5 fantasy series I lost sleep over

I've been slacking on a lot of things lately: dishes, putting away laundry, posting on this blog as often as I'd like, sleeping at night, rising during daylight hours -- you know -- normal grown-up stuff. Why? Because, after reading the review of the Mortal Instruments series from my friend Emily, I decided to take up the series for myself, and now, I am in total book land. I'm only writing this blog entry because I came to a reasonable stopping point between books 3 and 4 so I'm trying to come up for air.

Of course, getting lost in another world -- especially a fantasy world, since those are even more escapist than other literary worlds -- is one of my favorite summer pastimes. Here are 5 more fantasy series I have happily lost myself and my 8 hours of sleep in:

1. Lord of the Rings

This was the gateway drug of fantasy fiction. There's a real love-hate relationship with this series, I've noticed, and this has mostly to do with Tolkien's abundant descriptive passages and all those pauses for poetry and singing. But when I read the books, only the first movie had come out, and I didn't know how it ended, so I devoured these and became a lifelong fan.

2. Harry Potter

Duh. It's Harry Potter.

3. The Parasol Protectorate

This super fun Victorian steampunk-meets-urban fantasy-meets-Jane Austen series had me from page one, and I happily spent a few sleepless days obsessing over the goings-on in this funny and compelling world.

4. Game of Thrones

I was saved from losing myself entirely in these by the fact that I was borrowing them one at a time from my school library's kindle lending library. The books were always in high demand, so I had to wait patiently for each one. Martin is an excellent writer, and I can't wait to some day be as swept away by the final book of the series as I was by all the rest

5. The Dark Tower Series

This classic Stephen King series made me rethink all I thought I knew about Stephen King. I'm not crazy about the last couple of books or the ending, but I loved living in the world of these novels so much, that the ending actually doesn't matter that much to me. The characters in this one feel like friends, and it's the only one of these series that made me cry. A lot. In a good way.

There are more series I could add to this list. I have to admit that I was very into Twilight too, although that series spends so much time in regular, non-fantasy life that it feels like less of a fantasy series and more of a teen romance series. And as much as I like those, too, I probably shouldn't admit to it. (Oh no -- I think I just did! :))