantasy books on my Goodreads want-to-read list, so I will be definitely reading many more fantasy books for years to come.
My journey with fantasy has been life-changing and full of ups and downs. While I have not loved every fantasy book I have read and there are some I strongly dislike, fantasy is and will always be my favourite genre. The real world is hard, confusing, and scary. I find myself wanting to go somewhere else, a place of magic and friendship, adventure and fun. A place where even the most unlikely creature imaginable can shape the course of the world. There are things I crave that this world cannot give me, and you can probably relate. This reminds me of what is probably my favourite C. S. Lewis quote (I know, I have too many!):
If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.
So, with that, I will conclude this story. From reading Barbie books under a hundred pages to devouring works many times that size and writing about my love of fantasy on the internet, I have come a long way in my life, but I know there is so much more to explore. The truth is, my life is better now than it has ever been, and fantasy is certainly a part of that. While I do not know exactly what my five-year-old self would think of twenty-year-old me, I have a feeling that she would be pretty impressed with how I have grown these fifteen years. I cannot even begin to imagine what I will accomplish in the next fifteen.
I hope you enjoyed hearing all about my love of fantasy. Leave a comment telling me what your favourite fantasy books are and how you got into reading them! And for all my subscribers, I will be back in your inbox with another post next week. :)
You remind me of my nieces, Rachel! They are both voracious readers. One's in college and one is 18. Great to see you journaling your reading adventures. They remind me of my love of reading, too. And you make me want to finish books, which I have a bad habit of NOT doing!
I’ve was also a big fantasy reader growing up-it was my favorite genre for a long time and still holds a special place in my heart (side note-fun fantasy quartet I loved in high school was The Books of Pellinor by Allison Croggan-worth checking out). I’m sorry you had such a tough experience with your parents and reading. I was very blessed to have parents who encouraged my reading and found ways to help me navigate books with concerning content without being overly controlling. As a Mom now, I’m trying very hard to encourage a love of reading from the get go. As a Christian, I also want to instill in my children a vibrant faith. So reading your story has given me some helpful reminders/perspectives on what mistakes I hope to avoid in my own parenting life. Thanks for sharing!