A reader writes:

I read Tolkien as a kid, and have yet to find anything in the fantasy genre on my bookstore’s shelf that compares (so I continue to reread it, what a joy). After book 3, I thought Robert Jordan might, but the next several proved me wrong. As the years have passed I have grown increasingly intolerant of George R. R. Martin’s detailed descriptions of the concentration of vascular tissue on reproductive organs. I had a good friend recommend R.A. Salvatore to me. I love the guy to death, but, well… yuck. I haven’t read any Harry Potter, but I can’t say I have the urge to do so, and I’m not even afraid I’ll turn into a witch.

So, any thoughts?

I’m leaving this open for readers to make suggestions. Me: I’m fond of Andrew Lang Fairy Tales, Tim Powers, Michael Flynn, and, of course, the oddly hallucinatory fiction of G.K. Chesterton such as The Man Who Was Thursday.