My favorite genre to read in all of literature is fantasy.  I have always had a close connection to my favorite books which happen to be fantasy. I love the opportunities that can come out of fantasy books, things that can’t be explained with science and sense. These books can have their own magical world with special creatures, landscapes, physics and supernatural occurrences. 

One of my most favorite examples of Fantasy books is The Hobbit which was made by J.R.R Tolkien. It is such an amazing story of combining old medieval times, unexplainable monsters, creatures, legends, vast races and magic. The book is able to form a story of a weak, short and wimpy character named Bilbo Baggins. Who is then able to explore the world’s amazing characteristics that he has never seen before, like the readers. It's how we can connect to Bilbo and know what our experiences would be like if we were in his shoes. It adds a level of suspense to see what J.R.R Tolkien has created through his pure imagination with low barriers which makes me appreciate it so much. A magical, wondrous, difficult, and frightening adventure that helps build Bilbo from this weak character to a clever, deceiving and nimble witted person. With different genres you can’t get as broad with unexplainable and creative things like the Hobbit.

With science fiction you can do some of the same things with fantasy but it has to make some sense to our knowledge of our world and its traits. A lot of science fiction books deal with time, space, aliens, life on different planets, different dimensions and environmental changes. An example of a science fiction book like this is A Wrinkle in Time. It's about a journey of a girl named Meg who looks for her father in different dimensions with other multiple people. They use the tesseract (a way of traveling across dimensions) hoping to find their father in one of the dimensions they go to. As they travel through these different worlds they discover some alien and humanlike life. The book deals with time by showing the reader that no time has passed on Earth since Meg left her world with her traveling companions.   would add an example of a science fiction book here

 These are things that are known to us humans without breaking the boundary of our world. There could be life outside of our world but not likely, there are different dimensions, time is a complex process that is still a mystery to a lot of people. Space in an endless expanding universe that holds our planet. Other genres can also get creative but still have to stay in more closed requirements. 

Horror themed books can also make up a lot of things like monsters, magic and a world of its own. Though it still has to serve the purpose of trying to scare or thrill the reader. 

Fantasy can make up so many interesting, completely made up ideas that don't have to fall in effect of being realistic. This lets the author get creative with their own worlds and imagination with their books. J.R.R Tolkien was so invested in the Lord of The Rings and Hobbit series that he made his own language that was supposedly used by the characters in the stories. Another author very creative with their world was Rick Riordan who wrote the Percy Jackson series.

Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief is another one of my favorite books that shows a great example of creative thinking of creating a world that shows how broad fantasy can get. Rick Riordan was able to create a world that combines Greek Mythology to our modern world and showed us how much Greek Mythology has affected the western part of our world. The book was able to show the readers how interesting Greek culture must have been back then, allowing us to appreciate our world's history. He brought out old myths, creatures, gods, goddesses and magic from what the Greeks believed in ancient times. Most genres can’t do this without reaching the deadline of the requirements for the genre. Some authors use a technique of combining genres together for a more creative world.

Though we can combine some genres together, we have to be careful or one of the genres will go over the other one's requirements. If you put science fiction and historical fiction together, the book will go over the realistic requirements for historical fiction. Even though fantasy books have less of a limit then other books, it definitely doesn’t mean that fantasy is objectively the best.

This essay is very opinionated and I know fantasy can be annoying to other people. Some people just don’t like the idea of magical elements or just want to read something that relates to our world's characteristics. A lot of fantasy books can just rehash typical things that you would see in a Disney movie like talking animals, hidden dragons, or a knight in shining armor. Some books still use these things but are able to create unique conflict and character growth that still makes it stand out. With every genre you get a gem and a pile of dirt. Some books show the genre's great potential and some just seem bland and uninspired. 

An example that is bland and uninspired that includes the typical things in a fairytale is Snow White. I know the story and movie is very old and was ahead of its time but I can’t really appreciate it with how typical the characters are. Characters like a princess, an evil queen, a long traveling prince, and a witch just seem severely overused. Though I will admit the story still has a very good plot and iconicness with the poisoned apple. The characters and setting just seem very typical and uninspiring to me. This point is based on my opinion and others might love this story.

In the end it just comes to opinion and there is no right answer to what is the best genre. Fantasy will always be my favorite genre because it inspires the use of explorative imagination and creative thinking that makes up new things we have never heard before.