Myth is the basis for a lot of literature and not all of it fantasy. However in the realm of fantasy the ancient stories of heroes, gods, and goddesses provide a lot of inspiration. Some works are direct retellings such as Circe by Madeline Miller. Neil Gaiman recently published a retelling of Norse myths titled, appropriately, Norse Mythology. C.S. Lewis wrote a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth called Till We Have Faces.
Some books make use of the mythology but loosely. The most famous of these right now is probably Riordan's Percy Jackson series. However, Rick Riordan has several series based on various mythologies including Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse. Holly Black has a number of books based loosely on Celtic mythology.
Still more are the books that borrow elements of real world mythology to flesh out a world of their own creation. In the case of Rowling's Harry Potter books, the mythology borrows from various mythologies while also providing a sort of unifying explanation for where the mythological critters came from and went. Many books rely on the stock fantasy races such as elves, giants, trolls, and dwarves. Each of these comes from a European myth group mostly Norse and Celtic.
So, any way, I guess my point is that mythology remains relevant to our literature
Tsundoku is a Japanese word that means to buy more books than anyone could possibly read. As a lifestyle it speaks to me as a pursuit of knowledge as a way of living.
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