Thirty by Thirty

Eat Pray Love III: Summary (Sorry it's such a quickie summary. I've got stuff I'm trying to get checked off my list, here.)

2009-08-20T11:06:00.002-04:00

I really enjoyed Eat, Pray, Love. It was well-written, engaging, personable. It made we want to keep reading. It also made me want to pause so that I could digest a little of what this woman wrote.

However. I will not be keeping it. I will not be selling it used. I'll be destroying it. It's got the very worst permissive, postmodern "there are lots of roads to the top of the mountain of holiness" theology I've read in a long time. It's blasphemous. I'm not going to let it fall into anyone else's hands at all...it could do a lot of damage.

That being said, let me list some things I really liked about this woman's writing.

1) She explains the cultures of the three places she lived during her 'year of odyssey.' It's a travel book. I love getting a peek into the minds and hearts and ways of the Italian people, and of the religious Indian people, and of the Indonesian people. They way others think and operate fascinates me, and I feel like I gained a new perspective on these people groups for reading this book.

2) I never did get why yoga-people do yoga. It's good for your body, to be sure: your balance improves, your muscle tone and your core muscles get stronger. But the religious yoga-people do yoga to increase their ability to meditate.

3) For that matter, she explains why she's so drawn to meditation and religious-yoga. She does a good job clarifying that for little old me. I'm curious, and I get to find out what the big deal is.

4) She openly shares about her struggles with loneliness and depression. She's a good writer, and she makes me feel like I could overcome them too, should they ever come knocking. She writes like she's sitting down in my living room, chatting with me like I'm her good friend.

5) She also writes with purpose. Each chapter seems haphazard as you read it, but when you look back on the structure of the book, look back on the beginning from the end, it's a brilliant book.

Summing up: if you have godly, Biblical discernment and the strength to tell truth from lies, then go ahead and read this book. It's brilliant.

Eat Pray Love II: First Sentence

2009-08-20T11:01:00.003-04:00

This book has TWO first sentences. (Well, it actually has four.)

From the beginning of the book:

I wish Giovanni would kiss me.

From the beginning of the foreword:

When you're traveling in India--especially through holy sites and
Ashrams--you see a lot of people wearing beads around their necks.

Heck, why not. From the beginning of the 2nd part of the book:

When I was growing up, my family kept chickens.

Aaaaaand from the beginning of the 3rd part of the book:

I've never had less of a plan in my life than I do upon arrival in
Bali.

Eat, Pray, Love I: Why I Even Own This Book

2009-08-20T10:59:00.001-04:00

I saw it at a garage sale. It was 75 cents. I was headed to the beach. I needed a cheap, but good, book.

Books to Blog About (or, Written but Not Documented)

2009-08-16T17:01:00.003-04:00

The Village School
Eat, Pray, Love
Microserfs
Julie and Julia
The City of Ember
The People of Sparks

Thrush Green: Quote

2009-06-24T16:50:00.002-04:00

The hush which enveloped Thrush Green threw its spell over the excited little boy and his pace slowed down as soon as he emerged from his own garden. There was no breeze now. The bright caravans, the trees, the daisy-spangled grass of Thrush Green lay, like a painted back cloth, motionless and unreal. It was an enchanted world, doubly arresting to the child who had been house-bound for several days.

He looked, with new wonder, at the blossoming cherry tree, which overhung the low stone wall of the next-door garden. For the first time he nocited, with a thrill of joy, the delicate white flowers suspended by threadlike stalks to the black tracery of the boughs. Those threads, he realized suddenly, would dangle cherries later where the flowers now danced, and he would be able to hang them over his ears and waggle his head gently from side to side for the pleasure of feeling the firm glossy berries nudging his cheek. It was a moment of poignant discovery for young Paul , and he felt a thrill of piride as he realized that he knew now exactly how the cherries came to be. In the future they would be doubly beautiful, for he would remember the glory of that pendant snow even as he sensuously enjoyed the feel of the fruit against his face and the cool freshness in his mouth as he bit it.

Read, Miss. Thrush Green. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959. pp.87-88.

