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Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Huntn
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I've got Slaine: The Exile and Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor lying about. Not sure which one I am going to read first.
However, I am interesting in tackling The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I have no idea which translation to pick up. If anyone has read it, which English Translation do you suggest?
I've got Slaine: The Exile and Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor lying about. Not sure which one I am going to read first.
However, I am interesting in tackling The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I have no idea which translation to pick up. If anyone has read it, which English Translation do you suggest?
Re-reading The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. I thoroughly enjoy his work and love the depth and detail he went into. I've been hooked on him since I was about 13 when I first read The Hobbit followed by The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
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You have my respect. As much as I loved The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, I could never get through The Silmarillion.
A.
Well said, and bravely admitted.
Indeed, I am of much the same opinion - with all of the adulation of J R R Tolkien (and while recognising, acknowledging and saluting his world building - indeed genre inventing - abilities, which were stupendous), not all of his works of fantasy are of equal merit, and I, for one, was never all that entranced by The Silmarilion.
Agreed. While I have read The Silmarilion it was a difficult read and I have never re-read it like I have The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Actually, I have long thought that The Silmarilion was intended for aficionados of Middle Earth, the sort who wish to explore sources and footnotes, and recite whole dialogues from the book (for example, any section from the Ents) to you after their fifth drink in a pub; good luck to them, but this is not my life's obsession.
As it happens, I explore quite sufficient sources, data and footnotes in my actual working life, (and yes, I love it) but I have absolutely no desire to acquire quite that degree of expertise in a fictional world, when my working world already adequately satisfies this nerdish need.
Instead, I am more than perfectly content to applaud the great stories told in the epic narrative of The Lord Of The Rings and of course, The Hobbit, a charming and elegantly told adventure (with a protagonist I, for one, regard as quite captivating and engaging) without needing to know anything more about the joys of Middle Earth.
I will say that I cannot recite dialogue from the books
But I do enjoy reading the footnotes.Works such as The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales as well as the History of Middle Earth in my opinion were never meant for the mainstream audience. The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales for example are a group of short stories who tend to cover some of the more well-known historical figures in the history of Middle Earth and were fleshed out to give continuity to all of J.R.R. Tolkien's works involving Middle Earth.
I will also go so far as to say the reason they are not as "polished" as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is that they were in fact un-finished! Christopher (I am lead to believe) had to do a fair bit of editing on the stories to get them to a publishable state.
Stories such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings allow me to have such a vivid imagery in my mind as I read them, I become emotionally connected to the characters, the story, and the world. I find upon finishing them that I am not satisfied, yes a story is told, yes it has a beginning and an ending and a lovely building in the middle, but it is only a part of the whole story and J.R.R. Tolkien gave enough tidbits and tie-ins to the history of Middle Earth for me to want more. This is why I enjoy reading his other works so much and I seem to have a knack at looking at it from a bigger perspective which allows me to make more sense of the underlying story, timeline and history.
I can understand why people would not enjoy the books or go back for a second or third or fourth reading, and I for one do not blame you in the slightest, some of it is hard to put together, the flow of the story telling is stuttered, the stories themselves switching character perspectives, timelines so often, even in the one short story!
Sorry for going off on a tangent a little from the original thread title.
ASIDE: I may hasten to add that I can also read a dry book on history and be enthralled at the story as well. I remember reading a book from the '60's on the early Australian Explorers and being captivated in their stories.
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The Silmarillion spent an hour on this a long time ago and then said, "no".
for me TLOTR was brutal. i was so relieved when i finished.
the hobbit i re-read from time to time and still love it.
this would be me too...
^ The above is me to a t.
Started reading Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor by Matthew Stover. I'm a nearly life long Star Wars fan but I'm obviously not enough of one to know the real name/code designation of an X-Wing and a lot of the tech.
Beyond this, I like it so far.
^ The above is me to a t.
Started reading Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor by Matthew Stover. I'm a nearly life long Star Wars fan but I'm obviously not enough of one to know the real name/code designation of an X-Wing and a lot of the tech.
Beyond this, I like it so far.
What Book Are You Reading?
