One book that has impacted me is the Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski, the first book in the Witcher saga. I played the third Witcher video game, which got me into the books. I was in high school and hadn’t read much since elementary school, but starting the Witcher books I fell in love with reading and fantasy again. I started to create my own fantasy world to tell stories with. If it weren’t for the Last Wish I might never have started reading again and getting into fantasy. Which also means I might never have started writing my own fantasy books.
In the same vein as the Last Wish, the entirety of the Song of Ice and Fire series has deeply impacted me and my work. I wish to one day be able to write as rich and deep as George R.R. Martin. The writing in those books helped me craft more political themes in my own work, and I also learned that not every fantasy series has to be a gray, dreary world, but can be full of color, even if bad things still happen. I hope to finish the series one day, but if not, it is still some of the best books I’ve ever read. A Dance with Dragons has some of Martin’s best work, especially the Jon Snow chapters. Great … now I want to go read the series again.
Okay, now outside of fantasy. I’ve talked about this book before, but The Will to Change by bell hooks was very important to me and I think about it all the time. I was already aware of how patriarchal values hurt everyone, including men, but reading the book it was eye opening to read scenarios that were almost exactly what I experienced growing up as a boy. It is always on my mind, and I hope to take lessons from it in the future should I have my own children.
The Shining Orb Series 
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