The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

I read these novels a long, long time ago. It was a favorite series of a guy I dated and, as he didn't read fiction that much, I figured it was worth a look. I remember enjoying the book, though I found the first installment incredibly dull before they reached Rivendell. It was only because I had seen the first film in the trilogy that I continued at all. This outing has proved to be everything I hoped it would be. I had hoped that, after reading The Three Musketeers as an adult, I would find The Lord of the Rings much more enjoyable and nuanced. I was not disappointed.

This time around, I took the time to read the introductions and prologue. What amazes me is the attention to detail that went into the creation of Middle Earth. Entire languages, migration patterns, architectural evolutions were thought out. Granted, Tolkien was a Medieval Scholar (particularly Beowulf), and you can see that echoed everywhere in the novel. So I am sure a lot of his background information for the different races of Middle Earth were based upon the real life history of Europe. Still, to put that much thought into one's characters is inspiring.

One thing I found most interesting was that they were written in the late thirties and early forties; I had assumed they were much older than that. He writes in his introduction that his intention was never to create an allegory and that to find any, i.e. traces of Hitler or the Nazis in Sauron and his armies, is based on what the reader brings to the text and not what the author has written. I wonder what Tolkien thought of C.S. Lewis, as he states very clearly in his introduction that he doesn't appreciate allegory at all.

I've been comparing the book to the movies this time around and find that while the exclusion of Tom Bombadil makes sense in the interest of time, it is very disappointing to the book lovers. The passage of time in the book is very different from the movie as well. Certainly, since Tolkien has infinite pages to write about an event this makes sense. There is a sense of urgency created in the movie which isn't felt in the book until much later in the story.

All in all, a beautifully written novel with fantastic characters. I will be heading on to Two Towers soon. Though I may have to take a slight detour for this interesting title I've recently heard about on NPR, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin

I've just finished a most interesting book. It's called The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin. The title alone was worth the $10.95 for this British Import. Set in Toy City, it follows the adventures of Jack and Eddie, the bear. Someone is killing the Pre-adolescent Poetry Characters, a.k.a. Nursery Rhyme Characters, one by one in a most amusing manner. The best part is definitely Eddie, the Teddy bear, who hates to do teddy things instead preferring to solve murders and use the sawdust between his ears. He loves to get drunk but, as he's filled with sawdust, it takes an awful lot. As is typical with most detectives, he doesn't have a lot of money so he can never afford to get properly drunk. So he drinks as much as he can afford and then stands on his head so the alcohol will actually get him drunk.

Simply written, though very humorous. It's like a cross between Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde. A lot of twists and turns at the end which make the end impossible to guess. After reading the Maltese Falcon, I found this much more entertaining as it draws heavily upon the Detective genre. Definitely not a book to be shared with little ones. Also an interesting discussion of Theology, albeit in Toy terms. Hopefully I'll be heading on to the second book in the series, The Toyminator, soon.

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

I finally, after the insistence of my sister, read the original Wizard of Oz.

It truly is a fantastic story. It reminds me a bit of the old Grimm's Fairy Tales, in that there were some darker aspects to the novel. The Tin Woodman, for instance, is a highly romantic character because of his history. He was working on building a home for his sweetheart, so he could propose marriage, but her mother didn't want the match and went to the Wicked Witch of the East for help. The WW of E enchanted the Tin Woodman's ax so that he slowly chopped off his own body parts until he was completely made of tin. Without his heart, he forgot about his sweetheart.

It seems that they put the Good Witch of the North and the Good Witch of the South into one character, Glinda, in the the movie. After Dorothy melts the WW of W, and the Wizard disappears in his balloon, she is not immediately greeted by Glinda and told the way to go home. First, she must travel through another part of Oz to get to the Southern Good Witch. This is where she learns the secret of her shoes.

I was surprised that, along the way, each of her companions finds a home of his own. I liked that Baum decided to tell his audience what the other characters would do after Dorothy's departure. The movie is structured to support the idea that Dorothy dreamed the whole thing, so it doesn't matter what her fictional friends do after she returns to Kansas. I was also surprised that the character of Boq, from Gregory MacGuire's Wicked, actually has a basis in the original novel. He is a minor, throwaway character as Dorothy leaves the munchkins. But he has a name that was borrowed for MacGuire's character.

I used to think that the movie, Return to Oz, was creepy and not in keeping with the Oz tradition. I was proven wrong by the actual novel. The original movie was not in keeping with that tradition and Return to Oz was a return to the darker, yet uplifting, story of Dorothy and her friends.

This is definitely a novel that I would read at bedtime with a child. It has scary parts, but it doesn't dwell on them, and is both entertaining for adults and easy for younger readers to understand.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I've just finished reading this fantastic book, The Graveyard Book. They really tricked me into reading it and by they, I mean Neil Gaiman. He has the first 3 chapters up online for anyone to read. As I was bored the other day, I decided to see what it was all about. Of course, I couldn't stop after just 3 chapters. Trickster, he is.

It begins with triple homicide, though not nearly as gory as one would think. A baby boy's family is killed while he crawls to safety in the nearest graveyard. The boy is promptly adopted by a set of ghosts and a vampire is stationed as his guardian. They protect the boy from the killer and dub him Nobody Owens, or Bod for short. The next few chapters detail his adventures growing up in the graveyard under the protection of the spirits and "otherworldly" creatures who reside there. Obviously, there is a bit of a show-down at the end (Between the graveyard inhabitants, Bod, and the killer).

The ending is both happy and sad. He grows up and figures out what kind of man he will be. Gets to go and pursue all of his dreams, but as with everything it comes with a cost. Excellent, excellent story that I thoroughly recommend to anyone. Some of the danger may be a bit much for smallish ones, but can easily be modified if read aloud at bedtime. Halloween would be an excellent time to share this story. The adventures are really the best part. Each chapter is like it's own little story, but really they are pieces to a puzzle that is revealed at the end.

As it is written for a younger audience, it is a very quick read. Still, have fun with this one.