All Things Books And Reading Thread - 2018

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raysmyheart

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I finally finished Circus Pyongyang - A gig to North Korea by Juha Kurvinen on my nook. I will begin tonight, Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives In North Korea by Barbara Demick also on my nook. The nook has allowed me greater concentration and ease of reading, I am so happy I own it. :geekcat:

I really enjoy reading here what others are reading! :geekcat: :) :read:
 

Margret

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I'm still slowly relishing LOTR. Since it's the entire "trilogy" I expect it will take me months to finish (which is not a complaint - I adore this book). The hobbits are now in the Old Forest, approaching the Withywindle and their (almost) disastrous encounter with Old Man Willow...

Margret
 

rubysmama

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As usual I am late to the game- I started reading Outlander- on page 300. Claire just got married to Jamie...interesting!
I was late to the game as well, and only read the series back in 2016. @Winchester loves the books and has read them all more than once. I can't imagine ever reading them again, as it took me months and months to get through them all.

I enjoyed the series and liked the characters a lot. My only complaint was the amount of disturbing violence.

The nook has allowed me greater concentration and ease of reading, I am so happy I own it. :geekcat:
I really enjoy reading here what others are reading! :geekcat: :) :read:
I have a Kobo e-reader, and it is one of the best purchases I ever made. Reading is so much easier with the ability to change font size, and the back light. I borrow e-books from the library and have read more in the last 3 years than I ever did before my Kobo.

I also enjoy seeing what others here are reading. When I see a recommendation, I check to see if my library has the e-book.

Love the "reading" icon. Can't believe I never saw it before! :read:

Speaking of reading, I'm currently on a non-fiction kick, and am reading Outside the Box by Jeannie Marshall. It's about all the processed food everyone eats now and the food corporations that keep pushing it to consumers.

I also have Fire and Fury on hold, though I'm not sure if I want to actually read it or not. I've been trying to step away from all the crazy!

I'm about to start Sweet bitter by Stephanie Danler. I hope it's good. I read some less than stellar reviews about it but they were not enough to make me not give it a chance.

Really, really excited to start Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng though..
Sweet Bitter is available at my library. If it was really popular, they'd be a long wait list. Like there is for Little Fires Everywhere, which sounds interesting, and I've put on hold.

I'm still slowly relishing LOTR. Since it's the entire "trilogy" I expect it will take me months to finish (which is not a complaint - I adore this book). The hobbits are now in the Old Forest, approaching the Withywindle and their (almost) disastrous encounter with Old Man Willow...
I've never read LOTR. Someday maybe.

I've almost finished Heart of Darkness, just 10 pages to go. I'll try and get through them after I finish work tonight.
Good for you. That didn't take so long!
 

catspaw66

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I'm still slowly relishing LOTR. Since it's the entire "trilogy" I expect it will take me months to finish (which is not a complaint - I adore this book). The hobbits are now in the Old Forest, approaching the Withywindle and their (almost) disastrous encounter with Old Man Willow...

Margret
I'm at "At Helm's Deep" in my e-book, but found a quote on p499 sort of relevant to the Tom Bombadil discussion.

Gandalf to Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli: "Treebeard is Fangorn...the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun upon this Middle-earth."

Whereas, Elrond stated about Tom Bombadil 'last as he was first'.

Ain't being a Book Nerd fun?
 

Mamanyt1953

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I'm piddling about with cozy mysteries. Right now it is the Whiskey, Tango, and Foxtrot series. Ghost dog who talks, cat on seventh life, also talks (both telepathically), young woman going nuts by being nattered at by a telepathic dog and cat, assorted ghosts, all animals, thus far, and an animal deity or two, for good measure. And as absurd as it sounds, I'm actually enjoying it all! This may be because Whiskey (dog) and Tango (cat) remain very true to the characters of dogs and cats throughout.
 

Margret

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Ain't being a Book Nerd fun?
Yep! :D

"Last as he was first" what? Human? Elf? God? Person with two legs? Immigrant to Middle Earth? Elrond doesn't say, does he?

