"The road goes ever on." (JRR Tolkien)
"...and I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference." (Robert Frost)
Wishing you happy trails and discoveries in this journey we call life...
Char
Showing posts with label JRR Tolkien. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JRR Tolkien. Show all posts
Monday, September 21, 2020
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Packing for the Apocalypse...
In the 1960 movie version of H.G. Wells' classic, The Time Machine, gentleman/inventor George Wells (yes, the author named the main character after himself), builds a time machine and travels eons into the future. He returns to his time and takes only 3 books back to the future. When his friend David returns the next day, he asks the housekeeper which three George took, but she doesn't know.
Let's play a game. You've traveled into the future and can only take three of your books with you. In the story, mankind has warred himself back to Stone Age living- so you are starting society from scratch. Which 3 do you take? Now you can't say books that you don't actually own, that's cheating. You have to have these books in your home. I would take:
1- JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. I have the trilogy in a beautiful leather-bound edition. It makes for great story telling and since the future has no television or libraries or radio, it's stories around the campfire for entertainment.
2- The New Testament. Yes, I'd leave the Old or Hebrew Testament behind because of the contradictions: it does not condemn slavery, a number of the laws are incompatible with my beliefs, like 'an eye for an eye,' and polygamy, and there are some things I can't reconcile, like the Great Flood called up by God to destroy everyone except Noah. I feel it's important to have a moral guide and the New or Christian Testament embodies how we should behave.
3- Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann D. Wyss. A family marooned on an island must survive on what is available. Talk about an interesting how-to book! Of course it works best if you're stuck on a tropical island, and if I have to be stuck anywhere, it has to be in the tropics. Unfortunately I can't find my copy, so obeying my own rules, I have to choose another book.
4- Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution by A.J. Langguth. This tells the story of the Founding Fathers and how they not only started the Revolution, but why, and how our Constitution and Declaration of Independence were created. If you're starting society over, let it be on a basis where all humanity is represented. (I'm not talking about past mistakes, I'm looking toward the future where we can get it totally right.)
Those are my 3, with an extra for the one I can't find, but would really love. Let me know your choices and why.
Char
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Let's play a game. You've traveled into the future and can only take three of your books with you. In the story, mankind has warred himself back to Stone Age living- so you are starting society from scratch. Which 3 do you take? Now you can't say books that you don't actually own, that's cheating. You have to have these books in your home. I would take:
1- JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. I have the trilogy in a beautiful leather-bound edition. It makes for great story telling and since the future has no television or libraries or radio, it's stories around the campfire for entertainment.
2- The New Testament. Yes, I'd leave the Old or Hebrew Testament behind because of the contradictions: it does not condemn slavery, a number of the laws are incompatible with my beliefs, like 'an eye for an eye,' and polygamy, and there are some things I can't reconcile, like the Great Flood called up by God to destroy everyone except Noah. I feel it's important to have a moral guide and the New or Christian Testament embodies how we should behave.
3- Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann D. Wyss. A family marooned on an island must survive on what is available. Talk about an interesting how-to book! Of course it works best if you're stuck on a tropical island, and if I have to be stuck anywhere, it has to be in the tropics. Unfortunately I can't find my copy, so obeying my own rules, I have to choose another book.
4- Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution by A.J. Langguth. This tells the story of the Founding Fathers and how they not only started the Revolution, but why, and how our Constitution and Declaration of Independence were created. If you're starting society over, let it be on a basis where all humanity is represented. (I'm not talking about past mistakes, I'm looking toward the future where we can get it totally right.)
Those are my 3, with an extra for the one I can't find, but would really love. Let me know your choices and why.
Char
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Monday, August 18, 2014
Get Thee to a Bookshelf...