The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding Our Families I: First Paragraph

2009-05-16T16:56:00.002-04:00

The first section of this book examines the lost of old-fashioned communities, the rise of an electronic community and a consumer mentality, and the influence of popular psychology. I want to explore the relationship between this family psychology and family well-being. I tell two main stories, that of my grandparents, who homesteaded on the harsh plains of Colorado in the early part of this century, and that of a family I saw recently in therapy. I'll compare these families on a variety of dimensions--their relationship to the broader culture, their tools, their media exposure, the importance of time and money and the involvement of mental health professionals in their lives.

---

Not exactly a scintillating story opening, is it? Well, it's not a story, it's a nonfiction by one of my favorite authors (Mary Pipher also wrote Reviving Ophelia, a book about adolescent girls). The paragraph says it all: it's a summary of what she'll write about in the first part. The book is a lot more interesting than this paragraph sounds. It's really very readable for a layperson. So, if you're intrigued by the family and how our families interact with the broader culture, you should consider reading this book for yourself.

Under the Tuscan Sun V: Recommendation

2009-05-16T16:49:00.002-04:00

I'm glad I read this book. It's not a storybook, a fiction book, but it tells a story in the midst of the description of the narrator's cross-cultural home renovation. It talks thematically about home, longings, building and rebuilding lives. It moves from earthy topics such as eating and cooking to purely intellectual topics like 'what is home?' and 'how does place affect my self?'

Wow, this book is hard to sum up. Suffice it to say these things: 1) the book is oodles better than the movie, and 2) if you only read one travel/nonfiction book this year, let this be the one.

A is for Alibi II: Character and Recommendation.

2009-05-16T16:09:00.003-04:00

Isn't that a brilliant first paragraph? It tells us that it's a first-person narrative, important facts about the narrator...and what the character herself thinks is important about herself.

It tells us that she killed someone recently, and sets up the plot right away. Who did she kill? Why did she say 'kill,' not 'murder?' What led up to such a terrible ending? Did her action strengthen her or harm her?

Why does she interject her recitation of herself with a description of her housing situation? We each have a standard self-decription, don't we? Why isKinsey's bookended with her cold statement that she killed someone two days ago?

Whew. Makes me want to read it! I already did, and it was a page-turner. I finished the whole book in about 4 days; I barely put it down. Even better...the plot lasts till the very last page...even to the last sentence. Good job, Sue Grafton!

I recommend it--but be warned, it was a bit too sexual for kids to read without parents' pre-assessment. (ie, I would not give it to my teenager to read.)

A is for Alibi I: First Sentence/First Paragraph

2009-05-16T15:57:00.004-04:00

My name is Kinsey Millhone.

--------

My name is Kinsey Millhone. I'm a private investigator, licensed by the state of California. I'm thirty-two years old, twice divorced, no kids. The day before yeserday I killed someone and the fact weighs heavily on my mind. I'm a nice person and I have a lot of friends. My apartment is small but I like living in a cramped space. I've lived in trailers most of my life, but latey they've been getting too elaborate for my taste, so now I live in one room, a "bachelorette." I don't have a pet. I don't have houseplants. I spend a lot of time on the road and I don't like leaving things behind. Aside for the hasards of my profession, my life has always been ordinary, uneventful, and good. Killing someone feels odd to me and I haven't quite sorted it thorugh. I've already given a statement to the police, which I initialed page by page and then signed. I filled out a similar report for the office files. The language in both documents is neutral, the teminology oblique, and neither says quite enough.

Under the Tuscan Sun IV: First Paragraph

2009-04-18T12:04:00.003-04:00

I am about to buy a house in a foreign country. A house with the beautiful name of Bramasole. It is tall, square, and apricot-colored with faded green shutters, ancient tile roof, and an iron balcony on the second level, where ladies might have sat with their fans to watch some spectacle below. But below, overgrown briars, tangles of roses, and knee-high weeds run rampant. The balcony faces southeast, looking into a deep valley, into the Tuscan Apennines. When it rains or when the light changes, the facade of the house turns gold, sienna, ocher; a previous scarlet paint job seeps through in rosy spots lke a box of crayons left to melt in the sun. In places where the stucco has fallen away, rugged stone shows what the exterior once was. The house rises above a strada bianca, a road white with pebbles, on a terraced slab of hillside covered with fruit and olive trees. Bramasole: from bramare, to yearn for, and sole, sun: something that yearns for the sun, and yes, I do.

Under the Tuscan Sun III: First Sentence

2009-04-18T12:03:00.003-04:00

I am about to buy a house in a foreign country.

