The Hobbit is being brought to theatres this December, by Peter Jackson, the lovable hobbitlike director/producer/writer & cameo actor who brought J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings to us in Glorious High Definition Surround Sound in the early 2000's.
I posted the latest trailer for this upcoming epic adventure in G+ recently and every time someone commented, I found my responses long and blog like, drawing attention from their comments to me. I didn't want that. That's what blogs are for! So I deletee all but my initial response to them, and made a note for this week's blog topic.
I have pure fondness for this book. It was the first book for me that made that connection between the book and the author. before I read but I don't think I was ever aware of who I was reading.
It's also very responsible for launching me splat into the fantasy genre at a fairly young age (11) I read it and loved it. Sure, the prose were difficult in spots, and yeah there were areas where I would get lost. That's my point... I think it was with this book that I really caught on that it's okay to get lost in a book. Most times you can just keep reading and know you'll figure it out. If not go back and read it again. It's okay.
None of my friends at the time knew what I was reading. I look at today's "Age of the Geek" and shake my head in amazement. This was not my experience growing up.
My friends were reading the Sweet Valley High books, Judy Blume's Forever, and countless teen romance novels. I wasn't. My brother showed me how to fold the Sunday Comics newspaper insert into a dust cover so I could read my books without getting harassed. For grades 7 through 9 I had a Charles M. Schulz Peanuts cover on books like:
The Hobbit was IT for me. From then on with a deep fondness for hobbits, dwarves and elves I consumed fantasy novels. This is a list of a few of the first love connections between me and authors I'd read.
None of my friends at the time knew what I was reading. I look at today's "Age of the Geek" and shake my head in amazement. This was not my experience growing up.
My friends were reading the Sweet Valley High books, Judy Blume's Forever, and countless teen romance novels. I wasn't. My brother showed me how to fold the Sunday Comics newspaper insert into a dust cover so I could read my books without getting harassed. For grades 7 through 9 I had a Charles M. Schulz Peanuts cover on books like:
Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time series. This was amazingly enough (though I only now as an adult looking back realize just how amazing) available to me through the church library.
The Mennonite church that I grew up in had this series in it's library!
hmmm...
Piers Anthony. Wow.
The Mennonite church that I grew up in had this series in it's library!
hmmm...
It did not have this one or any of it's companion books.
The Incarnation Series blew open my mind wide open.
Piers Anthony. Wow.
His X'anth series was to me - phenomenal. Complete hysteria, wild sex romps, mad word plays and adventure. Perfect. I reread a few of them last year, and they still make me smile.
It's light reading sure.. but damned fun!
I have always hated reading the last chapter in a book. Trilogies were a great solution to this. (that and reading the last chapter first, then it's not so bad when I reach it legitimately)Piers Anthony has written hundreds of books. Only a few of which are stand alone. On a slow day he writes a trilogy - the X'anth series has I think forty some odd books.
After Piers, I dipped my toe in Jack L. Chalker's books.
I remember wondering if he did a lot of drugs.
Mercedes Lackey. I loved her. No, really I loved her. She wrote about strong warrior men and women. (later I would read Marion Zimmer Bradley and really be blown away) What's more, like Pier's Anthony, Ms. Lackey had trilogies, and tetralogies and decalogies.. .
)
Finally, I made it to High School.
Terry Brooks Shannara and Landover series were staple books on my shelves at the time.
David Eddings was all I could talk about he was simply not pumping the books out fast enough for me.
Then I met Mike... and I began exploring Science Fiction!
... another blog for another day.
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| Anna Margaret Ross 1860 - 1939 The Greatest Bad Author of All Time. |
Do you know who this is? Her name is Anna Margaret Ross. But perhaps you know her by her pen name: Amanda Mckittrick.
She is INFAMOUS for being the world's worst writer.
Look at her.
Look closely.
She looks a little like that grade three teacher you couldn't stand doesn't she?
Well, she was a school teacher - who published three novels and two books of poetry.
Some of her greatest fans were Aldous Huxley and Mark Twain....
I was reading up on her and she sounds to me like the muse for Hyacinth (Bouquet) Bucket. I would have liked to have met her. If only to give her a big hug and thank her for the reminder that even terrible authors can receive recognition... and become legends.
heh heh heh...world's worst. Nevermind.
