fantasy was always the ultimate escapism for me- up until a couple of years ago i'd look forward to reading all day- it afforded me a cheap and easy escape from my real (and boring) life. so i'd read every spare moment i had, and devoured hundreds of books this way (i read every fantasy/sci fi in the library) then gradually this hunger dropped off, and now i have about 50 unread books in the house, and though i occasionally dip back into one of my old favourites, it is as though i am eating on a full stomach.... maybe i'm just growing up?

All stories are fiction in the sense they are created by the perception and writing of the writer. Even History books. All is fantasy, all of it. So would say the great Jorge Luis Borges. The truth is that the capacity of interation of reader and a book is produced by the talent of the writer - he is the one who made possible you forget the questions (in any book) and with cumplicity read the book as you would like. That is art.

These books are so realistic, you would believe they could or are true. I have read the entire series of all of them (Yes, they are all series.) and liked them. Now I am obsessed with owning them so I can read them everyday.

I am familar with Harry Potter and Mediator, but not The Dragonlace series. Is it written on sort of like a Harry Potter format or is it completely different?

An interesting line of books as well. Technically considered the very First Trading Card Game (notice I put GAME at the end for those who don't catch it the first time), Magic is a well known card game that released its Beta Set of cards in the early 1990's. Not long after, the Creators licensed books to be created, and the cards somewhat began reflecting the story lines; creating several Unique Cards & Books to collect. It's never the same story line or gameplay mechanics, either!

If you get a chance to read any of the M:TG Series of books, you'll notice that they kind of follow the "Final Fantasy Formula" Where in the story line is always different.

I don't know how ODD it is that all those books have fantasy elements if you're a fan of the genre!

I've read a couple fantasy books in my day. The Belgariad series was my absolute favorite in about ninth grade or so, but I wonder if when I went back I'd find it to be a bit more corny and formulaic. I may actually do that, though my tastes have branched out far more and there's so many other new things I never get around to reading.

Another series I would HIGHLY recomend is the Rigante series by David Gemmell. It's really a bit of "light fantasy" with only mild to influence from the magic and deitites, but is very much about high adventure swords and battle and all that. Not to say the magical aspects aren't important, but it's really all about the characters and battle. It's a little gritty I guess, and pretty much every main character is pretty flawed. By the end of the first book I decided the writing style was superbly unique with some very likable and realistic characters to keep going, and the rest of the books were just phenomenal to me. I guess it may not be for everyone though, check out some Amazon reviews and descriptions first.

As you are 14 and assuming you started to read at age five that is 9 years of reading. Assuming further that you have read 2000 books "The Dragonlance series, Harry Potter, and the Mediator series are the only ones out of thousands I have read..." that would be 4.273 books a week. A truly amazing feat.

Well let me just say that I know the feeling well. So well that it is scary. One person might argue that fantasy genre authors are so good at displaying these fantastic ideas, with imaginations greater than some will ever know, that one can not help but be absorbed into the magic of the book. But in my own opinion I think you are probably right in thinking about the reality of these books. It wasn't that long ago that Migick and witches were so real to everyone in the world that they hunted them. Now to me that qualifies as real. The same concept of religion. A religion isn't a religion until people follow it.

More that I've read in my lifetime??????? Interesting statement..

When I was in the sixth grade I started keeping a book journal. I would read a book, then enter the title of the book the author and any thoughts I had about the book into the journal as well as a rating out of four stars. At last count ( I checked when I read your post.) I am at 3153. The vast majority being fantasy sci-fi with a mix of psychololgy, philosopy, religion, science in the later years (the last 15) I figure that is about 2.021 books per week for the last thirty years. I did not include the thousands of newspapers and magazines I have read as that would consume too much time and would be silly ( to citique a newspaper )

Interesting thing books, in order for a fiction book to be considered good by anyone there has to be what is called 'suspension of disbelief. You have to be able to disregard what you know to be untrue and emmerse yourself into the story as though it were true in order to enjoy it. This phenominon has been studied and is well documented in the psychological world.

http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/journal/2003_holland06.shtml#holland06

Reading isone of my ultimate escapes, from the moment I learned to read. I was in second grade and already reading books for middle school level. In fifth grade, they said I read at college level. On average I read 3-5 books in a week, which isn't too difficult if you read multiple books at once. I love stories of fantasy (not a big fan of sci-fi) because they open up a world that every one wishes was real, but knows can't be. It brings then to the places they yearn for in dreams and wish for when they turn every page. I love that feeling, the desire to be there, and the stories, the truly wee-written stories, are able to bring you there, and really make you into one of the characters. People find themselves relating to one character and putting themselves in that situation, and that, to me, is the mark of a well written novel.

In the past as well as now, authors of fiction typically wrote their books to deal with current and political ideas. Even if an author's sole intention is to write a fantasy book with no meaning at all, their beliefs and ideas of reality will always manifest itself in the book.

If a writer writes because he had a dream then we have to remember that dreams are based on past experiences. Our experience is reality.