Then we start getting into theology. Worse, we're getting into the theology of Middle Earth, where none of us live. So, questions for Tolkien (who is unfortunately unavailable to answer them):
  • Do gods have an age?
  • Do gods count as "living things"?
Not having properly understood The Silmarillion puts me at something of a disadvantage here. It seems to me that the theology of Middle Earth is loosely based on the ancient Nordic theologies, which Tolkien knew a whole lot more about than I do, combined with a little bit of Tolkien's own theology -- Gandalf, to some extent, appears to be a Christ figure, for instance (the whole thing with the Balrog and Gandalf's resurrection, detailed at the tail end of chapter 5, "The White Rider," of book 3, the first book of The Two Towers). According to Appendix B, "The Tale of Years," Gandalf "casts down the Balrog, and passes away. His body lies on the peak," and this happens on January 25, 3019, Third Age. On February 15 of the same year "Gandalf returns to life, and lies in a trance." On February 17 "Gwaihir bears Gandalf to Lórien." February 15th was also the day Frodo looked in Galadriel's "mirror," so Galadriel sent Gwaihir for Gandalf just after the company departed from Lórien.

The nature of Wizards: Also from Appendix B, in the section on the Third Age:
"When maybe a thousand years had passed, and the first shadow had fallen on Greenwood the Great, the Istari or Wizards appeared in Middle-earth. It was afterwards said that they came out of the Far West and were messengers sent to contest the power of Sauron, and to unite all those who had the will to resist him; but they were forbidden to match his power with power, or to seek to dominate Elves or Men by force and fear.

"They came therefore in the shape of Men, though they were never young and aged only slowly, and they had many powers of mind and hand. They revealed their true names to few, but used such names as were given to them. The two highest of this order (of whom it was said there were five) were called by the Eldar Curunír, 'the Man of Skill', and Mithrandir, 'the Grey Pilgrim', but by Men in the North Saruman and Gandalf. Curunír journeyed often into the East, but dwelt at last in Isengard. Mithrandir was closest in friendship with the Eldar, and wandered mostly in the West, and never made for himself any lasting abode."

From the same source, in the year 1050 of the Third Age "
About this time a shadow falls on Greenwood, and men begin to call it Mirkwood. The Periannath are first mentioned in records, with the coming of the Harfoots to Eriador."

So it isn't totally obvious just what Wizards are, either. They could be minor gods. Didn't The Silmarillion divide gods into some kind of hierarchy, rather like the angelic hierarchies in some Christian traditions?

I know this is long, and kind of goes off on tangents, but I'm trying to think it through and organize my thoughts as I go.

Margret
 

misty8723

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Oh, good. I understand the temptation to do that, and am relieved to hear that you resist it.

My brother used to walk around the house reading (he may still do that; it's been a while since I've seen him). He'd have one hand holding the book and the other trailing along the wall so he never had to look up just to navigate corners. :crackup: Someone from his church told me that they'd invited my brother and his wife over for dinner several times, and after the first time they began confiscating any reading materials that my brother had brought along at the door and only giving them back when he left. They were rather surprised to find out that as long as he wasn't distracted by a book he was actually a good conversationalist. I wasn't, of course. The man is both brilliant and well-read, duh.

Margret
:lolup:

Reminds me of the time part 2 of Mordant's Need came out. It was around Christmas time and of course I bought it. Soon after, DH and I were driving to visit family 5 hours away. I was of course reading the book, DH would notice and say PUT THAT BOOK AWAY! I would put it down until he wasn't paying attention and then pick it back up again. It went on that way the whole trip. I finished the book during that trip and left it with my sister, who was equally addicted to the series.
 

catspaw66

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Yep! :D

"Last as he was first" what? Human? Elf? God? Person with two legs? Immigrant to Middle Earth? Elrond doesn't say, does he?

Then we start getting into theology. Worse, we're getting into the theology of Middle Earth, where none of us live. So, questions for Tolkien (who is unfortunately unavailable to answer them):
  • Do gods have an age?
  • Do gods count as "living things"?
So it isn't totally obvious just what Wizards are, either. They could be minor gods. Didn't The Silmarillion divide gods into some kind of hierarchy, rather like the angelic hierarchies in some Christian traditions?

