TROGDOR'S MONDAY THOUGHTS #13
Happy 2026 everyone. Here's hoping to a better year for everyone.
Thought I'd kick off this new year by sharing my own personal reading list! (Of mainstream literature that is)
-Brandon Sanderson. First and foremost I'm a huge fan of ol' Brando Sando, particularly anything Cosmere related. The Stormlight Archive novels are without a doubt my favourite set of books I've read in the last decade, without question. I don't dismiss the fact that they're rather daunting and slow to get into, but the ride is worth the ticket to admission.
-Stephen King. The Dark Tower series was what previously held the above accolades before I discovered Stormlight. King's greatest work in my opinion, blending fantasy, sci-fi and horror into a compelling, emotional epic. I don't deny that the end of the series tapers off a bit in quality, but that doesn't mean they aren't worth the read.
-Sarah J. Maas. It should come as no surprise after reading The Duke and the Thief that I've read one or two romantasy novels. Maas is probably the most well known author in the genre, with ACOTAR being her most celebrated series (I've read that set as well as Crescent City). Yes, they're pulpy at times bordering on cheesy, but that does not take away from the entertainment factor.
-Matt Dinniman. This is the series that I'm currently reading, Dungeon Crawler Carl, a series recommended by my wife. A sci-fi/fantasy series for fans of video games. The books are humorous, fast-paced, and wildly entertaining. I'm only two books in out of the available 7, but I'm a fan already. (Funnily enough there's a minor character in these books that wouldn't be out of place in one of my stories, who's described as having massive breasts that rest upon her news desk before her. Of course they're also described as being "too big to ever be considered sexy". Maybe for you Dinniman...)
-Herman Melville. I'm also in the midst of reading Moby Dick... That book is humbling. Both as a reader and as a writer. As a reader, you approach a work of literature and think "I'm smart, I understand English" and then you dig into this and immediately find yourself neck deep in Victorian age metaphors and archaic syntax. I'd say I understand about 80% of the sentences, but those last 20% I simply can't parse.
Then as a writer I take in the work of Moby Dick and am blown away by the depth, the verbosity, the prose. The power of his language, the emotion conveyed through these sprawling paragraphs, where he talks about something as simple as the foundational allure of the sea.
When I read Dungeon Crawler Carl, I'm impressed by the world building, the story that he's woven, but as I'm reading it, nothing about it seems unreachable. His writing does not reside within the realms of impossibility.
Melville is a different story. To write in such a way is an artform lost. I'll never be capable of such a work, I'll never come close. But that's ok, that was never my goal.
I guess it's like going to a gym for the first time, and seeing some beefed up gymrat settle in to squat 400 lbs. I had no intention of achieving such a thing, but goddamn is that fucking impressive: the apex of the craft.
-TROGDOR297