I'm escaping into fantasy in 2024

#152: My ambitious 2024 Brandon Sanderson reading plan and a tribute to multi-book series.

Readers, hello!

I have been putting off reading Brandon Sanderson for many years now so I’m happy to announce that I’ve finally jumped in. This year, to get ready for the release of the fifth book in the Stormlight Archive on December 6th, I’m trying to read all 18 books and 9 short story/novellas in his shared “cosmere” universe. The page count is a whopping 12,700! I have 7 months.

Of course, I needed a spreadsheet.

And a white board list:

And there you have it, my 2024 reading plan. All fantasy by a single author in a single universe. I don’t plan on becoming a Cosmere scholar because I want to stay married, but I do plan to have a good time.

Which brings me to the “why” of it all: Why all this fantasy from the same author? Why this year? The answer is simply that this year, I want to escape.

For years I’ve been concerning myself with self-improvement. I’d read books to try and become a more informed person, to gain empathy, to be aware of social justice issues. I’d use social media and YouTube to gain awareness of other perspectives and to try and be informed.

Then 2020 happened and it was a hellscape. I got into arguments with friends and family, I lost sleep over things I said and shouldn’t have, and I felt nothing but conflict and turmoil over the state of American politics. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve learned and grown and feeling a desire to help others learn and grow only to be met with rejection. It was a horrible year and I swore to never let that happen again.

But now it’s 2024 and IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN. This year’s American presidential election is going to be more of the same that we saw 4 years ago and I can’t mentally and emotionally return to that time. Hence, the need to escape mentally and emotionally.

Now, before you accuse me of checking out, please know that I won’t be escaping physically. I’m still going to live and participate in this country as an informed citizen. I’ll be involved in my community teaching at church, coaching my son’s baseball team, picking up trash, using the library, joining the birding group, and many other things that will put me in the real world interacting with my neighbors.

But where you won’t find me is social media because I won’t have time for that with 1,800 pages to read every month!! 60 pages per day is doable if I’m not scrolling Instagram or going down YouTube rabbit holes.

I really appreciate the community here on Substack and I am open to your feedback. Please be kind in the comments and let me know your plan for surviving this year, I would love to hear from you!

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All this got me thinking: Have I always been this obsessed with book series? What other series have I obsessed over? I tried reaching back in my memories and here’s what I came up with:

The 3 Investigators

Don’t you just love those covers? I think I was in middle school when I was introduced to these because that feels like the right age to start your own investigator business with homemade business cards (which I did). I can’t remember a single thing that happens in these books, but I remember being intrigued by the cover art. I spent lots of time staring at the art and contemplating the moments either right before or right after that moment depicted on the cover. I don’t know if these books were any good because maybe I never read them, but I had them and wanted more.

The Work and the Glory

I only read 3 or 4 of them, but at one point in my young life when I was burning with religious fervor, I was very excited about these books. They follow a fictional family in upstate New York that befriends and associates with Joseph Smith and other historical figures during the time period of the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a church you may be familiar with as “the Mormons”). Lund did his homework and included tons of details about the time period. The fictional drama was a bit melodramatic as I recall a girl falling for one brother but when he loses his testimony she leaves him for the more devout brother.

Harry Potter, of course

It is definitive and formative and was my first vivid memory of being uncontrollably excited for a book to release. Two or three were already out before I fell in love with them, but once I was caught up the anticipation for the next one was crazy. I read Order of the Phoenix the summer after I graduated from high school. Half Blood Prince released while I was living in Peru and it wasn’t approved reading for a missionary so I had to wait until I got home. Deathly Hallows released while I was a busy college student, but you better believe I found time to get it from the Orem, Utah Barnes and Noble and binge it in a few days.

I’m re-reading them now with my boys (we are nearly done with Order of the Phoenix) and we are having a great time even though my oldest was spoiled by his friends at school. What can you do?

The Hunger Games

I read these during the summer before restarting college after my church mission in Peru. My job that summer was apprentice to a land surveyor which involved long drives to job sites. I remember reading the first book during the long commutes and being teased mercilessly by my co-worker who compared it to Twilight (he knew nothing about it, obviously). Very addictive books.

Locke & Key

This dark and twisty comic book series sucked me in. Such an awesome concept, great artwork, incredibly moving story. I haven’t watched the show and I don’t recommend this to everyone, but if you like comic books and haven’t checked it out yet, go for it!

Chronicles of Narnia

Another one of those books where I owned them all as a kid but mostly looked at the covers. I only read them for the first time recently with my kids and it was just the best. We watched the movies and dressed up to act out scenes to make it a well-rounded experience.

Game of Thrones

How I wish I had read these as they released! I was very late to this party but still glad I went. The character development and plotting are second to none and I’m still excited and hoping for more books.

The Expanse

A must read for sci-fi fans. The characters were the draw for me; I loved hanging out with the crew and going on space adventures. Some of the more fantastical plot details was hard to follow but in no way diminished the experience. I’ve written about it here.

Slough House aka Slow Horses

I love it, it’s amazing, I hope there will be more and I’m looking forward to a future re-read someday. I’ve written about it here, here, and here.

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What are your favorite series? Any recommendations for me?

Have a fantastic weekend,

Kyle

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