I know this is long, and kind of goes off on tangents, but I'm trying to think it through and organize my thoughts as I go.

Margret
You are correct, Elrond never says what Tom is. I Googled TB and came up with some interesting websites..
 
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Norachan

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I started reading Caitlin Doughty's Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory last night. She had me hooked in the first few lines.

A girl always remembers the first corpse she shaves. It's the only event in her life more awkward than her first kiss, or the loss of her virginity.

Oh, I'm going to enjoy this one! I love me some dark humour. Another gem from the introduction.

The fear of death is why we build cathedrals, have children, declare war and watch cat videos on line at 3 am.

:anticipation:
 

Margret

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I Googled TB and came up with some interesting websites..
Thanks for the clue. It's getting late here and I'm about to head to bed, but at first glance this essay appears to be the most informative: What is Tom Bombadil: Introduction and Background The problem is that I'm having trouble reading it due to my lack of knowledge about some of the words. I'm currently making a list of words to look up online...

Note: I wrote this yesterday and thought I had posted it before I went to bed, and here I find it still in Draft form. :crazy: And I still haven't finished reading that essay...

Margret
 

Mamanyt1953

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I started reading Caitlin Doughty's Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory last night. She had me hooked in the first few lines.

A girl always remembers the first corpse she shaves. It's the only event in her life more awkward than her first kiss, or the loss of her virginity.

Oh, I'm going to enjoy this one! I love me some dark humour. Another gem from the introduction.

The fear of death is why we build cathedrals, have children, declare war and watch cat videos on line at 3 am.

:anticipation:
I am going to Goodreads and putting that on my list RIGHT NOW!

I'm still working on the Whiskey, Tango and Foxtrot cozy mystery series. Now look, there are telepathic talking animals, but OH, they are handled beautifully! Tango, the cat, is every inch "cat" in her thoughts! I've found myself laughing quite loudly at some of her remarks. SUCH fun!
 
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catspaw66

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Thanks for the clue. It's getting late here and I'm about to head to bed, but at first glance this essay appears to be the most informative: What is Tom Bombadil: Introduction and Background The problem is that I'm having trouble reading it due to my lack of knowledge about some of the words. I'm currently making a list of words to look up online...

Note: I wrote this yesterday and thought I had posted it before I went to bed, and here I find it still in Draft form. :crazy: And I still haven't finished reading that essay...

Margret
I missed that site. Thank you for the tip. It looks interesting.
 

raysmyheart

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I am able to get a good start on Nothing To Envy on my nook, under a couple of blankets with Speedy, my furnace is out until tomorrow night. I'm glad to have the nook to occupy my mind. This is my seventh or eighth book now on life in North Korea. Once I get on a topic, I get hooked. The nook makes for easy reading for me. It never was easy for me to read before the nook.
 

Margret

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I am able to get a good start on Nothing To Envy on my nook, under a couple of blankets with Speedy, my furnace is out until tomorrow night. I'm glad to have the nook to occupy my mind. This is my seventh or eighth book now on life in North Korea. Once I get on a topic, I get hooked. The nook makes for easy reading for me. It never was easy for me to read before the nook.
Yes, it's so much easier to read under the blankets with a back light instead of needing either a book light or a flashlight; isn't it? (Not to mention adjustable fonts and font sizes, highlighting and being able to figuratively write in the margin without damaging anything, automatic bookmarks as well as the ones you add at interesting spots...)

Good grief! You're in Massachusetts, and you're able to manage with just a warm cat and a couple of blankets?! I'm incredibly impressed!

Margret
 

Margret

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I'm starting to feel tired so I'm not going to type in the lo-o-ong post that I'm mentally composing tonight. I will say, however, that I just discovered that at some point I actually bought a used paperback of The Silmarillion from 2nd & Charles (a used bookstore near me) so I intend to basically treat it as a Middle Earth History textbook and see whether that makes it any easier to follow. But first, I'm still wallowing in LOTR. Where I find something that makes me think I need to check this out a bit more in The Silmarillion I've been highlighting and adding notes.

Margret
 
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