My mom was a huge Stephen King fan, so I’ve been reading his work for almost as long as I can remember. I’m pretty sure Misery was the first one I picked up, followed quickly by IT and The Stand. I’ve also always had a huge appreciation for his short story collections, which house some of his absolute best, tightest masterpieces.

But as much as I love his standalone novels, The Dark Tower series is the absolute pinnacle of my Stephen King fandom. My mom and I used to read and re-read the series at the exact same time. In fact, when the final book dropped, we bought two separate copies for a long family car trip just so we wouldn't have to fight over who got to read next!

What starts as the grounded story of a lonely gunslinger chasing a mysterious man in black across a desert eventually explodes into a multiverse-spanning epic. It’s wild, experimental, and completely unapologetic. In what other series do you get bad guys dressed as Doctor Doom throwing weaponized Golden Snitches from Harry Potter, alongside a plotline where Stephen King literally writes himself into the narrative as a character?

It is a grand, bizarre, and profoundly satisfying journey, and I can't recommend it enough.

The first two books of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, are absolute comedy gold. While the entire series is fun those first two installments are the ones that rent free space in my head.

Adams’ sense of humor was brilliantly dry, wonderfully absurd, and completely unpredictable. Zaphod Beeblebrox remains one of my all-time favorite characters (and names) in fiction—he's the ultimate chaotic, self-absorbed galaxy leader.

There's a great sense of community around these books, too. Whenever I spot a reference to "42," a nod to carrying a towel, or a quiet "Don't Panic" out in the real world, I feel an instant connection to whoever put it there. You just know they speak the same language.

My friend Tommy (the same friend who introduced me to Les Misérables) loaned me his beautiful, gold-covered editions of Tolkien's books when I was about fifteen years old. I'll admit I was actually a little nervous to read them at first, they looked like ancient treasures, and the pages had this distinct, spicy scent that I have never encountered in any other book before or since.

Once I took the plunge, I was hooked from page one. The Hobbit has one of the absolute best opening chapters in all of literature. While I do think The Lord of the Rings can drag its feet at times under the weight of its massive world-building, The Hobbit remains a fast-paced, delightful classic that I have returned to and re-read time and time again.

After watching the Netflix film adaptation a few years ago, I decided to give Nancy Springer’s original book series a shot. While the books and the movies diverge quite a bit in tone and structure, I’ve come to be a huge fan of both.

What stands out most in Springer’s novels is her detailed, immersive look at life in late 19th-century England. I love her sharp perspective on the social roles and heavy constraints placed on women during the Victorian era, and how Enola uses those exact societal blind spots to her advantage. Springer also does a fantastic job blending real-life historical figures into the narrative alongside her clever, fresh takes on classic canon characters like Sherlock and Dr. Watson.

I will admit that the central mysteries themselves can sometimes be the weakest element of the plots, but Enola’s brilliant voice, the historical detail, and the subversion of the traditional Holmes mythos make them a joy to read anyway.

The Hardy Boys Case Files were more or less my first favorite books. My parents were always pretty cool about letting me buy a new book whenever we were at the mall (which was often), and I ended up picking up this series because of the cover of The Last Laugh, it featured what looked like a legitimate supervillain with fire powers, and I was immediately hooked.

I ended up reading so many of these books over the years. They took the classic brothers-detective concept and gave it a faster, more action-packed edge. They were just plain fun mystery stories that fostered a lifelong love of reading.