It happens multiple times a week in online fantasy reader circles: Someone says they're new to fantasy, or a former avid reader returning as an adult, or otherwise looking to join the space by asking what they should read first. The answer that fantasy fans love to give, inevitably, is The Hobbit. I see it often enough that it almost feels like a gag, but so many fantasy lovers still really do think you should start with Tolkien.
There's a similar phenomenon in cozy gaming circles where new or returning gamers ask where they should begin and unless they give caveats that would eliminate it (and sometimes even if they do) the favorite answer from cozy gamers, perhaps even more unanimously than Middle Earth to fantasy fans, is Stardew Valley.