Yes, The Golden Compass is fantastic. I have no idea why I didn't continue the trilogy, but better late than never, right? Anyway, I read that the sequels, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass are even better. The movie doesn't do the book justice at all.
Yes, The Golden Compass is fantastic. I have no idea why I didn't continue the trilogy, but better late than never, right? Anyway, I read that the sequels, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass are even better. The movie doesn't do the book justice at all.
Yeah, despite an award winning cast, the movie was almost enough to stop me from reading the books. I'm glad it didn't, since the books are much better.
In general, 'the book' a movie is based on is a lot better than the subsequent movie (there have been a few exceptions to that rule, but not many).
However, in the case of an extremely subtle, erudite writer such as Philip Pullman, who can craft a story, excels at world setting, creates excellent characters (including strong female characters), tell believable yet completely original stories in lovely, literate yet elegant English........well, the task for those seeking to adapt such texts in order to make a movie becomes ever more and even more challenging.......
However, in the case of an extremely subtle, erudite writer such as Philip Pullman, who can craft a story, excels at world setting, creates excellent characters (including strong female characters), tell believable yet completely original stories in lovely, literate yet elegant English........well, the task for those seeking to adapt such texts in order to make a movie becomes ever more and even more challenging.......
Fascinating read on the evolution of policing throughout history.
Just interesting overall.
And I just finished this:
From the director of Inside Job, just horribly infuriating, especially to see how we've literally done nothing to stop the same exact processes that brought down the economy last time from being executed.
finished the fifth 'game of thrones' book, a Dance with Dragons. better than the fourth, but not as good as the first 3. now i know why i didn't want to plunge into them: as much as i enjoyed therm all, I am incredibly annoyed by having to wait probably a decade before i know the ending. and i'll have to re-read anyway.
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recently read David Benioff's "City of Thieves". Brilliant.
One of the best books i read in the last couple of years.
Highly recommended.
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just finished "The Golem and the Jinny", which is also a great read, especially for how it mixes the historical and the fantastic, and in how it explores human nature using non-humans characters. plus the early 20th century new york setting.
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currently getting retroactive anxiety attacks from schlosser's "Command and Control".
Boy were we close.
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and i'll have to re-read anyway. 
recently read David Benioff's "City of Thieves". Brilliant.
One of the best books i read in the last couple of years.
Highly recommended.
just finished "The Golem and the Jinny", which is also a great read, especially for how it mixes the historical and the fantastic, and in how it explores human nature using non-humans characters. plus the early 20th century new york setting.
currently getting retroactive anxiety attacks from schlosser's "Command and Control".
Boy were we close.
I've always wondered about the way the characters talk. It's a bit strange to me maybe because English isn't my first language and I don't know if there are people who really talk like that but here is an example from the book: "But I wish I'd seen them a flying". Why do they say "a"? It sounds wrong.
His characters are speaking a version of English as spoken in earlier times, modified by the needs of narrative and his particular tale told in this particular setting; Philip Pullmann is erudite, and, with some of his story set in an alternative Oxford, (in both place and time) he also plays with language as it might have been spoken by such characters.
The expression 'a' when linked with a verb can be found in much older forms of written (and spoken) English, a few remnants of which still linger in parts of the language; a few examples from the top of my head, some of which are still used occasionally: 'lie abed'; 'I await you', 'aiding and abetting' - or better still, remember the lines of the song (from the First World war) quoted in one of Brendan Behan's plays:"Oh, the bells of Hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling for you but not for me; Oh Death, where is thy sting a-ling - a-ling, Oh Grave thy victory?"
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What Book Are You Reading?
Very interesting. That makes perfect sense now. It's nice to learn something new. Thank you for the informative explanation.
Very interesting. That makes perfect sense now. It's nice to learn something new. Thank you for the informative explanation.
My pleasure; you'll also find that particular usage in the actor Frank Kelly's song 'Twelve Days of Christmas' (i.e. 'Ten Lords a-leaping, Eight Swans a-swimming') and so on; it (such usage) denotes continuous action, but is a much older form of spoken (and written) English, and is more or less almost defunct 'now-a-days'.
