2019 Goals Quarterly Check-in 3

1. Read 45 Books - Progress: 28 / 45 +8
2. Finish my Lord of the Rings in Chronological Order project - Progress: 100%
3. Back to the Classics - Progress: 6 / 9 +0
4. To Be Read Challenge - Progress: 2 / 3 +1
5. Newford Part 1 - Progress: 4 / 12 +1
6. Austen Challenge - Progress: 1 / 7 +0
7. Other Books Read:  2

Top 3 Books This Quarter

Newport, Cal - Deep Work

Tolkien, J. R. R. - The Fellowship of the Ring
Christie, Agatha - And Then There Were None

Top 3 Books This Year

Austen, Jane - Sense and Sensibility
de Lint, Charles - Dreams Underfoot
Arden, Katherine - The Winter of the Witch

This quarter was really uninspiring. Which is basically the theme of the year. However, I did finish one of my goals for the year. LotR is finished and I can wait another ten years before rereading them. The three books in my top three for the quarter were the only three I really enjoyed which is really frustrating. And as of yet, none of the books I've read have topped the three in my first quarter which are still at the top of the year.

So.... three months left and I have ALL of these books to read if I'm going to finish my already revised goals:

1. Emma by Jane Austen (1815) (495 pages) (BttC) (PRC) (Home)
2. King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsanay (1925) (301 pages) (BttC) (LinkInn)
3. Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip (2002) (304 pages) (TBR) (EPL)
4. Memory and Dream (novel) (400 page) (Newford) (EPL)
5. The Ivory and the Horn (collection) (338 pages) (Newford) (WorldCat)
6. Trader (novel) (352 pages) (Newford) (LinkIn)
7. Someplace to Be Flying (novel) (384 pages) (Newford) (EPL)
8. Moonlight and Vines (collection) (384 pages) (Newford) (EPL) by end of October
9. Forests of the Heart (novel) (400 pages) (Newford) (LinkIn) (EPL)
10. The Onion Girl (novel) (512 pages) (Newford) (EPL)
11. Tapping the Dream Tree (collection) (541 pages) (Newford) (EPL)
12. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (1814) (536 pages) (Austen) (Home)
13. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1817) (280 pages) (Austen) (Home)
14. Persuasion by Jane Austen (1817) (312 pages) (Austen) (Home)
15. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813) (408 pages) (Austen) (Home)
16. Letters from Pemberly by Jane Dawkins
17. Five Love Languages for Children

Clearly that's not happening. So, I'll just start reading and see how far I get! Not going to read in a certain order or with any priorities in mind. Will just go how my mood takes me and we'll see what happens. Wish me luck for the end of the year!

The Return of the King AND Lord of the Rings Challange Recap

Title: The Return of the King

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

Pages: 340

Finished: September 29, 2019

First Sentence: Pippin looked out from the shelter of Gandalf's cloak.

Summary: The war of the Ring culminates in numerous battles while Frodo and Sam bumble their way through Mordor to destroy The Ring. Then they travel the long way back to the Shire where things aren't all right.

Thoughts: I want to like it. I really really do... but... Gah! The first part of the book is all the battle prep. Our fellowship is torn more asunder than it already is. Then there's the battle. Another long, forever battle. Then we move through the second part of the book where Tolkien makes sure we really see just how hopeless Frodo and Sam's journey is as they trudge through Mordor for days and days and days with little food or water. Then suddenly everything is good and we get to see exactly what everyone is doing at the moment The Ring is destroyed in their own chapters. Then comes the long march home.

Seriously. People complain about how the movie had all those fake endings. Clearly they haven't read the book. It just keeps going and going. Oh this seems like a good stopping point! Oh... nope. Now we have to part with these people. Oh good, here's a good stopping point. Nope, time to go to Rivendell. Oh here's a good point... By the time they got to the Scouring of the Shire, I was just done.

At least the Grey Havens was done well. I cried. I was moved. I was happy for them...

BUT THEN I HAD TO KEEP GOING!

