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What are you reading Chapter 4

#2,842
Frosteeman said:
A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers

The library hold finally came in! My wife read this book a few years ago and highly recommended it. It has become the book all other "cozy" sci-fi and fantasy novels are judged against for her. Time to see if it lives up to the hype and if "cozy" is a subgenre for me. My wife wants to revisit this book sometime, so if I like it, it will likely be added to the queue of books we read together.

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So, I did end up liking this book quite a bit, which led to a purchase of physical copies of it and its sequel. Though it's been barely two months since I finished it, I just read it again aloud with my wife. Which leads me to:

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers

The sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built. Like it's predecessor, I will be reading this aloud with my wife. She's read it once before but doesn't remember anything about it. I am very anxious to see where the book goes and if it will match the quality of the first.

crown-shy.jpg
 
#2,844
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Next up in the books I read aloud with my wife is another that was important to her and her family when she was younger. I have never read it and the only adaptation I've see was a high school play adaptation maybe 20 years ago, so I only have a vague grasp on the plot. I am prepared to read some devastating wit.
 
#2,845
hrodbert696 said:
One thing I've noticed about myself is that light beers, IPAs, and Chardonnay make no sense to me. I drink stout and chianti, because beer is supposed to be BROWN and wine is supposed to be RED. I realized a few years ago, I'm that way because of reading so much Tolkien so early. I've read the Silmarilion, the poems and tales in the short selection ("Adventures of Tom Bombadil" I think it was published as, though most of it isn't Bombadil material) and some of the posthumously published stuff from his notes, but not with the frequency or focus of the published novels.

I think probably the biggest question about Bombadil is whether he's essential to LOTR or not. Like I said, I think he's one of Tolkien's best creations. Every adaptation leaves him out, even the BBC radio play IIRC. The story of the quest of the Ring makes perfect sense without him. But reading it coming directly off a re-read of the Hobbit, one thing that strikes me about both books is that, in a way, they're kind of like the Odyssey. They aren't "action" stories, they're travel stories, and each stage of the journey is about a different kind of hospitality the travelers receive. So in the Hobbit, it's:

- Bilbo's hosting of the Dwarves
- Trolls
- Rivendell
- Goblins
- Gollum
- Eagles
- Beorn
- Spiders
- Wood-Elves
- Lake-Town
- Smaug

In Fellowship, it's
- Bilbo's Party
- Frodo hosts Gandalf
- Crickhollow (actually there's a series of brief guest/host events, with the traveling elves, and Farmer Maggot first)
- Tom Bombadil
- The Barrows
- Bree
- Rivendell (it might be a stretch, but you could almost see the journey between as Strider "hosting" the hobbits in the wilderness and at Weathertop).
- Moria
- Lothlorien

In a sense, a succession of visits in which the hosts variously feed, or try to feed on, their guests. From that perspective, Bombadil is an essential example of idealized hospitality. Just my own amateur attempts at literary interpretation.
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Thank you for this. The most recent time I re-read LOTR (several years ago now), I thought "What is the point of Tom Bombadil?". Looking at it from a 'travelogue' perspective, he makes more sense. The next time I read those books, I'll have a fresher perspective.
 
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#2,849
Just finished two history books that I thoroughly enjoyed, despite their length:
Grant, by Ron Chernow, and;
The Bully Pulpit, by Doris Kearnes Goodwin.

Both were well written and gave me a glimpse into the personalities and mindsets of the featured individuals that mere recitation of facts so often misses.

The Bully Pulpit deftly explores Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and the time in which they lived.

Both books helped me better understand the forces of politics and culture we're wrestling with today from a decidedly historic perspective.
 
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#2,852
I'm trying my hand at writing some historical fiction. Along with all of the resources available online, I plan on reading, or at least sampling the following:

Robinson Crusoe - Defoe
The Castle of Otranto - Walpole
King Solomon's Mines - Haggard
Captain Blood - Sabatini

and all of this Lovecraft:
At The Mountains of Madness
The Nameless City
The Temple
The Call of Cthulhu
 
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#2,854
Frosteeman said:
I'm trying my hand at writing some historical fiction. Along with all of the resources available online, I plan on reading, or at least sampling the following:

Robinson Crusoe - Defoe
The Castle of Otranto - Walpole
King Solomon's Mines - Haggard
Captain Blood - Sabatini

and all of this Lovecraft:
At The Mountains of Madness
The Nameless City
The Temple
The Call of Cthulhu
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Any plans for publication? Would be cool to read something written by someone from TB!
 
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#2,855
kleinenenten said:
Any plans for publication? Would be cool to read something written by someone from TB!
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So far I've only finished a first draft of one short story (not the one these books are related to). I need to do some revisions and I want to have it looked at by an editor. Then I may try to get it in a magazine or an online publication. I have no idea how realistic that goal is, though.
 
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