Book 1 of 2015 - Finished

Last night I finished the first book of my 2015 challenge.

>.>  yes, it took me almost a month to do, but I don't tend to sit down and read like I used too.

What was it?

Yep, The Hobbit.  ^^

Sure, I read it years ago, and I loved it. But rereading it, after the movies, was enjoyable. I saw every deviation, every change and every scene not in one, but in the other.

And ya know what? I still love the movies and I still love the book.  They're not the same, and I'm ok with that.

I cried at the end, laughed at scenes and once again wished I had my own Hobbit hole to have tea in.

'You are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all.'

Kristy C

Things I Like... Hobbits, Dwarfs and Middle Earth

Sure, I could have just said LOTR, but that would be boring.

With the last of the movies out, and the tear jerker of a song [which I'll share below] released, its a sad moment to look back on the joyous ride that Peter Jackson has taken us on...

It also pales in comparison to the roller coaster that Tolkien took us on in the books. To be sure, those are the foundation to an entire genre.

Some years ago, my parents bought me the Hobbit and LOTR Trilogy. I was a teen, I know that much.  Now, I'd watched The Hobbit cartoon [I loved that cartoon.] and the kiss ass, more accurate than the movie, LOTR's one, that didn't reach the Return of the King.  [They did a cute, but bad, cartoon for that. Same style as the Hobbit].

I read the Hobbit, The Fellowship and the first half of The Two Towers.  Then I reached the second half, and damn if I didn't slog my way through that. I HATE that section of the book, and if anything says to me 'Tolkien was a master at world building, race creation, languages and map making. But he wasn't a great writer' its that book.  Yeah, its not the worst thing you could read. [I've seen worse, let me tell you.] However, its over done at times.  It can be summed up like this...

And they walked... More walking... Whining by one of the Hobbits, encouragement from the other... They meet Smeagol... More walking... Whining... Arguing between all three, on various points... Cowering in fear... They did a bit more walking, and whined while they walked... They did sneaky things [mostly Smeagol] and they perhaps walked a bit more.

Congrats, you've just read most of the second half of The Two Towers... A book that could have been cut into smaller pieces, and not perhaps taken me over 6 months to read.  And I read fast. Once read 15 books in 31 days...

Once I'd finished slogging my way through it, I read The Return of the King.  And, my parents congratulated me by picking up one of the millions of companions out there to help you understand what the hell you'd just read. They're moderately helpful.

Now, life comes full circle and like so many out there, I'm drawn back to where it all started.  The Hobbit.

I shared pictures last week of a Vinyl bound pocket edition [I said leather] of the Hobbit.  The book was 19.99 in store, 15.99 online [plus S&H] and 5.98 [S&H included] at the Amazon marketplace, for a new copy.  Its sitting next to me, and the desire to read it almost overwhelms my need to finish the book I'm already reading.  But, it will be first on my list.

And I think, I shall use my new journal to keep notes on things when I read them this year.  Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea.  :D

Kristy C

Books, books, books...

Not sure how long, but iBooks has several 'first books' for free right now.

I waded through and grabbed several.  My review from yesterday is one of those books.  Last night I took a friend to the store and read while she shopped.  The book isn't 'good', but I can't seem to put it down.

The start has a wizard advisor yelling at the king that the 'evil' has returned and they need to find someone important, that it won't be easy and could take time.  Next thing we know, we've got the person and have been training them a little over a week.  That skip bothers me a bit.  Normally, you want a story to move... But this sort of moves too fast.  Doesn't stop me from reading it however.

On to the next bit... I'm going to take part of the 2015 book challenge.  Goal is to read 50 books, each one falling into a category.  The image will be posted at the end.

A group on FB is taking part in the challenge, and we've got a spreadsheet to help us along.

This means, I'll be sharing more reviews along the way, as well as my progress.

Kristy C