Fantasy -New Yorker article, 7 essential adult books

Thanks to Tanabata at In the Spring It is the Dawn, I came across a link on her sidebar to the New Yorker, which has a lovely little article on some good adult fantasy books to read, especially for those who are new to fantasy, or who have read all the good young adult series and want to graduate to adult fantasy (and yes, it does exist!). The New Yorker post is here. I read the article, thinking, "Oh, I've read them all." Well, surprise on me, there were two listed that I have seen everywhere, that I never got around to reading: Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind, and The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. Luckily, due to a rave review by a blogger recently (Nymeth, I think) I had just picked up Wizard's First Rule. So onto my TBR shelf it goes. Just because I have been reading fantasy ever since I was 15 or 16, doesn't mean I have read everything good yet! Sometimes I'm really glad I love books; it's hard to be jaded when there is always something new to read, or some forgotten treasure I've overlooked. And I have read most of the others on the list; the Steven Erickson I haven't, but I have read many good things about it. I think I am awed/a little overwhelmed at it having 10 books in the series, so I've been hesitant to start it. I agree with all the choices by the way, although the Scions of Shannara does raise my eyebrows - I did read the original Shannara series, and never got to the Scions series, thinking it was as cliche ridden as the Stones of Shannara were - very enjoyable, but very derivative of Tolkien, even I knew that at 18! So.....now I will have to give Scions of Shannara a try too, one day. Maybe reading keeps me a little humble too - I haven't read everything, and there is so many thousands of good books still to read!

By the way, Tanabata also discusses this week's Monday Musings, which is an interesting question: do you buy books because of the publishing house? In other words, do you look at publishing catalogues to buy books, and does the name on the spine of the book mean anything to you, or do you buy whatever edition of the book you come across? Please let her know; I left my comment there, but I thought it was a very interesting question, especially as a former bookstore clerk who used to deal with publishers, and so I know many books, titles and authors by who has published them.