ReplyDeleteI still read Mercedes Lackey. She's a wonderful story teller. Her Valdemar series is my all time favorite.
I LOVED those. The entire universe she writes in.
ReplyDeleteI was raised with horses and the companions themes just clicked with me.
It's funny what can speak to one and falls on deaf ears to another. An except from the Hobbit was in the grade 6 reader -- which I wasn't supposed to be reading... I loved it. I got the book and read it. I loved it. I reached out eager to embrace the Lord of the Rings books... and that's where the deaf ears part comes in. I don't think I read any other overtly fantasy novels til I was an adult, where I was fortune to stumble onto On a Pale Horse and eagerly consumed the rest of the series. I found Xanth, hoping for more of the same... again with the deaf ears.
ReplyDeleteFantasy reading has been an either love it or hate thing with me. Which is fine... and perplexing, because it's really the love of magic in everyday which makes me, me -- and which makes me love authors like Dean Koontz for writing books like Life Expectancy and Odd Thomas, and Stephen King for The Eyes of the Dragon and the whole Gunslinger series.
While I still would not describe myself as a fantasy enthusiast, I will say that I LOVE the genre for all the young people these worlds draw in. Teenagers need magic perhaps more than anyone else...
You would LOVE Charles De Lint books then.... he's a Canadian writer too. AND he incorporates music into his stuff a lot.. Urban fairy tales I would call it.
ReplyDeleteExcept being 'excerpt' and fortune being fortunate. I am surprised I can spell anything at all after the day I had! (A doozy)
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor in the 6th grade introduced me to fantasy books. He actually introduced me to the Dragon Lance series. It was a time where I needed to escape from my own world and life and the fantasy genre was the perfect escape. I got to go placed and be with strange and foreign beings and have adventures. Those years I spent traveling with Raistlin, Tanis, Flint Fireforge, Tasslehoff Burrfoot, Sturm Brightblade and Caramon Majere allowed me time to heal from my own personal grief ... though I grieved when Flint died and Tanis and I bawled like a baby when Sturm fell ... But through their deaths, I was able to process and work through my own grief issues.
ReplyDeleteThen after high school, I no longer needed that level of escape and I stopped reading fantasy for awhile. Then I came across Jacqueline Carey's heroine, Phedra. And that series taught me another lesson - that Love as Thou Wilt and that "I can be good."
I don't read fantasy much anymore ... which makes me sad and makes me feel like Sarah from Labyrinth at the end ...
awwow... Caro you gave me goosebumples. I remember those books too! and Sarah...
ReplyDeleteI even grieved when I finally took the Dragonlance books out of my bookshelf and took them to the Goodwill. It was like saying good-bye to dear friends for the last time. But someone else should have the honor to travel with them.
ReplyDeleteI get that feeling too. I used to 'travel light' when I was young and hobo-ish, I would buy used books and give them back to the cycle when I was done. But then when I was old enough to resettle I found myself scouring used bookstores for some of the treasures I loved again. I wanted them on hand to open and re read. I love re reading books. I'm that person that always always reads ahead in any book I tackle... it doesn't matter if it's Ann Rand or Robert Munsch I flip to the back to find the end then and only then can I go back to where I left off and can't put it down knowing how it ends keeps me reading.. so re reading is the ultimate comfort. Sometimes I'll just pick one of my old favourites up and read randomly a few chapters to get that snug assurance the characters are still there and doing fine.
Deleteuhm... where was I going with this again? Oh yes, giving books away. My most favourite book EVER is John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany. I've leant it out so many times and it's that book you borrow and never return.. so I've also bought more copies of it than any other book to replace the ones I lend. Finally I've found one with the same worn cover I remember the first one I had (it might well BE the first one I had!) I paid the $3 and when I brought it home and put a label in it. I will lend the book out again no doubt... but only if I find another copy. I love my books. I love the feel of a room with a full bookshelf in it. I love randomly pulling one out and reading it. I love the textures, covers, smell of books new or old.
... then there is my tablet. I'm checking out books from the library on it and it's great - but it's difficult to flip to the back with.. it doesn't smell as good.. the battery life isn't as long as that paperback on the shelf over there... and I can't read it in the tub.
I'm reading MORE with it which is good, and a larger variety with it which is good too. But when I come across a book in it that I love... I go buy the novel itself.