I enjoy fantasy books, but I've always struggled with the world-building because it's hard for me to wrap my brain around systems (magical, biological, etc.) that we don't experience in our reality. That led me to wondering, if our lives took place in a fantasy world, what aspects would the readers find weird or unrealistic? For me, it's gotta be toilets. Like, wdym we have special rooms with a bowl to dump our waste in? I think I'd find that crazy if it wasn't a normal part of our lives haha

The book that I'm currently reading (Throne of Nightmares) has the two MCs jumping into different book worlds and living out certain plot points, and it made me wonder what worlds I'd like to visit and what I would do in them...

I can imagine traveling the streets of Velaris and walking over the Sidra River, riding on a dragon in Navarre or attempting the obstacle course they train on, petting some of the Kiyou wolves in Atlantia, training with assassin's outside of Nighthaven... The possibilities are nearly endless.

What worlds would you visit, and what fun things would you get up to?

I love reading romantasy and epic fantasy with romance. However, I do not wish to read or watch or hear anything related to romance for a while, as I am currently convinced love is purely fictional and I won't be able to experience it ever. (Today I got dumped via an AI-generated text. AI-GENERATED TEXT. Now I know that when someone is not ashamed of telling you the last time they willingly picked up a book was in middle school, that is a huge red flag. Such people lack not only the empathy to try to understand what the other person is feeling, but also the reading comprehension skills required to come up with a proper answer on their own. I dont feel even a little sad, it just feels like I just parted ways with ChatGPT. Good riddance I guess... I hope I am the first and last person to experience this, but I also know I wont be. I hate AI a bit more each day.)

It feels good to put my anger into words, but back to the purpose of this post: It is kind of hard to find books with absolutely no romance, especially in fantasy. If it won't be too specific to find, I would also very much like books that would make me laugh. I feel a reading slump approaching, so I would appreciate any help 😊

EDIT: I want to thank each and every one of you for all your recs and especially for your support! Your comments mean the world to me :) I realised once more just how much I like being a part of this community. Love you all 💙

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Hi!! 🤗 I’m looking for nice standalone romantasy books. Right now I have two more books to finish and then I won’t have anything else to read so I’m asking you kind people to recommend me some books that in your opinion are worth reading and made you emotional 🩷 thank you so much in advance !!!

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I’m supposed to be doing an assignment right now 🤪

I was thinking about The Golden Compass earlier because I'm going to be buddy reading that series later this year (rereading in my case because we actually read it in English class in 7th grade) and about the concept of daemons in that series, which is, to summarize briefly, an animal representation of your soul that lives in the physical world with you who you can talk to and interact with. Honestly, the dream. In the book, your daemon essentially settles into one animal form based on who you are for the rest of your life when you hit puberty.

And because I love animals and always love reasons for more animal talk - what would your daemon/animal form/however you want to conceptualize it be based on your personality and why? Post a picture if you want!

(To post a picture, use  without the spaces.)

“ A biography? You wish for a biography? Who do you think you are chronicling, the Grand Mufti of Mecca? My people do not wax poetic about lineage like yours do”

lol

This shows me the author has done her research because Ive read an English translation of The tale of princess Fatima, warrior woman, which is a very old middle eastern tale (that i already highly recommend to anyone who likes this book). In that story, and most other originally oral stories, it starts with a very long list of all the mc’s relatives and the actual story begins with her great gandmother and great grandfather!! You don’t hear a single story about her until you get all of her past!!

I was recently reading The Priory of the Orange Tree and i was talking to one of my friends about. I was saying i thought it was really interesting and I thought that by all the elements included, he would enjoy it. He then said he might check it out since i said that, but when he was looking for the book he first saw it described as 'feminist Lord of the Rings'. We then got sidetracked and had a whole discussion about Tolkien and the society he lived in at the time of writing the books, but that is beside the point.

I got stuck in mind the idea or trend that is in describing some books by using others. I think it might have been a BookTok amplified phenomenon, which I did find interesting and fun at first, but also started to feel a bit irritated by it as time went on, because i found most, if not all, popular books being described as 'the cross between this book and this book with the emotional impact of this third book'.

I felt that having an actual description of the plot or characters might convince me more. Also, sometimes, when i see the books described through some titles, I am actually less likely to pick that book up, because I did not enjoy the one they are referencing, even if perhaps this book has a different writing style or story progression or characters I would enjoy much more.

So i was wondering what others think. Do you enjoy having that, so you can discover books more like your favourites, or do you also find that you are not the biggest fans of it?