Because my journey didn't end there. Nope, I still had 30 pages to bounce around between the Appendices, Unfinished Tales, Silmarillion, and Fellowship. Yes. Fellowship. The entire thing ended with a bit of dumb exposition at the end of the prologue in Fellowship.

My thoughts on the core books (Hobbit plus Lord of the Rings.) Honestly? I like Fellowship, but the rest... I just don't care about. In Fellowship you really see how much everyone cares for each other. The journey is fun even as it's dark. There's respite. Things haven't gotten dark yet. While you still see how much everyone cares for each other in the latter two books, they just don't have that magic. Instead they have endless battle scenes. I don't like detailed battle scenes. And by Return of the King, the book just overstays its welcome. I felt that way with Hobbit too. Yay! They took back the mountain and the Dragon's dead... oh wait... there's a whole 'nother part with all these armies?

My thoughts on the auxiliary books. Hm. This is a bit tricky. I liked the stories when I was able to read longer parts of them. It was nice to have context for things. Especially Numenor and the Istari. But many times, these stories were broken up into paragraphs here or between multiple books. So we'd learn a bit about the Istari and then pop into LOTR for a good long while, then pop back to the Istari for another paragraph or two.

My thoughts on the format of the actual chronological order reading. As I said before, I wasn't a big fan of jumping between books. Here's the thing. I'll probably read these books in another 10 years. They're not bad. More inspiring than other books I'm reading. Just not my favorites. But if I do so again, I won't be following this format. I'd rather have full stories at a time. It'll mean more repetition and things may not be chronological, but I'm okay with that.

The thing I enjoyed most while reading through this was seeing how much Gary Gyrax was inspired by Tolkien when he devised Dungeons & Dragons. I started playing D&D in high school, and I always played a ranger because of Aragorn. But while reading the book, Aragorn would do something and I'd be like, "Oh, that's this spell or that feat or...." And same with the other characters. You can read the books and then read the race and class system in the Players Handbook and basically name LOTR characters.

If you want to follow this path yourself, the chronology can be found here: Chronological Tolkien

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Title: A Little Princess

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Pages: 324

Finished: September 25, 2019

First Sentence: Once on a dark winter's day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd-looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares.

Summary: Sara Crewe, daughter of the rich Captain Crewe in India, starts Boarding School in England under the tutelage of Miss Minchin. There she becomes the star pupil and favorite of many of the younger students for her kindness. When she turns 11 (or 10?) disaster strikes. Her father dies, penniless. Infuriated, Miss Minchin turns Sara into a scullery maid. The little girl tries to imagine her way out of the drudgery, but things start looking up when an Indian gentleman moves next door.

Thoughts: Hm... This was a really quick read. Quicker than Secret Garden. That being said, it hasn't aged as well as The Secret Garden has. It seems there's been a shift in society in the last five or so years that has made a number of things seem really "of their time". And while I am educated enough to understand that that's what the time was and that's how things are, it doesn't make it any less problematic or frustrating to read/watch/listen to.

Basically, I wanted to like this story, but I find myself frustrated with it. Sara is so incredibly perfect. And while I don't mind Mary Sues as much as other people do (particularly because people don't have issues with men being perfect in media) I found her to be a bit too precious. She handled unfair criticisms with grace far above her years. She was incredibly intelligent.

 Kind to everyone. I mean, she's the person we aspire to be, but no one is faultless.

The classicism was tough to handle too. And I know that's my 21st century self talking, so I try to look past it, but it really doesn't age well.

I DID appreciate the ending though. I will admit, I'm more familiar with the 1990s movie and the Shirley Temple movie, both of which end in a dramatic search for her father who hasn't actually died while Miss Minchin tries to get her arrested as a thief... or something. In the book, it's her father's friend who lives next door. She's eventually found out because she returns the missing monkey and the story comes out.

I'm not sorry I read the book. It was a welcome reprieve from my current reading projects. And while I do appreciate it for what it was, I don't really feel much of a need to read it again.

Read for Classics Club Spin 21

Classic Club Spin 21

EDITED: Spin Number is Number 5! A Little Princess! I'm excited to read it even if it's not Daniel Deronda. Looks like my next 5-ish weeks of reading are cut out for me!

