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The Rings of Power
Oct. 15th, 2022 09:51 pmI spent much of my early life re-reading The Lord of the Rings, including the appendices, so this series was not entirely what I was expecting. But it was fantastic!
( spoilers )
( spoilers )
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May. 21st, 2017 04:20 pmIn a development that will surprise exactly no one who knew me in real life as a child, we have doing The Lord of the Rings with Spartacus -- half reading them to him at bedtime, half watching the movies. We finished (watching) The Return of the King today, and I think will have to find something new to read, because he has not been totally charmed by the books, especially -- they are long on descriptions of scenery, and short on epic battle sequences. Also, it takes everybody a very long time to get anywhere; I feel like I now know where GRRM got his "wandering at length through the countryside without anything much happening" bug. As a love letter first to the English countryside and then to the landscape of Tolkien's imagination they are perfect -- but I think that I will not be totally sad to move on to something else, and maybe S will come back to them at some later date. (I read them at his age, but I had a high tolerance for reading things I don't understand.)
Reading long chinks of them aloud was also interesting -- Tolkien is not the greatest prose stylist, especially at the start. Towards the end the epic rhythms take over, but when he wants to write poetry he writes actual poetry, and his prose is just prose. Of the authors I've read aloud the one which really struck me was Sutcliffe, when we read The Eagle of the Ninth -- she also goes in for long descriptions of the scenery, but my mouth doesn't stumble over her words the way it did over the Lord of the Rings at points. Richard Adams, also, in Watership Down, was a smooth read. I was surprised, really, that Tolkien proved so difficult. Even so, I have a strong preference for the books over the movies.
The problem now is what to read next. S has chicken pox so we are stuck at home together for the next few days and will have to rely on something we have at home. (Other things we have read to Spartacus: Rowling, Shakespeare, and Plutarch -- don't judge us! -- but I would like something which is not hundreds and hundreds of pages.)
Reading long chinks of them aloud was also interesting -- Tolkien is not the greatest prose stylist, especially at the start. Towards the end the epic rhythms take over, but when he wants to write poetry he writes actual poetry, and his prose is just prose. Of the authors I've read aloud the one which really struck me was Sutcliffe, when we read The Eagle of the Ninth -- she also goes in for long descriptions of the scenery, but my mouth doesn't stumble over her words the way it did over the Lord of the Rings at points. Richard Adams, also, in Watership Down, was a smooth read. I was surprised, really, that Tolkien proved so difficult. Even so, I have a strong preference for the books over the movies.
The problem now is what to read next. S has chicken pox so we are stuck at home together for the next few days and will have to rely on something we have at home. (Other things we have read to Spartacus: Rowling, Shakespeare, and Plutarch -- don't judge us! -- but I would like something which is not hundreds and hundreds of pages.)
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Aug. 20th, 2006 06:51 pmRecently read:
Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle Earth (new edition, which incorporates the recently published supplementary materials and includes an appendix on the films): ( a very good book about Tolkien )
Boris Akunin, Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog: ( one from the Russian )
Sergei Lukyanenko, Night Watch: ( and another Russian book )
Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black: ( this is the book you should all read )
Just started reading:
Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora: A truly dire opening paragraph, but the first chapter is shaping up nicely, and at the moment I think I will like this. [ETA: I am now a third of the way in and do like it well enough.]
Recently put down:
Lindsey Davis, See Delphi and Die: Oh dear. You know, I really enjoyed the early Falco novels (and reread a couple earlier this summer), but the series as a whole just doesn't stand up well. I'll probably finish this, eventually. Or maybe not.
Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle Earth (new edition, which incorporates the recently published supplementary materials and includes an appendix on the films): ( a very good book about Tolkien )
Boris Akunin, Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog: ( one from the Russian )
Sergei Lukyanenko, Night Watch: ( and another Russian book )
Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black: ( this is the book you should all read )
Just started reading:
Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora: A truly dire opening paragraph, but the first chapter is shaping up nicely, and at the moment I think I will like this. [ETA: I am now a third of the way in and do like it well enough.]
Recently put down:
Lindsey Davis, See Delphi and Die: Oh dear. You know, I really enjoyed the early Falco novels (and reread a couple earlier this summer), but the series as a whole just doesn't stand up well. I'll probably finish this, eventually. Or maybe not.