Wuthering Heights: Why I Quit

2009-04-18T12:00:00.001-04:00

The dialect. I quit reading because of the dialect. Bah. Humbug!

Under the Tuscan Sun II: The Choice of Place

2009-04-18T11:55:00.002-04:00

For me, house, set in its landscape, always has been crypto-primo image land. Bachelard pushed me to realize that the houses we experience deeply take us back to the first house. In my mind, however, it's not just to the first house, but to the first concept of self. Southerners have a gene, as yet undiscovered in the DNA spirals, that causes them to believe that place is fate. Where you are is who you are. The further inside you the place moves, the more your identity is intertwined with it. Never casual, the choice of place is the choice of something you crave.

Under the Tuscan Sun I

2009-04-18T11:50:00.002-04:00

Whew! It has been a long, long time. I'm sorry. I've been reading...just not blogging about it. So sue me! Hah.

I have been reading Under the Tuscan Sun and loving it. Frances Mayes' descriptions...her vivid language, verbs, adjectives....her observtions of Italian life and consequently, American life...it's been great.

It's nothing like the movie. I like the movie, but the movie is no Citizen Kane or Little Women. It's not a watch-again-and-again movie, if you get my drift. But the book! It's been good, good, good to read a book 'thats more setting than plot.

Theory of Corresponding Characters

2008-09-29T12:27:00.003-04:00

Let's admit it, Lord of the Rings is the mac-daddy of all subsequent fantasy books. (Were there any fantasy books before Lord of the Rings?) Lord Voldemort is Sauron. Dumbledore is Gandalf. Harry is Frodo. James is Bilbo. Wormtail is Wormtongue. And so on.

If you read that last paragraph carefully, you might think that my knowledge of fantasy books is limited to Harry Potter. Since that's pretty much accurate, I'll have to change my thesis statement: "The Lord of the Rings is the father of the Harry Potter books."

One of the resources I read while writing my college thesis paper pointed out that all the Harry Potter characters had doubles; that is, just about every character has a double that corresponds in characteristics, social status, destiny, and challenges--except that the double is opposite in, shall we say, wickedness-status.

Think about the Lord of the Rings characters in this way. It's especially noticeable about halfway through Book Two of The Fellowship of the Ring: Legolas and Gimli, Merry and Pippin, Frodo and Sam, Aragorn and Boromir.

Gandalf's double is not in the fellowship; his double is Saruman, instead; someone who is totally opposed to the fellowship. This sets him apart from the other members of the fellowship. Not only is he a wizard (duh), but his double is outside the social group they're all traveling in and working with. It's also one of the reasons he dies at the beginning: he doesn't have a companion within the circle, and so he has to be removed from the circle. However, his double is still among the living, and so he must return from the crack of Khazad-Dum. Gandalf himself says that he is Saruman: "I am Saruman; Saruman as he ought to have been." Contrast that with Saruman, who only diminishes and decreases. By the end of the Lord of the Rings, Saruman has become so pathetic that he thinks it's a success to have taken over the Shire (come on! the Hobbits are short! Merry and Pippin grow to become the tallest Hobbits ever at 3'6"!!) and becomes so base that Wormtongue, his pathetic trembling toady, kills him and cuts his throat.

By the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, Boromir is dead, which leaves Aragorn free to pursue his destiny. As Boromir grew weak and needy, craving and desiring the Ring, Aragorn grew in strength and majesty. Ironically, he was one who could have mastered the Ring, but he had the wisdom to turn from that temptation and become a glorious king of Men instead.

Legolas and Gimli grow closer together as friends throughout the rest of the story and develop a respectful relationship. They fight battles together, help rebuild Minas Tirith, and even travel together to see beautiful caves (Gimli's most favorite place to be, as a dwarf) and the ancient forest Fangorn (where Legolas feels most at home). Instead of sneering at each other for being different, their respectful friendship permits them to visit each other's favorite haunts and appreciate those haunts, if only out of respect for each other.

Merry and Pippin both set out from the Shire unaware of the journey they would take, both are taken captive by the Urukhai, both become allied with different kings of Men (and miss each other terribly during their separation from each other), clean the Shire upon their return, and their bond of brotherhood becomes so strong that they become housemates at the end of the story.