Woot! Another Club spin! For those who haven't seen a spin before, it's this fun game the Classics Club does to help inspire us to read our lists. Members who wish to participate list 20 books from their classic club list and put them in a blog post. Then, the Club pulls a number between 1 and 20 out of a hat. Whatever title that corresponds to is the book you then read between when the number is pulled and the deadline, in this spin, October 31st.

My list is a little weird. I have enough books on my list to make 20.However one of them is going to be next year's project, and three more are just super thick, so I plan to space them out due to the number of doorstops I have on my reading list this year. So, that brings my list down to 12! In order to fill it out, I added in six books from my Back to the Classics Challenge that aren't on my Club list, but that are still classics. List is categorized as follows: Books I Can't Wait to Read, Books I Keep Putting Off, Books I'm Neutral About, Books From My Back To The Classics Challenge.

Daniel Deronda is on there five times because it's taking me ages to read and I need inspiration to finish. Out of all of these, I would most prefer Daniel Deronda, though I'd be pretty happy with Return of the King or Emma as all three are started and then haven't actually been read.

Also, it's worth noting, I tried to take out most of my giant books because the next Book of Dust novel comes out in October and I plan on reading that right away. It's huge. I'm excited. So I wanted to make sure whatever I did have was something I could finish in the time allotted OR something that I had already started and just wanted to finish.

1. Picture of Dorian Grey
2. Peter Pan
3. Daniel Deronda
4. Daniel Deronda
5. Little Princess
6. Persuasion 
7. Daniel Deronda
8. King of Elfland's Daughter
9. Possession
10. Study in Scarlet
11. Daniel Deronda
12. Handmaid's Tale
13. Pride and Prejudice
14. Daniel Deronda
15. Northanger Abbey
16. Room with a View
17. Emma
18. Sanditon and Other Tales
19. Return of the King
20. Mansfield Park

SO. EXCITED!!!

Perhaps it's because my books have been so uninspiring this year. Or perhaps it's just because I adore his books. But I just found out today that Philip Pullman's second Book of Dust is coming out on October 3.

The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth.

Lyra is 20 years old. 

The couple reviews I saw all said it's amazing.

I made my coworker who orders fiction order it right away so I could put it on hold. I cannot wait for this book to fall into my hands. I'm so, so, SO excited! Now to muscle my way through my current reads.

The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

Title: The Two Towers

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

Pages: 398

Finished: September 10, 2019

First Sentence: Aragorn sped on up the hill

Summary: Beginning right where Fellowship left off, the story follows the various splits in the party. Merry and Pippin, kidnapped by Saruman's orcs manage to escape into the Fangorn Forest. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas follow their trail in hopes of finding their companions. Frodo and Sam ally with Gollum in order to attempt to get into Mordor. And a mysterious white rider shows his face.

Thoughts: Due to the way the chronology works, I've already dipped into Return of the King, so I'll try to keep my thoughts focused on this book and its form.

First, the book is formatted in two parts. Part 1 is the story of Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. Part 2 is the story of Frodo and Sam.

I was very wrapped up in the first six chapters of the story. I enjoyed seeing Merry and Pippin try to solve their issues. I love Treebeard and the Ents so much. I really like the Rohirrim. But then the Battle of Helms Deep happened... Good Lord was that dull. Once that was over, things picked up. I enjoyed the reunion of the hobbits with the "big folk." I will say, I was a bit sad for them that the hobbits were split again due to Pippin's curiosity. But go Pippin for being fairly strong.

The Frodo/Sam chapters were not quite as thrilling. The most exciting would be the bit where they meet up with Faramir. Faramir is lovely. And strong. I love Faramir. But the rest of it is really frustrating. There's nothing like seeing One person get totally snowed by someone and not listening to their friend. I found myself super frustrated with Frodo.

Still, I do love Sam and how loyal he is to his master.

Overall, Two Towers suffers from the fact that it's the middle of the story. Things have to stay in a weird stasis so they can be wrapped up in the conclusion.