I read a post on Twitter about how many books students working toward an English degree have to read. The person counted about 150, but that also included books for the other subjects. I'm not going to bore you (and myself) counting all the books I read for my English degree (nor do I want to), but instead, I'm going to list some of my faves (not all of them were required reading, some were for fun and maybe shouldn't count, but I'm putting them in anyway):
English Romantic Poetry. Ah, how can anyone not love On the Grasshopper and the Cricket by John Keats. Or The Nightingale by William Taylor Coleridge. Lord Byron's, She Walks in Beauty is swoony romantic. There are lots more, but moving on...
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. One of my all-time absolute faves. You don't have to be a Christian to understand and appreciate the messages of charity, hospitality, fairness, generosity, and compassion that are required of all of us as human beings.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is science with scare and caution in an eloquent tale. I'm a big fan of Mr. Stevenson.
Oscar Wilde's The Strange Case of Dorian Gray has been made into several movies. It's kind of like the the artist's version of Jeckyll and Hyde.
While I could never be as composed as Jane Austen (I'm a Scorpio, we tend to run emotionally amuck at times), I love her passion. And it doesn't end like a Disney-princess story, which annoys me a bit about modern books. Humans have less perfect endings, yet so many books have the opposite. I'd write a book with a realistic, bad ending, but no one--agent, editor, reader--would probably want it.
I took a class in Arthurian literature and the bible of that class was Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. I loved the female perspective which gave it a deeper feel than the traditional male-let's sword fight-woo the damsel-save the kingdom feel. It really gave me my first connection to feminism.
My list could never be complete without J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings opus. It is the almost quintessential book for me. (The only holdback is that Tolkien, a man of his times, neglects to include both strong female characters and the female perspective.)
Although it doesn't shine as much as her beloved Interview With a Vampire or The Vampire Lestat, my favorite of Anne Rice's works is Rameses The Damned, Or, The Mummy. Anne makes me feel the dry heat of the desert seeping under archaeological tents, or a body freezing with fear as Rameses stalks his enemies. Love, love, love. I keep leaving comments on Facebook (cause, we're like, 'friends') for her to do a sequel. So far, I'm being ignored.
One last one: The Secret, by Julie Garwood. Yes, it's an historical romance but it's wonderfully written and reading Garwood's novels helped me learn how to write dialogue. (Some novels fail miserably at this.)
As you can see, I'm not pinned down by any one genre. And that's great because when I leave one for a while to try something new, I come back and rediscover why I liked that first genre. It becomes fresh again. So maybe you should re-visit some of those novels you read in high school or college (or soon after) that you liked or loved. (I don't waste my time re-reading novels I hated, hoping I'll like them again. I won't.)
There's nothing like revisiting an old friend.
Char
English Romantic Poetry. Ah, how can anyone not love On the Grasshopper and the Cricket by John Keats. Or The Nightingale by William Taylor Coleridge. Lord Byron's, She Walks in Beauty is swoony romantic. There are lots more, but moving on...
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. One of my all-time absolute faves. You don't have to be a Christian to understand and appreciate the messages of charity, hospitality, fairness, generosity, and compassion that are required of all of us as human beings.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is science with scare and caution in an eloquent tale. I'm a big fan of Mr. Stevenson.
Oscar Wilde's The Strange Case of Dorian Gray has been made into several movies. It's kind of like the the artist's version of Jeckyll and Hyde.
While I could never be as composed as Jane Austen (I'm a Scorpio, we tend to run emotionally amuck at times), I love her passion. And it doesn't end like a Disney-princess story, which annoys me a bit about modern books. Humans have less perfect endings, yet so many books have the opposite. I'd write a book with a realistic, bad ending, but no one--agent, editor, reader--would probably want it.
I took a class in Arthurian literature and the bible of that class was Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. I loved the female perspective which gave it a deeper feel than the traditional male-let's sword fight-woo the damsel-save the kingdom feel. It really gave me my first connection to feminism.
My list could never be complete without J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings opus. It is the almost quintessential book for me. (The only holdback is that Tolkien, a man of his times, neglects to include both strong female characters and the female perspective.)