Frodo's double is Sam. They are both from the Shire, both love the simple life, and are both Hobbits, but their relationship is one of master-servant instead of being true comrades. Frodo's double is also Gollum; at the heart of their relationship is the need for and dependence on the Ring. It's the Precious. The conflict between Sam and Gollum comes from this complexity: Sam is jealous of Gollum's influence over Frodo; Frodo and Gollum share a relationship with the Precious which excluedes Sam; and Sam is not Frodo's social equal, but his servant. Gollum, meanwhile is sick from the Ring. Gollum is Frodo's double, but he is also his own double. The Ring has damaged his personality to such an extreme that he has split in two, which enables him to be his own mirror in the story.

How does the Frodo/Sam/Gollum/Smeagol destiny end? Gollum and Smeagol die in the fires of Mount Doom, leaving Frodo free to be reunited with Sam. However, Frodo himself has been damaged by the Ring and its power, and Sam falls in love with and marries Rosie. Both of these influences serve to isolate Frodo from Sam, and something must be done. Frodo's miserable and isolated in the Shire--and so he leaves, along with Bilbo (another loner!) and Gandalf (also a loner). All the characters who have become isolated from their doubles don't have a purpose in the mortal world anymore, and their destinies lie elsewhere.

This story is brilliantly crafted on so many levels, and this theory of corresponding chracters is only one way Tolkien draws us in, weaves a story around us, and leaves us with that satisfied feeling as we turn the last page.

Wuthering Heights First Paragraph

2008-09-27T23:51:00.005-04:00

Oooooohkay, so that post was Monday, and it's now Saturday, and I haven't even gotten the darned book off the shelf! Bah! Phooey on me!

Pause for a moment while I go get it and blog the first sentence.
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Ready? Ok!

1801--I have just returned from a visit to my landlord--the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.

Woo hoo! Good job, "Currer Bell"! Onward:

This is certainly a beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society. A perfect misanthopist's Heaven: and Mr. Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us. A capital fellow! He little imagined how my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows, as I rode up, and when his fingers sheltered themselves, with a jealous resolution, still further in his waistcoat, as I announced my name.

Doesn't that just make you want to read on? What's the narrator's name? Why does he/she like the barrenness? Why is the desolation of the landscape so great? Is the desolation of the landscape only cosmetic, or does it reflect a deeper truth about the people who live there? (I admit, these questions are influenced by others' reactions to this book, but only slightly!) Why would Mr. Heathcliff's suspicious eyes make the speaker's heart warm toward him? (That was a clumsy sentence. Oh well. You've just got to deal.) Why were Mr. Heathcliff's eyes made suspicious toward the speaker...is he naturally suspicious of others, or is the speaker someone to be wary of?

Ok. I'm hooked. Toodles.

The Hunt for The Second Book

2008-09-22T16:57:00.008-04:00

Whew! After several hunts through our bookcases, I've ascertained that these are books we own that are on The List:

Augustine's Confessions

Beowulf

Bronte's Wuthering Heights

Cervantes' Don Quixote

Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans

Dante's Divine Comedy

Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities

Dickens' David Copperfield

Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

Ellison's Invisible Man

Golding's The Lord of the Flies

Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude

Melville's Moby Dick

Mitchell's Gone with the Wind

Shelley's Frankenstein

Stevenson's Kidnapped

Stevenson's Treasure Island

Thoreau's Walden

Now, for a Random Integer: The winner is...#3, which is Wuthering Heights. Good. I'll actually read that. (I've heard that it's morose and glum to the max. Maybe their melodromatic gloom will cheer me up.)

Grapes of Wrath Fail

2008-09-22T16:12:00.002-04:00

I'm ashamed to admit it, after all that rigmarole, but I'm going to have to choose yet another book.

Why?

I don't own The Grapes of Wrath.
I didn't buy it at The Big Used Bookstore here in Chattanooga.
I don't want to get it at the library at this time.
To be honest...I don't really want to read it right now! If I don't want to, I won't.

So...new book choice is on the way. I promise.

Choosing Book #2: A Conversation with Myself.

2008-09-20T15:51:00.003-04:00

I'm done with the Lord of the Rings. What should I read next?

