As it turns out, I’ve got to pick a free choice book for my summer reading project. I figured here would be a good place to start. I’m going into a ninth grade HP English class. I’m currently reading Lord of the Rings Part 1, but I’m not that far and I feel I need something a bit shorter. Any suggestions?
Also, a list of books I can’t read:
The Illustrated Man
To Kill A Mockingbird
Romeo and Juliet
Lord of the Flies
Animal Farm
Night
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Hmm… Seeing as it seems like you enjoy fantasy. I would recommend to go for Ranger’s Apprentice or maybe Throne of Glass? ToG is about 404 pages and young adult focused. Ranger’s Apprentice is a little more directed towards kids, therefore the words are easier and the 249 pages make it short but it is short and sweet.
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Have you read any of Leigh Bardugo’s books? They’re really fun fantasy books, if that’s what you’re looking for! The Shadow and Bone trilogy is shorter and quicker than the Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology, but they’re both fantastic reads. There’s also the Arc of Scythe trilogy from Neal Shusterman (although I believe that first one is a bit long), V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic series, Sabaa Tahir’s Ember in the Ashes series, and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is another community favorite…so many good ones!! Let us know what you choose!! Can you tell I love giving fantasy recommendations??
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I’ve decided I’m going with Rapture by Lauren Kate. It’s the fourth book in the Fallen series. I read the first books a little while ago but never finished the series. I decided it’s a good excuse to start back up again. I’m definitely adding those Leigh Bardugo books to my “read eventually” list!
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I love Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone series. I read it every summer. 
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is finally finishing Ruin and Rising
is also slowly dying
Also, has anyone heard anything about the Shadow and Bone Netflix series?
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All I know about it so far is that I WANT IT
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HARD SAME!
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I’m a little scared that they are combining both Grisha series. I’m hoping for the best but am wary for a Percy Jackson type result!!!
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Hands down my favorite fantasy novels are anything involved in the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey.
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!!! MERCEDES LACKEY!!! I read the Joust book when I was younger and it absolutely changed me (though until just now I didn’t realise that there’s 3 more after that!!! I’ll have to find them someday omg) thank you so much for reminding me of that! 
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Aw, yeah Valdemar! Those books were so formative for me! I just retrieved my copy of By the Sword that my little brother has been sneaking away from me for years. That one is hands down my favorite.
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I like the Rangers Apprentice myself. They’re are a lot of books in that title and they even branched out to the Royal Ranger and Brotherborn too.
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James Barclay’s ‘Chronicles of the Raven’.
Six men and an elf, The Raven are a mercenary company with morals, tactics, formations, and magic.
I love these books because Barclay creates a quasi-realistic medieval world, an internally consistent multi-college magic system, and while he clearly reveres and loves all of his characters, he does not protect them from harm.
There are seven books of The Raven, but it was near halfway through the first (Dawnthief) I knew I was hooked. I needed to read the rest, and there have been no other books that have gripped me as strongly as that.
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On the flipside of the coin, Rachel Aaron’s ‘Eli Monpress Saga’.
Starting with ‘The Spirit Thief’ this is a lighthearted, but deep series full of gloriouly loveable characters.
Everything has a Spirit, from a volcano to a glass of water, and magic is the ability to talk to and work with these spirits.
In a world where you have mages who make mutually beneficial pacts with the spirits, and those who impose their will to enslave them, walks Eli Monpress, a thief who just talks with the Spirits and charms them into doing what they want (which happens to be precisely what he needs).
His first trick? Convincing his dungeon door to open.
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I haven’t seen anyone mention these yet, but the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan is probably the best fantasy series ever. It’s fairly long ( 14 books, with an average of about 350,000 words per book ), but it’s definitely worth the read. Jordan does a lot of really cool and subversive things with some more classical fantasy tropes while also expertly juggling and pacing the “heroes journeys” of 7 or 8 characters across this lore rich and deeply interwoven and multi-cultured world. It’s sooooooo good and I could gush over this series unendingly.
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It’s definitely been mentioned in other threads, and the more I see it mentioned the more I want to get into it. I bought the seventh book by accident a few years ago because it wasn’t clearly labeled as such until several pages in, and I haven’t found the first book of the series anywhere yet. I always check in used book stores but they always have a bunch that aren’t the first one.
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I’ve read most of The Wheel of Time and I can honestly say the only way to read it is to binge read it.
Dedicate yourself to these books and you will be thoroughly rewarded with a rich world and characters that will live with you long afterwards. Moiraine Damodred in particular has influenced me greatly.
Read them piecemeal and you will find yourself with no memory of certain events or find a character reintroduced with no idea of who they are.
Robert Jordan is a great author, but never has he included a recap paragraph. If you don’t know what’s happening in this 14 book saga then that’s your own fault for not keeping up.
The only way I could complete this story is by starting right from the very beginning all over again.
I love it, but I can’t. Not yet.
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Yeh, used book stores rarely have the first couple. But almost ALWAYS have the last few.
You might have to try something like Barnes and Nobles or the like.
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Yeah, I need to cut down my to-be-read pile first before I dive into that monstrous series though.
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