Stefan’s Comments (group member since Mar 01, 2012)

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

Idhron wrote: "D&D is linear"

Not the D&D that I play!

Greetings, everyone!

For the next Group Read, we've decided to do something a little different. Because the amount of Tolkien available to read is limited, Anne and I thought that mixing it up by reading something non-Tolkien might be beneficial to the group. For this quarter, I'm calling our group read: A Book That You Might Recommend to Tolkien. I am well aware that Tolkien did not read fiction, but I thought that it might be fun to try this as a nice way to mix things up and to maybe introduce our group to some different, quality authors.

For this first A Book That You Might Recommend to Tolkien Anne and I thought that we would go with The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart. We feel that with Tolkien's interest in Arthurian legend and the recent group read of The Fall of Arthur that this entry would fit the group well.

As usual, any edition that you have access to will do. If you don't already own it, I'm sure that most public libraries and used book-shops have a copy and it is readily available via the usual online outlets.

My favorite line:

Bilbo: “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”

I'm intrigued.

4-book boxed set: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASI...

Two Towers: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASI...

The Return of the King: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASI...

The Hobbit: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASI...

What's the ISBN of the one that you have (if it has one)?

Just finished Toward the Gleam so I'm going to take a little break before I start on this. Looking forward to reading it soon, though!

Just wanted to check-in again on this one as I finished the book yesterday. Fascinating book, I really loved how things ramped up for the climax and thought that the final scenes were fantastic. I also really liked the closure that the author gave in the final couple of chapters. Fun book for any Tolkien fan!

Thanks for introducing us to this Anne Marie!

I won't be reading The Tolkien Reader but I will be reading A Tolkien Miscellany which contains all of the above mentioned stories and poems.

Just got my second Interlibrary Loan Copy of this so I can finally finish it up. Been on pins and needles waiting for it to arrive!

Glad to hear this, too! Thanks for sharing, Philip!

Wow, Aaron. This looks like something that I might have some fun with sometime. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, I hadn't even looked at poetry since I don't read a lot of it. I'll be sure to vote!

I've been a bit busy and haven't had much time, but I'm still working on this one. I'm really intrigued with it so far and I'm really enjoying all of the nods to Tolkien's life throughout the book. Excellent choice, Anne Marie.

I just started on this one yesterday. Only got through the first chapter, so I don't have any real opinion yet. I will say that it's intriguing from the get-go, though.

Great to have you in the group, David! I have a minor in English Lit myself and those were some of my favorite courses as an undergrad.

Thanks for sharing. Not a bad quiz. Bilbo's age was the one that threw me. His eleventy-first birthday in Fellowship was all that was stuck in my head.

Liamcla wrote: "What's going on with there and back again"

Don't know, I haven't heard any news lately although I did see that it's slated for release in December 2014, although I thought that the original release date was supposed to be July.

Welcome, Juan! It's good to have you here. I hope that you enjoy our group.

Possibly, the Rohirrim have a differing view of women warriors than other humans as well. It seems to me that each of these smaller kingdoms has their own set of moral codes and cultural views similar to individual tribes or the Germanic City-States of early Europe.