Here's the complete list (it's long, so I made it small). I'm going to eliminate some and then see if I can choose from the remaining:
Alcott's The Young Man's Guide
Augustine's Confessions
Beowulf
Bronte's Wuthering Heights
Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita
Calvin's The Institutes
Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People
Cervantes' Don Quixote
Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans
Dante's Divine Comedy
Darwin's Origin of Species
Delillo's White Noise
Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Dickens' David Copperfield
Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment
Eliot's Four Quartets
Ellison's Invisible Man
Friedan's The Feminine Mystique
Gladwell's The Tipping Point
Golding's The Lord of the Flies
Graham's The Wind in the Willows
Heller's Catch-22
Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls
Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey
Kerouak's Slaughterhouse-Five
Kierkegaard's Christian Discourses
Kingston's The Woman Warrior
Machiavelli's The Prince
Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude
Martel's Life of Pi
Melville's Moby Dick
Mitchell's Gone with the Wind
Morrison's Beloved
Nietzche's Beyond Good and Evil
Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Pizan's The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry
Plato's The Republic
Rand's Atlas Shrugged
Rand's The Fountainhead
Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
Shalit's A Return to Modesty
Shelley's Frankenstein
Sjoholm's Incognito Street
Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
Stevenson's Treasure Island
Sun Tzu's The Art of War
Thoreau's Walden
Tolstoy's Anna Karenina
Tolstoy's War and Peace
Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace's Ben Hur
Wharton's The House of Mirth
Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
Winner's Real Sex
Woolf's To the Lighthouse
Wright's Native Son

First, eliminate British authors. I want a little bit of well-roundedness. That leaves this list:

Alcott's The Young Man's Guide

Augustine's Confessions

Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita

Calvin's The Institutes

Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People

Cervantes' Don Quixote

Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans

Dante's Divine Comedy

Delillo's White Noise

Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment

Ellison's Invisible Man

Friedan's The Feminine Mystique

Gladwell's The Tipping Point

Heller's Catch-22

Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls

Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey

Kerouak's Slaughterhouse-Five

Kierkegaard's Christian Discourses

Kingston's The Woman Warrior

Machiavelli's The Prince

Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude

Martel's Life of Pi

Melville's Moby Dick

Mitchell's Gone with the Wind

Morrison's Beloved

Nietzche's Beyond Good and Evil

Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Pizan's The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry

Plato's The Republic

Rand's Atlas Shrugged

Rand's The Fountainhead

Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

Shalit's A Return to Modesty

Sjoholm's Incognito Street

Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath

Sun Tzu's The Art of War

Thoreau's Walden

Tolstoy's Anna Karenina

Tolstoy's War and Peace

Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

Wallace's Ben Hur

Winner's Real Sex

Wharton's The House of Mirth

Woolf's To the Lighthouse

Wright's Native Son

Ok. Now, I will see what happens when I get a random integer: #22 is the lucky winner....that's...let me scroll up...Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.

...I'm trying again. (read here for the Official List of Excuses: I already started it once. This time I'm wanting to read something I have little to no prior relationship with. I just 'reconciled' with one book.)

Again: 24...that's Melville's Moby Dick.

OooooKay. Yeah, no.

One more try: 38...that's Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. All right. Thaaaat's the one! That's the lucky winner!

More Vocabulary

2008-09-19T15:47:00.014-04:00

argent: something silvery or white.

blench: to shrink; flinch; quail.

embrasure: (in fortification) an opening, as a loophole or crenel, through which missiles may be discharged.

ghyll: A ravine.

lave: Archaic. to bathe.

oast: a kiln for drying hops or malt.

peach: To inform on someone; turn informer.

puissant: powerful; mighty; potent.

recking: to take heed of or to have caution.

recreant: 1. cowardly or craven. 2. unfaithful, disloyal, or traitorous.

serried: pressed together or compacted, as soldiers in rows.

tilth: the physical condition of soil in relation to plant growth.

vambrace: Armor used to protect the forearm.

wain: a farm wagon or cart.

---

"argent." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"blench." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"embrasure." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"ghyll." Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"lave." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"oast." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"peaching." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"recking." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"recreant." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"serried." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"tilth." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"vambrace." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 19 Sep. 2008. .

"wain." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 19 Sep. 2008. .

Why can't I write like this? Oh, Tolkien, you're...you're...you are the bomb. Diggity.

2008-09-19T15:47:00.011-04:00

(Yes, yes, it's another description. Deal with it; Tolkien is wonderful at description!!)

