Fellowshippin’ with the LOTR Readalong Bunch

Well, we are in our second month of the Lord of the Rings Readalong, andClare at The Literary Omnivore is our Fellowship of the Rings host.  Here’s her first set of questions:

When did you first hear of The Lord of the Rings?

Have you read The Fellowship of the Ring before?

What’s your plan of attack, now that we’re dealing with more “mature” literature?

Have you ever seen the movies? If so, do you think they’ll influence your reading? If not, well, why haven’t you seen them?

When did you first hear of The Lord of the Rings?

  Honestly, I don’t remember a time when I DIDN’T know of Tolkein and Hobbits and The Lord of the Rings.  I grew up in a household of readers, more than one being a total fantasy nut.  Let me put it to you this way… ONE of them even read stories of Merlin in Gaelic, even.  Yeah, he could tell you how the sorcerer’s name is spelled in it’s original form, but I can’t remember how, just that it was about 13 or so letters long.  Somewhere around the age of 8 or so, The Hobbit came out in cartoon form, with the Trilogy following suit. I watched those movies every chance I time one of them came on (that was before VCRs even, let alon DVDs and OnDemand).  Frodo, Bilbo, Gollum, orcs, Gandalf, etc… all these were as familiar to me as the names of my own family memebers, more so than some, even.

Have you read The Fellowship of the Ring before?

I thought I’d read the first quarter or so of it, but now that I’m reading it, none of it is familiar.  Once I finally got to Farmer Maggot’s scene, it was familiar, though, so maybe I did.  I’ve never read it through to the end, so it’s a first read for me, anyway.

What’s your plan of attack, now that we’re dealing with more “mature” literature?

You know, I don’t know what everyone means when they call this “mature” literature.  Does that mean slow? boring? work? bloody?  Long?  IDK what “mature” is and why it applies to the LOTR books, but my plan of attack on this book, and the rest of the trilogy, too, is to read the book an hour a day.  I’m into chapter 5 now, and they’ve just now spied the bald hill outside the Old Forest.  The Dark Riders have been pursuing them for quite  a while, but it’s not been as scary as the root scene in the movie, nor as intense as the chase to Bucklebury Ferry was in the movie, either.  Oh, and they’ve already met some elves and spent the evening with them in Woodhall.  Galindor seems to be a fascinating character whom I’d like to see more of, or again later, maybe.

Have you ever seen the movies? If so, do you think they’ll influence your reading? If not, well, why haven’t you seen them?

Yes, I have seen the Peter Jackson LOTR movies, of course, and have watched them more times than I can count (but probably not as much as I’ve watched the cartoons when I was a kid).  To an extent, of course they influence my reading; it would be impossible to not be influenced by them.  But here’s the thing about the movies:  I can thoroughly understand why fans of the book would HATE, HATE! with a passion the recent movie-versions.  The book is so far different from the movie’s story line that it’s about like two people writing about the same events, but from different POVs.  BUT… I understand why Jackson did what he did, too.  The pace of the book is very slow.  Almost 20 years pass between Bilbo’s farewell party and Frodo’s.  Also, the Dark Riders in the book have more of a sense of ill-ease, maybe a bit of suspense, but no where near the heighten sense of danger and DOOM they give off in the movie, at least not by the point I’m at right now.  There would just be no way you could make the movie be like the book without losing the audience’s interest.  I don’t think I would’ve liked the movies AT ALL if I’d read the books first.  I don’t know WHAT Jackson’s going to do with The Hobbit, to be honest, and I’m not sure I’ll like it, but I do still love the LOTR movies, still.

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BTT- The Cold, an Award and a Giveaway!

The northern hemisphere, at least, is socked in by winter right now… So, on a cold, wintry day, when you want nothing more than to curl up with a good book on the couch … what kind of reading do you want to do?

When it’s really cold, I like get into my bed, snuggle up under my warm covers, and then read.  I’m not particular about the type of book, though I don’t think I’d read anything that required me to think.  The problem I have, however, is that I always fall asleep!

read other Booking Through Thursday answers here 🙂

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I’d like to say thank you to Reagan at Miss Remmers’ Reviews for my first award for 2010.  It’s quite a lovely award, don’t you think?

A Prolific Blogger is one who is intellectually productive… keeping up an active blog that is filled with enjoyable content.

There are a couple of rules for this award:

1. Every winner of the Prolific Blogger Award has to pass on this award to at least seven other deserving prolific bloggers. Spread some love!
2. Each Prolific Blogger must link to the blog from which he/she has received the award.
3. Every Prolific Blogger must link back to This Post, which explains the origins and motivation for the award.
4. Every Prolific Blogger must visit this post and add his/her name in the Mr. Linky, so that we all can get to know the other winners.

Miss Remmers’ Reviews is one of the blogs that I first visited during Bloggiesta as part of the comment mini-challenge, and I enjoy Reagan’s posts, especially the Thesis Statement Video, which has the Thesis Statement Rap in it.  LOL! Had to put it in there 🙂

Now for my magnificent seven nominees:

Care’s Online Book Club – While Care is currently UNPLUGGED, I enjoy reading her posts, particularly the Virginia Wolf ones (I argue I don’t like stream of conscious, and yet I loved Push.  Maybe I should give Ms. Wolf a shot, since it really was the movie The Hours that made me run from her.)  Looking forward to your return, Blogging Buddy 🙂

Wrighty Reads – Debbie has great reviews and I enjoy her “So I was just wondering…” posts.  AND she’s a fellow left-hander 😉  Lefties RULE!

Unfinished Rambler – Poor Unfinished.  He’s lost his favorite blog home, Humor-Blogs.com, and he’s been going through the various stages of grief about it.  I think he might be at acceptance now, but I’m not quite sure… He’s definitely still snarky about it, but he’s usually snarky anyway, which is one of the things I enjoy about his blogs.  Did you know Elvis is the janitor at his library?  He’s probably too cool for this award, but here it is all the same 🙂

Lady Gwyn’s Kingdom – This is a fairly new-to-me blog, but quite enjoyable.  I found it through my Google Alerts.  She had “Reading Challenge” and Welsh on the same page, so Google thought it was the same as “Welsh Reading Challenge”… erm, not quite, but I’m glad for GA’s loose extrapolation, because I would have missed this one.  It’s a lovely blog, playing chamber music while you read reviews of books about Tudors and other royal members behaving badly (and some not so bad, too;-) ), books by Sharon Kay Penman, and you can read about what happened on this day in history, as well.

Reading In Color – Ari is probably another one who is too cool for this award (really, she is, go check her blog out 🙂 ), but it’s what I’ve got to show my appreciation for what she’s doing, so here ya go.  She’s working with Doret and Laura on a project to find the most diverse YA/MG publishing company, so if you have any ideas, pass it along!

Debbie’s World of Books – This is another great blog I first visited during the Bloggiesta mini-challenge, and I’ve enjoyed ever since.  Great reviews, fun memes, and I love the blog theme (purple’s my favorite color 😉 )

In Spring is the Dawn – Also a Bloggiesta find, Tanabata focuses a lot on All Things Japanese, whether that be in book or movie form, or the traditional music of Japan.  It’s fascinating to learn about translations, and her blog’s layout is fun and beautiful.

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Also, don’t forget to check out my giveaway!  I’m giving away a copy of Push by Sapphire, and the more people sign up, the more prizes!  If 50 or more people enter to win, I’ll add $10 to spend on Amazon.com for the grand prize!