Week 11: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

This book matches up really well with the movie (which I am going to watch after I write this blog)!  I like how the two different stories are not mixed together, but rather Tolkien had one of the books be only about Frodo and Sam while the other book is the story of all the other members of the Fellowship.  It makes it easy to read and follow along with.  In the movies I have always preferred the story of the battles over the trials of Frodo.   However, reading the book I really enjoyed reading about the journey of the two hobbits.  Maybe it is because you get to learn more about the characters of Frodo and Sam while reading.  The book explains the thought process between the decisions the characters make and how it effects the adventure they are in. All of the hobbits in the series are really amazing fictional characters.  Tolkien has taken all that is simple and wonderful in the world and bestowed it on the hobbits.  Then placed them in a frightening world that they must overcome in some extraordinary unknown ways.

The books are extremely long and often tedious with regards to imagery.  Tolkien goes to great depths of making the reader know exactly what the landscape looks like.  Sometimes so much so that you wonder how many pages of imagery there is going to be before something happens to the plot line. My other complaint is that there are many pages of songs and rhymes.  I do not mind reading these prose, but often I find them to be long and unneeded to the plot of the story.  Yet, the books are so splendidly written that you cannot help but feel transported to Middle Earth.

 I really like reading these books after watching the movie.  Obviously there are occurrences in the books that were left out, but Peter Jackson did fabulous at really capturing the story. But be wary the books are wonderful in their own right and completely different from the movies!!!

Week 10: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

This book is incredibly long...  To start with I was not aware that there was actually six books total in the series. These six books have since been combined to make the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  So if you read these books you are actually reading six whole books.  I did not know that when I started so again I will be reading two books a week for the rest of the month!

To begin I really do love the characters in this book, especially Legolas and Pippin.  Each character is so unique and has a personality that grows as you read.  As of now many of the characters are still forming and it is exciting to figure out the bonds that grow between the Fellowship. Frodo is a strong main character, but a lot of the book is really not focused directly on him.  Much of the book is spent on Aragorn and Gandalf, whom Tolkien seems to have amazing back stories for.

I like Tolkien's stories and his devotion to literature.  He is extremely thorough in his writings and his dedication.  He obviously loved these books.  I enjoyed this first book, however it is a lot more plot building than most books.  It takes quite a while for things to even start progressing in the book.  Tolkien spends a lot of describing the history of Middle-Earth and the journey.  Very little of the story is actually the fighting and action you find in the movies.  However, if you compare the books and the movie you would not be disappointed, they mesh up well!

Overall, I am excited to read the next two parts of the Trilogy and compare them to what I have read so far.

Week 9: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

So this month is going to be completely devoted to the events of Middle Earth.  I will be reading all of the Lord of the Rings books over the course of the month.  However, this week I read The Hobbit or There and Back Again.

I have read this book before, but did not remember it very well.  It is very well written (of course) and is fantastical in all respects.  I greatly enjoyed the adventures of the dwarves and the hobbit.  However, being the nerd I am I found that often I was comparing the book to the movie.  This was kind of a bummer because I was often wishing that parts of the movie occurred in the book.  The book itself is very short compared to most classics, less than 300 pages, and is really easy to read.

This book takes a lot of imagination.  Tolkien uses so many different images throughout the book, that you cannot help but picture yourself walking through the Mirkwood, or in the shadow of the Lonely Mountain.  I personally would not have the guts to be Bilbo Baggins, but am inspired to be more like him in courage.  He is a great character who grows throughout the book, and definitely becomes a hero by the end.  I especially admire Tolkein's  ability to make a main character both courageous, yet extremely honest and humble. It is a great book for any age to enjoy!!!

Week 8: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books 4 and 5

This week I read So Long and Thanks For All the Fish and Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams.  Both these books are so peculiar, especially the fifth one.  In my opinion neither of them fit as nicely in the plot line as the first three, yet they were both very interesting and imaginative. The stories often make full circles with the events that unfold, but both books seem to create more loose ends than they complete.  The ending is unusual but not wholly unexpected, and fits rather well with the nature of the books.  All the books prove that the author has both an amazing humor and a vivid imagination.   

