Michael’s Comments (group member since Jun 10, 2010)

Michael’s comments from the J.R.R. Tolkien group.

My LoTR gaming is confined to board games - Old School!

Amalie wrote: "The most interesting I found here was (which I didn't know till I started reading) that there are many goddess figures appear in Tolkien's Middle Earth..."

One of the major influences on Tolkien's Middle-earth mythos was the Finnish national epic, Kalevala: The Land of the Heroes, in which Ilmatar is the divine creatrix. Many of the names of the Valar are Finnish sounding and Tolkien acknowledged his debt to this poem.

I've read the start of the Kalevala many times and, despite loving the poetic images, have yet to finish it. Maybe reading The Silmarillion again will give me the inspiration to do so.

Hello, Hobbit! :-D.

We've always got room for another Halfling.

And, thanks for making J.R.R. Tolkien your first Goodreads group.

Gundula wrote: "Thanks. I hope to pick up the audiobook once it is available at the library (I own the book). I think the Narrator is someone called Martin Shaw (or similar). ..."

Martin Shaw is a British TV and stage actor. He has quite a sonorous voice, so I imagine he'll do a good job narrating The Silmarillion.

A hundred percent is, well, perfect!

Hi Stefan and G.T.

You're just in time to get on board with our first Group Read :-)

That's a good score, Taylor :-)

Hi Taylor - it's good to have you over. We're starting a Group Read of The Silmarillion in a day or so, if you fancy getting your toes wet again.

The poll to determine how frequently we should do a Group Read was overwhelmingly for quarterly.

As we've got The Silmarillion starting March 2012, our next read after that will be in June and I will line something up shortly.

The idea of the Group Reads is to help those of us who need a little organising with our reading schedules and to stimulate an exchange of views, which is more likely to happen if a number of us are reading the same text at the same time. However, I certainly would not want the Group schedule to stifle discussion about any of the works, nor, obviously, stop anybody from reading and posting about a book they're enjoying (or not enjoying!).

So, it's coming soon and I hope you're geared up and ready to join in :-D

Welcome, Arok. I hope you find our Group of like-minded fellows inspirational, too :-D

Tracey wrote: "*emails Gwaihir, just in case*"

:-D

Phillip wrote: "Does that mean we start discussing the book with the beginning of March? Or is there something more structured going on?"

We will start the read and the discussion on 1st March. If you start reading before that date you will be imprisoned atop the Tower of Orthanc ;-)

I jest, of course; but the discussion thread will only go up on 1st March so that we're all "officially" starting together.

Be aware in discussions that some will not have read the book before, so please use spoiler tags where appropriate: <*spoiler> hidden text <*/spoiler>, but without the *. This will hide any text until you click on it: (view spoiler)[like this (hide spoiler)].

So, our Group Read for March will be The Silmarillion!

If you haven't already got a copy, get down to your local book shop or library so that you're ready for the inaugural Goodreads J.R.R. Tolkien Group Read.

Hi, Amalie: we're glad that you are here :-)

Ah, just the money, unfortunately. But then you do have the book as consolation.

I don't think I mentioned the multiple double-page fold-out sections - they're cool, too.

Hi Stephanie. Glad to see you join the Group

If you want to get a start on that To Read pile, you might want to join the Group Challenge and set yourself a target for reading at least one new JRRT book in 2012. If not, I hope you enjoy being part of the Group, anyway :-)

It really is a precious book - gollum

Hi Kathryn - welcome to the Fellowship.

I got it for Christmas, so it was a special purchase. Definitely worth starting a cent-bottle to save up your change towards buying it, though :-D

Hi Dena - welcome to the Tolkien Addiction Support Group ;-)

If you check the poll currently at the bottom of the Group home page, you can vote for our next Group Read. The Silmarillion is presently the front runner, but The Children of Húrin could come through if enough people vote for it.