Sam wanted to have a song composed about his adventures with Frodo, and he got his wish! After all the pain, struggle, suffering...they listen to the song. Read this description of their response:

And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the mistrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in Elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.

Seriously...I can't have been the only one ever to have had my attention caught by these phrases!
"wounded with sweet words"
"their joy was like swords"
"where pain and delight flow together"

---

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Ballantine: New York, 1955.

Joyousness

2008-09-19T15:47:00.007-04:00

After Sam and Frodo succeed in destroying the Ring, they are saved from a terrible volcanic death by Gandalf. They wake, and after they ascertain that they are not dead, Gandalf asks Sam how he is. Read this and take note of the descriptiveness:

"How do I feel?" he cried. "Well, I don't know how to say it. I feel, I feel--" he waved his hands in the air-- "I feel like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!"

Whew! Future writers, take note. This is how to describe!

---

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Ballantine: New York, 1955.

P. A. #2

2008-09-16T12:06:00.002-04:00

I'm getting a little tired of Tolkien.

There's nothing for it but to read, read, read. I'm determined to read it through!

I've been marking more vocabulary words. I'll write another post about vocabulary words, and then a nice concluding post regarding this [series of] book[s].

P. A.

2008-09-08T10:34:00.003-04:00

I started The Return of the King last night. I want to finish in the next few days so I can start another book.

British Vocabulary for a British Mythology

2008-09-08T09:59:00.009-04:00

Maybe it's been too long since I've read anything of substance, but I've been coming across words I don't know while reading The Lord of the Rings. (I have a memory for vocabulary and spelling, and if I don't know a word, believe me, it's an Event.)

(Does anyone else get excited about vocabulary? I do. I love learning new words, and memorable words lodge themselves in my mind, along with the way I learned them. These words will always remind me of The Lord of the Rings. Hooray! They're like...intellectual mementos. Others collect sea-shells, or postcards, or pennants, to remember places they've traveled. I, apparently, collect words as knick-knacks.) (If only I could learn to use them as handily!)

My husband pointed out that these words are Middle English. (Because Tolkien was writing a mythology for the British people, you know.) You know what I say to that? "Go ahead on with your clever sassy self, J. R. R.!"

Anyway, here's a list of words from The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers that I didn't know. Now I know them.

coomb: deep hollow or valley, especially on flank of a hill.

drabbling: to draggle; make or become wet and dirty.

eyot: An islet, or little isle, in a river or lake.

gangrel: 1. a lanky, loose-jointed person. 2. a wandering beggar; vagabond; vagrant.

holm-oak: evergreen oak of southern Europe having leaves somewhat resembling those of holly; yields a hard wood.

ilex: 1. any tree or shrub of the genus Ilex. 2. a holly.

laund: A plain sprinkled with trees or underbrush; a glade.

mere: A small lake, pond, or marsh.

sward: 1. the grassy surface of land; turf. 2. a stretch of turf; a growth of grass.

---

"coomb." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 08 Sep. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/coomb.

"drabbling." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 08 Sep. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/drabbling.

"eyot." Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. 08 Sep. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/eyot.

"gangrel." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 08 Sep. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gangrel.

"holm oak." WordNet® 3.0. Princeton University. 08 Sep. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/holm oak.

"ilex." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 08 Sep. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ilex.

"laund." Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. 08 Sep. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/laund.

"mere." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 08 Sep. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mere.

"sward." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 08 Sep. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sward.

The Experience of Time

2008-09-02T07:51:00.003-04:00

As I've been reading The Lord of the Rings, I've been thinking about the experience of time in books versus the experience of time in movies.

I've watched the 6-hour Pride and Prejudice many times, and decided to re-read the book. It was better. It was slower, had more detail, and seemed more real.

The same is true of the Peter Jackson's movies (which are, let's be honest, totally rad and examples of amazing, excellent big-budget filmmaking!) versus the books themselves. No matter what tricks films do to make us believe more time has gone by than actually has, it still only feels like the tightly budgeted 120 minutes...or, in Peter Jackson's case, the generous 180 minutes per installment.

But in the books, whether it's Austen's Pride and Prejudice or Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, time feels different. I may only have 5 or 10 minutes to sit and read, but it feels more real; it feels less rushed. Clock-time says "It's been 5 minutes!" but my experience of time might be three days of nonstop Orc-chasing with Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas...one intense moment of Frodo's internal battle to master the Ring...a thousand years of Elf history...several millenia of Ent history...and so on and so forth.

