this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
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I should start by saying I'm a huge Tolkien fan. LOTR is less daunting than it might seem. A friend of mine is going through it at only a chapter or two a night himself.
I'll list my recommendations first and then explain below.
The Redwall series by Brian Jacques is more of the vibes; cozy, hero's quest, adventure. It just feels like a cozy evening read book. Yes there's a lot of them but they're all their own little story so you can pick up any and end whenever. Less fantasy but still relaxing read.
The Discworld books are also great. There's a lot again but there's sets, you can look up which ones are actually direct sequels or a reading order and many can be read standalone. His first few are much more "and stuff just keeps happening" but it felt like after the first few he started to plan and give characters drive (despite his protestations otherwise). These books are peak "imagination run crazy" for me. You should also know Pratchett's books don't have chapter numbers. I personally loved that, the story feels like it is one continuous story to me but I've known people who accidentally read a book in one sitting because they were waiting for a chapter break to put it down.
The Cozy Fantasy genre itself might be what you're looking for too. A lot of my friends lump The Hobbit into cozy fantasy. One of the recent runaway hits was Legends and Lattes. My wife and I read it together (she goes for cozy murder mystery and I go for weird books usually) and we both enjoyed it. It has a sequel we haven't read yet. Terry Pratchett's "Witches Abroad" is often recommended in this genre and also part of Discworld.
His Dark Materials I've only seen the show on BBC but I often hear it discussed in the same breath as Hobbit. Good story, fun adventure, some neat ideas.
I haven't read Ludd, Howl's or Earthsea myself either but they're all well respected authors and those books almost always come up while discussing Tolkien so worth looking into. Earthsea or some other Le Guin book is next on my reading list personally.
And now for the two oddball recommendations, Southern Reach and Expanse. For me, I loved Annihilation. It's one of two books that got me back into reading as an adult after not having done so since college (in my Tolkien seminar my final semester actually). I immediately remembered why I love reading and how words could take me places and make me feel things. It's weird and trying to obsesses over the story is the wrong approach. You can absolutely read it at only a chapter or two a night and just wonder what the hell is going on.
The second oddball, Expanse, is one of the few series my buddy picked up and enjoyed after reading The Hobbit (same guy working through LOTR now). It's relatively light easy reading sci-fi. We'd chew through a couple chapters together and theorize what was gonna happen. In many ways it's not The Hobbit but I dunno, it clicked for him right after for some reason so maybe same for you.
Hopefully one of those works, happy reading.
So cozy fantasy sounds like what I want and didn’t know existed.
I read the first Earthsea book, it was good, dragged a bit, but had good world building and I did find myself enjoying how the magic works a lot. It is absolutely nothing like the Ghibli movie, I would be upset if I’d read the books then watched that movie. Of you’ve seen the movie and try reading them just know it’s different.
Also enjoyed the His Dark Materials show, but I never finished the last season as it came out and I never got to rewrching the earlier seasons.
I’ll look through your other recommendations, something I can read aloud while my partner falls asleep is good.
I’ve been listening to LOTR on audio book, and mostly it isn’t too bad. We just finished Helms Deep and things got pretty busy so I’d need to pick it back up.
The HDM series is pretty good, but it still doesn't compare to the books. When they found Billy at the end of Northern Lights, that genuinely broke me. In the series it's more scary research center, action scene, we're making a rift now. It doesn't make you feel the horror that Lyra feels when she finds out what they're actually doing, what even trusted adults are okay with.
OP: looking for chill books
Oh man, I loved Annihilation (the first book in the series) too but that is the opposite of a chill book. Is not gory or violent but it was gripping AF. Kept me up some nights.
I did say it's an oddball and was just chill for me specifically lol.
Tehanu (one of the Earthsea books) is absolutely NOT cozy. It focuses heavily on abuse, rape, and misogyny in general, and really ought to have trigger warnings especially since it's in the children's section. It's a fantastic series, but one of Le Guin's main strengths as a writer is in portraying injustice and bigotry and inspiring alternative ways to be.
Geebus. That's the first time I've heard that in all the times the books been suggested to me. It won't put me off but I'll start pointing that out as I recommend it. Thanks
She's a wonderful author and handles the material in a very appropriate way. It's just that Tehanu has intense subject matter that's easily triggering for many people. I think kids probably ought to have an adult read it first and then with them so that it's a proper learning experience.
The deal with the series is that Le Guin did an internalized misogyny in the first one, so the rest is written with more feminist intentionality on top of the cool magic world-building adventure stuff.
If you get editions of her fiction books with any notes in the beginning, I recommend saving them for after you've read the book.