Tesh

Bought and started reading my first Sanderson book (tWoK) seven years ago on the 16th.

Which is. Wild. I was in sixth grade at the time so it's been a part of my life while I've been growing up and just. Worked towards becoming me. Still got a ways to go but I'm going to assume you guys know what I mean.

I don't think the Cosmere will ever have as big a role in my life as it has in the past. This site is where I connected with so many of my current friends, it got me into reading adult fantasy and not just YA and middle grade, it helped me pursue writing. Those things were instrumental in who I am now. I'll be honest, I don't like a lot of Brandon's newer stuff as much as the older things like Elantris and The Way of Kings and era one. I still consider The Way of Kings one of my top three favorite books.

I was at Dragonsteel in November and that was incredible, but mostly for the people. I love the stories and the characters but there are stories and characters I love more.

I wish I could've told lil twelve year old Tesh that Dragonsteel was a thing that would one day exist and that you'd be able to go and hang out with some of your favorite people in the world.

It's nearly 1am and my brain isn't overly coherent.

But these books have played an incredibly important role in who I am now, and that means that they'll always be a part of me. And part of that is broadening my horizons in terms of what I enjoy reading, and like I've moved beyond things like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, I'm moving onto new things now. I still regularly reread Percy Jackson, and I still own more Brandon books than books by any other author, so they're far from left behind. But I'm still moving forward.

Like I never considered myself a fan of horror, but Neil Gaiman is my top author this year by a lot and I've fallen absolutely head over heels for Sandman. I also never thought I'd read this many comics!

I guess another thing is that I've found books that showcase the experiences of more people than Brandon's. I use Storygraph to track what I read (BECAUSE I LIKE GRAPHS) and last year my second to top genre (behind fantasy) was LGBTQ+. None of Brandon's books would fall into that category (yet!). But as Brandon does get better at inclusivity, I'm finding myself liking his writing (and honestly just hard, epic fantasy in general) less.

It's kinda hard acknowledging that even to myself because of that huge impact they've had on me, but that's the truth of the matter. And it's okay. Just unfortunate that I moved to Utah after the peak of my obsession.

TL;DR Brandon's books have fundamentally changed me as a person, and introduced me to fandom and therefore to my best friends in the world. I'm never going to discount that, but I've also changed a lot as a reader and a person and I've found a lot of other things that I enjoy more than a lot of his more recent work.

I did not mean for that to be so long and my brain isn't working anywhere near well enough to reread that for coherency, so ENJOY!

And my Shardiversary is next month, and I'm not really active enough on here anymore to totally justify doing those. So the one next month may be my last one, who knows.

Oh I can't forget to do the mental health awareness month post though.

If I sent this on Discord it would reach a more relevant audience but it's going here for old times sake.

Anyways, see ya! I'll be back on the 1st (probably) and the 17th!