During these books I often got lost during parts of the story line and had to reread paragraphs. This is weird because most of the time I can follow along fairly easily! I would suggest you read all five books in order and all around the same time.  Otherwise you may find everything much more complicated then it needs to be! Everyone should read these books because they are so unique.  Douglas Adams take you on a whirlwind adventure throughout the Universe following the life's of some bizarre characters. My favorite is Marvin!!! 

Week 7: The Laughing Cavalier by Baroness Orczy

I suppose I should start by saying that I lied.  I wrot elast week that I was going to read the final two books of the Hitchhiker's Guide, but I did not feel like reading two books in a week, again! So next week I will read those final two installments. With that being said I will now discuss the book I read this week!

This book is a prequel to the Scarlet Pimpernel books. ( A series which everyone should read!) The book is so much fun and has so many thrilling parts to it.  The main character is a man called Diogenes, who is a philosopher, adventurer, soldier, but mostly a cavalier.   Though he seems a little cocky most of the book, I believe he is a character most people would enjoy reading about.

The author, turned the picture of the Laughing Cavalier, painted by Frans Hal, and created a unique story line to go with the fantastic piece of artwork! I personally love how amazingly this picture is painted, but honestly the guys mustache is a little bit to much for me! However, the personality the figure portrays in the book, fits the debonair swag of the man pictured, so the mustache must stay!

The book is a little bit drawn out it some places, and there seems times when sentences are repeated.  However, I love reading classic historical novels, and this one did not let me down.  If you are looking for a classic that is unknown to most people than I would say this is a good choice for you! It has the daring of Treasure Island, the plot of a Sherlock Holmes story, and the romance of an Austen novel.  Mixed with the awesome fact it was all written because of a painting makes it so enjoyable!

Week 6: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books 2 and 3

Okay, so technically I read two books this week.  I just did not want to carry on with the whole series over the course of five weeks, so instead I am reading two this week and two next!

The second book of the series is called The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and the third book is Life, the Universe and Everything. I was extremely entertained by the event that took place in both books, and appreciated how the author started both exactly where the previous installment had ended.  Literally, you can read this whole series as one book because the whole plot line flows throughout the books.  In fact I would encourage anyone that is about to start this series to read all of it as if it just one book and not a collection of individual publications.

There is not to much I can talk about pertaining to the books, because I do not want to ruin the story for you! The characters all stay the same and some of the places are also consistent, for instance Earth appears regularly throughout all three books! The story itself is becoming more complicated and the cliffhangers are aggravatingly tantalizing. Oh well, I suppose I will just have to keep reading!!!

So far, reading these books have not made me want to travel through the universe, they barely make me want to travel outside my front door. You never know when there is a bulldozer in the front yard! Yet, they give you a new perspective of the impossible and the universe as a whole! Not that any of it is in any way real, just that you can look at the world lots of different ways!!

Now I would like to ask you a question! If you had a chance to go across the universe and explore it, would you? Please comment with your answers. I would love to read them! Thanks!!!

Week 5: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

So The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is hilariously funny! I think everyone should read it because the whole thing is like nothing you have ever read before! However know before you go into it that it is a series, and there are four more books after the first one.  I, of course, did not know that and was left at the end feeling super confused.  So then I checked, and realized I had quite a bit left to read! So do not make the same mistake as I did, and be prepared for the series not just a book!

The first book is a super quick and easy to get through.  Yet if you do not understand British humor the book may not be so quick and easy! The whole thing is pretty much ridiculous and infinitely improbable.  Anything that could happen does happen and that is the majority of the story.  A lot of silly nothings that all link to create something plausible.

The story starts of with Arthur Dent, who is a typical guy that had been living a normal life.  Yet once he wakes up everything crazy and bizarre happens.  He meets numerous quirky characters that all seem stranger than the last one.  He ends up hitchhiking all around the galaxy with no goals and no real cares except for a good cup of tea.  As the book goes on more random things happen and you take every unexpected incident with a grain of salt by the last chapter.

If you do end up reading the book know it is not like the movie.  I expected it to be similar to the movie, but it was not.  However, it seems like the movie did a great job at combining all of the books in the series to create a coherent plot.  I am super stoked to read the next four books over the coming weeks. Anyways, read this book because it is just so comical!