Read On...Fantasy Fiction: Reading Lists for Every Taste (Read On Series) - Softcover

Neil Hollands

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1591583306 ISBN 13: 9781591583301

Publisher: Libraries Unlimited, 2007

Synopsis

So,you're looking for some great new fantasy reads? Or perhaps you're looking for fresh reading lists for handouts and to post on your library's Web site? If so, this guide is just the ticket. Created to offer a different perspective on the fantasy genre and reach a broader reading audience (including fans), the book offers new reading paths for fantasy lovers. It organizes more than 800 titles into over 100 lists, in such categories as The Magic of Threes: Fantasy's Best Trilogies, The Fellowship is the Thing: Companions on a Quest, Fan-to-Sea-Nautical Fantasy, and When Groan Men Scry: Puns as a Fantasy Tradition. The organization and approach are based on various appeal factors of the genre. A great tool for advising readers, creating reading lists for library Web sites, flyers, and newsletters, and making checklists or reading plans for adults and teens who enjoy fantasy fiction.

About this title

About the Author

Neil Hollands is originally from Ogden, Utah. Neil Hollands read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at age four and has been a fan of fantasy fiction ever since. He found his true calling as a librarian in 2003. He works at the Williamsburg Regional Library, where he specializes in readers' advisory. Comments about the content of this book are welcome at nholland@wrl.org.

Reviews

Librarians who do readers advisory for teens or adults will wonder how they ever got along without this funny, opinionated, wide-angle guide. Hollands has arranged approximately 800 titles, each with a brief, enticing annotation, into over 100 topical lists of 10 or fewer titles. Gathered beneath one of five rubrics dubbed "appeal characteristics"-Story, Character, Setting, Mood, and Language-the lists range from specific themes ("'You Killed My Father, Prepare to Die!' The Fantasy of Revenge") and familiar set pieces ("Armageddon Out of Here: Fantasy's Furious Final Battles") to character types ("Smaug Gets in Your Eyes: Fantasy's Formidable Dragons"), genre-expanders ("Steaming Up the Looking Glass: When Romance Is Nice, but Sex Is Better"), and even length ("Never Toss a Dwarf: Fantastic Fantasies with a Low Page Count"). Nearly all of the titles within those lists are in print and include enduring classics and books recently published. Though the focus is on books for older readers, younger ones are served by a few lists, and titles particularly recommended for teens are marked with a symbol. Award winners are similarly labeled, and also listed by award in an appendix. Other standard resources, such as Ruth N. Lynn's Fantasy Literature for Children and Young Adults (Libraries Unlimited, 2005) are more comprehensive, but not so current, or as engagingly written.—John Peters, New York Public Library
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Edition details

• Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1591583306
• ISBN 13: 9781591583301
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232
• Editor: Barry Trott