I'm There. (Tolkien's Descriptiveness)

2008-09-01T00:08:00.003-04:00

I read halfway through the Lord of the Rings some years ago, and pooped out. I have to say, Tolkien gives sooooo much history, backstory, detail...so many, many names of characters...so much detailed description.

But this time, I'm making myself slow down and actually read the words he wrote. There's no speed-reading here. There's no surfing and skimming through. It's actual reading.

Guess what I have found? I found myself staying up late last night because Tolkien's description of Lothlorien was so beautiful, I couldn't bear to 'leave.' I also stayed up to keep reading because his descriptions of the Mines of Moria are so haunting that I had to read myself out of the darkness of caves and depths.

I remember being young and visiting the Tom Sawyer cave in Hannibal, Missouri. The tour guide had clearly given many tours already that day, and when she droned about turning the lights off so we could see how dark Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher had it, I didn't really hear her...but I remember the darkness. It was dark, and I can't (with my little talent) describe it other than saying 'It was dark!' But Tolkien had me, with my imagination, in the Mines of Moria, with the threat of the creatures the Dwarfs had awakened, with the Dwarf hero Balin having died of those creatures...I was there, people.

Here are a few paragraphs of description from the end. I'm recalling all the days I've ever been on a river, been near rapids, been in fog, been in dusky evenings. He's got me there. I can see it. I'm there, in my mind.

One by one Aragorn and Boromir carried the boats, while the others toiled and scrambled after them with the baggage. At last all was removed and laid on the portage-way. Then with little further hindrance, save from sprawling briars and many fallen stones, they moved forward all together. Fog still hung in veils upon the crumbling rockwall, and to their left mist shrouded the River: they could hear it rushing and foaming over the sharp shelves and stony teeth of Sarn Gebir, but they could not see it. Twice they made the journey, before all was brought safe to the southern landing.

There the portage-way, turning back to the water-side, ran gently down to the shallow edge of a little pool. It seemed to have been scooped in the river-side, not by hand, but by the water swirling down from Sarn Gebir against a low pier of rock that jutted out some way into the stream. Beyond it the shore rose sheer into a grey cliff, and there was not further passage for those on foot.

Already the short afternoon was past, and a dim cloudy dusk was closing in. They sat beside the water listening to the confused rush and roar of the Rapids hidden in the mist; they were tired and sleepy, and their hearts were as gloomy as the dying day.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. 1955: New York, Ballantine.

The Fellowship of the Ring: Update One

2008-08-29T12:30:00.001-04:00

I'm remembering why, when I set my mind to reading these books last time, I pooped out. Don't get me wrong, it's a great story! I just....[sigh]....there's so very much history, backstory, and detail Tolkien includes in his stories.

Still, it's the very first book and I'm going to pave my way through! Maybe the next book I pick will be more...I dunno...streamlined.

Beginning Lord of the Rings

2008-08-25T12:44:00.002-04:00

I already own the Lord of the Rings books, so I'll start with that. In fact, I've begun the first volume at least once, which gives me yet another reason to go ahead and start with that one.

So, off I go.

What this is

2008-08-25T07:16:00.003-04:00

So, it occurred to me that my 30th birthday is just around the corner! In some ways, I've already gone through the "Oh. my. word. that's. the. FIRST OVER-THE-HILL! Ack!" wave of emotions because my older sister (and only sibling) already turned thirty a year ago...but still. It's a landmark age, people.

Some people make a pre-bucket list, filled with goals like "I want to go skydiving" and "I'm going to learn to water-ski, make a souffle, and shoot a hole-in-one in golf!" Not me!

Why is that?

1) Those things are expensive, and I'm afraid I can't afford them.
2) Skydiving? Water-skiing? Golf? No thanks. I don't enjoy sports and athletics now, and I'd hardly commemorate my thirtieth birthday happily if I torment myself with a year one failed attempt after another to improve my frustratingly lame gross-motor skills.

The question is, what sort of List is appropriate to me? Those who know me, especially those who have known me a majority of these (nearly) thirty years will say a list of books!

So there it is. I'm reading thirty books (or trying to) before I turn thirty.