April 2011 A to Z Blogging Challange

What is the A to Z Challenge? It’s blogging a letter of the alphabet every day the month of April (with Sundays off for good behavior.) It began April 1st, with the letter A and ends April 30th, with the letter Z. You can click here to see who else is participating in this challenge.




Today's post is for the letter:

When I was younger--much younger--I went through a fascination with unicorns. I had a blanket with a huge picture of a unicorn on it. I had glass plates bought at fairs with beautiful unicorns on them surrounded by striking backgrounds. When my son was born I put together a nursery filled with unicorns. Yes, it was an obsession.

I sometimes wonder why this love of unicorns never expanded to fantasy books. Fantasy is not a genre I read often. While I enjoy The Chronicles of Narnia movies based upon the books by C.S. Lewis, I've never read the books. The books aren't even all that big--a personal pet peeve I have with fantasy novels since so many of them are  heavy enough to be used as doorstops.

One would think I would at least have read The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Since the book first came out in 1968, it has been made into a stage play and a film. But no, I'm okay with having not explored this piece of my fascination with the one-horned mythical being.

There are a few fantasy novels I've enjoyed:

Magic, Mensa & Mayhem by Karina Fabian
Rast by Christopher Hoare
First Night and The Elf of Luxembourg by Tom Weston
The Wolf of Tebron by C.S. Larkin

I have the next book by C.S. Larkin in my TBR pile. Other than that, though, I would much rather explore my favorite genres: historicals, mysteries, Christian fiction, and romantic suspense.

Did you ever have a fascination with unicorns? Do you enjoy fantasy novels? If you do, what is the best fantasy novel you've ever read?