20 books to read while you wait for The Winds of Winter

6. The Dresden Files…or really, anything by Jim Butcher

“Harry Dresden. Wizard.”

Thus reads the sign out front of our titular hero’s office in downtown Chicago, where he runs a freelance business as the only wizard P.I. in town. If you can’t tell by that succinct signage, The Dresden Files is a series that revels in its humor. Jim Butcher writes the sort of quick, snippy dialogue that flies off the page at you — so be warned, if you read any of these books, you will laugh out loud. It’s pretty much unavoidable.

The Dresden Files have been around since 2000, and are still running strong today. At this point, we’re at 15 of a projected 23 books. Each one is a stand-alone magic detective novel, though there are plenty of overarching plots as well. Throughout the series, Dresden comes up against all sorts of your typical urban fantasy baddies — trolls under bridges, vulgar faeries, dark cults, werewolves, ghosts. Fans of Joss Wheden will feel right at home with these books.

It’s also worth touching on the rest of Jim Butcher’s work. He has three main series: the Dresden Files; The Codex Alera, which is a six-book Greecian-style epic fantasy where humans use magic by bonding with elemental beings called furies; and his current work in progress The Cinder Spires, is a straight up steampunk series that features, among other great characters, a talking cat. No, I am not kidding, and yes, he is awesome.