Although it doesn't shine as much as her beloved Interview With a Vampire or The Vampire Lestat, my favorite of Anne Rice's works is Rameses The Damned, Or, The Mummy. Anne makes me feel the dry heat of the desert seeping under archaeological tents, or a body freezing with fear as Rameses stalks his enemies. Love, love, love. I keep leaving comments on Facebook (cause, we're like, 'friends') for her to do a sequel. So far, I'm being ignored.
One last one: The Secret, by Julie Garwood. Yes, it's an historical romance but it's wonderfully written and reading Garwood's novels helped me learn how to write dialogue. (Some novels fail miserably at this.)
As you can see, I'm not pinned down by any one genre. And that's great because when I leave one for a while to try something new, I come back and rediscover why I liked that first genre. It becomes fresh again. So maybe you should re-visit some of those novels you read in high school or college (or soon after) that you liked or loved. (I don't waste my time re-reading novels I hated, hoping I'll like them again. I won't.)
There's nothing like revisiting an old friend.
Char
Monday, June 24, 2013
What I Like About You...
I love to read--romance, humor, fantasy, sci fi, thriller, mystery, non-fic on occasion. In every book there is one element that I just LOVE. (Not "love" but "LOVE") In some books, it's the wit, like in Mary Janice Davidson's Undead series. I was laughing out loud in B&N and got some serious "You need help" looks. JRR Tolkien's sweeping saga, The Lord of The Rings has it all--love, death, good vs. evil, romance, adventure, poetry, magic, dragons; how can you not swoon? I learned to write dialogue from Julie Garwood's snappy romances like Ransom. Almost every book has that one special "What I like LOVE" about you.
The one element that I LOVED in Weather Witch (St. Martin's, June 25th, 2014) by Shannon Delany was... the weather. Seriously. I'm sure there are other books that deal with weather and possibly magic, but weather, magic, and steampunk?
I was graciously allowed to read the ARC of Weather Witch and for some reason the whole premise of a few select people being able to control the weather magically--in a society heading toward serious industrialization--and being ostracized and held prisoner for it--was just way cool. While I love any good fantasy story, I need a break from traditional dragons, elves, witches, and the like. (I know, the title says 'witch' but it's not like the main character knows she's a witch, or practices it, or lives in a family surrounded by witches.) There are no herbs, chants, wands, or eyes of newt associated with this witch, making it fresh. How cool would it be to call down lightning on someone who's done you wrong? (At least enough to scorch their backside...) This fan obsession might be connected to my love of watching storms (I've witnessed a small tornado, several hurricanes, and our house has been hit by lightning 3 times, with me and one of each of my boys in the house. I might have weather issues.).
Weather Witch debuts...tomorrow! So grab a copy--don't wait until the next storm. Check out her website http://www.shannondelany.com/joomla/ for signings, tour info, and such.
(All images, unless my own or otherwise credited, are courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art.)
Char
The one element that I LOVED in Weather Witch (St. Martin's, June 25th, 2014) by Shannon Delany was... the weather. Seriously. I'm sure there are other books that deal with weather and possibly magic, but weather, magic, and steampunk?
I was graciously allowed to read the ARC of Weather Witch and for some reason the whole premise of a few select people being able to control the weather magically--in a society heading toward serious industrialization--and being ostracized and held prisoner for it--was just way cool. While I love any good fantasy story, I need a break from traditional dragons, elves, witches, and the like. (I know, the title says 'witch' but it's not like the main character knows she's a witch, or practices it, or lives in a family surrounded by witches.) There are no herbs, chants, wands, or eyes of newt associated with this witch, making it fresh. How cool would it be to call down lightning on someone who's done you wrong? (At least enough to scorch their backside...) This fan obsession might be connected to my love of watching storms (I've witnessed a small tornado, several hurricanes, and our house has been hit by lightning 3 times, with me and one of each of my boys in the house. I might have weather issues.).
Weather Witch debuts...tomorrow! So grab a copy--don't wait until the next storm. Check out her website http://www.shannondelany.com/joomla/ for signings, tour info, and such.
(All images, unless my own or otherwise credited, are courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art.)
Char
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