Top Ten Tuesday: Books for Dragon Lovers

This week’s prompt for Top Ten Tuesday is a freebie, so I’ve decided to list my recommendations for anybody who likes stories about dragons. As someone who loves dragons, I’m always on the lookout for good dragon books (because unfortunately there are a lot of bad dragon books). So if you like dragon books like me, here are ten books you should read!

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: A booklist for dragon lovers would be incomplete without the “king” of all dragons, Smaug. So of course, I’m going to recommend The Hobbit. This book has one of the greatest (though not biggest) dragons of literature. There’s plenty of dragonish adventure, including lots of “I am fire” and “I am death” and burning cities on lakes and trying to eat dwarves. Plus, gold. Lots and lots of gold. I promise you’ll be pleased.

DragonKeeper Chronicles by Donita K. Paul: Every book by Donita K. Paul includes dragons. Even a cute, Christmas-y contemporary romance. She’s basically the Queen of Dragons (in my opinion), so any book by her will do. The DragonKeeper Chronicles will introduce you to the world she’s created with all sorts of dragons and other fun characters, including goofy wizards and extra cool furry critters.

How To Train Your Dragon Series by Cressida Cowell: Wait, wait, hold on… How to Train Your Dragon is a book? Yes. And while the story is very different than the movies, it’s still just as wonderful. Mainly because Toothless is a tiny yet sassy dragon that refuses to do anything unless he gets fish or riddles. I aspire to be just like him when I grow up. These books are just fun and hilarious, full of a lot of misadventures, viking beards, and smelly fish. But hey, who wouldn’t want that in their life?

Wings of Fire Series by Tui T. Sutherland: I recently discovered these fantastical books, and upon reading the introduction pages–before I even started the story–I was in love. These books include so many different types of dragons from mud dragons to starry night nebula dragons to river dragons and rainbow dragons to everything kind of dragon. Plus, they are so much! The characters are dragons and they can talk and do amazing feats and learn all about who they are based on what kind of dragon they are. It’s just so cute and basically a dream come true.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis: There’s a reason The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is my favorite Narnia book, and no, it’s not because it’s the only book in the series with a dragon . But I will say that the dragon portion of the book is one of my favorite parts of the story. The whole situation of the dragon and how it is resolved always spoke to me, and I’m always grateful for C.S. Lewis’ ability to speak truth and wisdom to me despite his books being published several decades before I was even born.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende: To be honest, when I started reading The Neverending Story, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into. But basically, I loved it. And Falkor the Luckdragon is pretty much the best. If you like awesome stories where characters jump into the books and become heroes and dragons fly around and rescue people, read this book.

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini: Despite having a grudge against these books for a long time, I finally admit they are decent and I did enjoy them, especially later on in the series when 1. more dragons show up 2. Eragon isn’t worthless anymore and 3. draaaagon baaatttles! If you like dragons, want a piece of something popular, and really like dragon battles, feel free to suffer through the first two books of this series (like I did) to get to the good parts.

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin: This is probably my favorite picture book in existence, though there are others I enjoy. I mean, that title alone intrigues me, but the story inside and the art work is just as fun and hilarious. It’s worth reading, especially to find out WHY dragons love tacos and what happens when they eat them.

The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli: If you want a book that actually includes loads of dragons and dives into an interesting take on dragon lore, this book is for you. It started off a big slow for me, but once I got into the story, the world and the characters (and the dragons!) came to life. It left me sobbing in a puddle of tears, but it was so worth it because of how beautiful the main character’s story becomes.

Beowulf: Now I know some translations of Beowulf are awful, so I’m suggesting you all read the translation by Seamus Heaney because it’s beautiful. If you love dragons, you might be a little sad at the end of this book, but I still think it’s freaking cool adventure story with tons of dragon and monster references and big battles and feasting. I mean, who wouldn’t want to read about that in beautiful, poetic verse?

There are probably a ton of dragon-related books I could recommend to dragon lovers, but I’ll limit this list to the top ten.

Let me know in the comments what are your favorite dragon books. And don’t forget to join the link-up!

 

Advertisement