Splash No. 208 - Fantasy
Fantasy
For much of the year, I was falling far behind my Goodreads reading goal. At the beginning of the year, I ambitiously decided that I’d aim to read 4 books a month, for a total of 48 for the year. Within a few months, I was hopelessly behind, as my to-read list filled with dense and depressing contemporary fiction, spiritual deep dives into eastern philosophy, and poetry books that tested my attention span. All in all, things were Not Going Well on the reading front, especially as I fought against the irresistible allure of the internet.
One day, during one of my avoiding reading internet sessions, I discovered that there was a new series that was being made based on the Percy Jackson series of books, which I had relentlessly devoured as an eleven-year-old. I wondered whether the books that had held my attention so tightly could do the same to me, all these years later. And, knowing how difficult reading had felt lately, I wondered if it could reignite my love for the written word. And so, I strode upon a new journey into these books from my youth and boy, did they deliver. I not only finished the Percy Jackson pentalogy in less than a week, but also read the next series of five books in the same universe in less than three weeks. I’m currently halfway through the third series, which came out pretty recently.
Deep in my world of fantasy novels, I’m sitting here wondering what I’ve been doing for the last decade, a time period where I’ve largely avoided the fantasy books that filled all of my time for majority of the beginning of my reading life. When I got back into reading after high school, I had thought of it as a pragmatic activity meant to grant me knowledge. For a while, I solely read nonfiction works of psychology, spirituality, memoirs, and biography. Slowly, I expanded into contemporary and philosophical fiction, thinking that they had similar lessons about life to offer. For many of the books I read, I would highlight or write down quotes to make sure I could revisit and remember what I discovered. Somehow, all of this reading would fuel some great innovation in my understanding of life or solve a problem down the road, right?
And so, reading became a chore, one that was more reminiscent of my high school annotation homework than the reading that I had loved as a precocious kid who nearly lived in the school library. Even completing a book felt like checking off an item from a to-do list, as I diligently updated my reading goal on Goodreads after each completed book.
But reading these books meant for children, I remembered how much fun a book could be. These novels explore the lives of teenage demigods, children of the mythological Greek and Roman gods and their adventures throughout an alternate world that lies alongside our own. Riordan crafts a beautiful world where these myths have been modernized in hilarious ways, while creating compelling characters who feel appropriately flawed for their age. I could still learn from these stories, but the lessons were more heartening than what I’d learned from the many depressing novels about people’s relationships falling apart or any of the biographies that I’d read.
As I flew through these pages, I felt excited to escape into this different world for a while, to completely forget where I was or what I was doing, to just stay with the images in my head that the words evoked. I missed this feeling.
Drops of the Week
PLAYLIST - Nasty Bits - some great house music that makes you think "wow this is filthy" in a good way
ARTICLE - "Gary Payton II Found the Right Space at the Right Time" by Seerat Sohi - great piece about Gary Payton II's perseverance that brought him to being a key role player on the Warriors' Finals squad
POEM - "PS" by Franz Wright - "...with both hands, day and night"
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On a dragon,
Nikhil