More Bookishness
This was the book I was most looking forward to reading this year, and at the same time, the most nervous about.
Book 23 of 2010 - The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
04/03/10 - 22/03/10
It's pretty silly to be nervous about rereading the book you class as your favourite book in the whole world, isn't it? I mean, why be nervous about reading something that you've read (and enjoyed) nine times before?! It's a tradition for me to reread it every year and every year I find myself picking out something new or different that I've not really noticed before. But every time I read it there's this little feeling that I'm not going to feel the same way about it as I have before. It makes me a little sad that I'll never get that same feeling reading it again as I did the first one or two times (though it was nice to read The Children of Hurin and get that buzz that comes from reading a Tolkien book I've never seen before).
This time I found myself drawing parallels between things that I've never thought about before. Like the Dead Marshes and how much they might have been inspired by Tolkien's time in the trenches during the war, and the feeling of change in the Shire and the way the England was becoming more industrialised while Tolkien was growing up. What I really want to do at some point is sit with a copy of The Lord of the Rings and treat it like one of the book tree books, going through it highlighting and underlining bits, and maybe writing some essays and doing some research into things that might have inspired Tolkien.
Another thing I found myself picking up on this time which I don't think I've ever really been aware of before was the use of colour and description in that sense. I really became aware of it from Book IV onwards, with Sam and Frodo heading towards Mordor and a great deal of emphasis seemed to be placed on things that were red and black. It was quite the contrast from the golden hair of the Rohirrim and the silver trees in Lorien.
When I wrote an essay on it at school I had a section about darkness and shadows. Whenever there is any kind of internal battle shadows or darkness seems to be referred to - starting from the beginning when Gandalf is persuading Bilbo to leave the Ring behind, right the way through to where Frodo is claiming the Ring for himself.
If anything, I felt more emotionally touched by the story this time around. Perhaps it was just because I was feeling all PMSy yesterday when I was reading about the hobbits returning to the Shire and everything being different and ruined or perhaps it was something else. I could easily have cried right alongside Sam when they discovered that Bagshot Row had been dug up - even though I knew it had been, I've read it enough times before!
I suppose it's tugging at that sense of change that you feel as you get older. The first time I read it I was about fifteen and I didn't really think about things changing in a bad way as you got older - as you grow up you get more freedom and you can do more, now I'm almost ten years older than the first time I read it and I'm able to look back at the past more nostalgically.
Gah! I can take so much from this book. I'm hoping for some paperback copied of The History of Middle-earth for my birthday, so I can start reading them and I found some other books in Waterstones in Glasgow which were detailed annotations on The Hobbit. I may have to go on a splurge and get all academical about researching and writing about The Lord of the Rings.
Book 23 of 2010 - The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
04/03/10 - 22/03/10
It's pretty silly to be nervous about rereading the book you class as your favourite book in the whole world, isn't it? I mean, why be nervous about reading something that you've read (and enjoyed) nine times before?! It's a tradition for me to reread it every year and every year I find myself picking out something new or different that I've not really noticed before. But every time I read it there's this little feeling that I'm not going to feel the same way about it as I have before. It makes me a little sad that I'll never get that same feeling reading it again as I did the first one or two times (though it was nice to read The Children of Hurin and get that buzz that comes from reading a Tolkien book I've never seen before).
This time I found myself drawing parallels between things that I've never thought about before. Like the Dead Marshes and how much they might have been inspired by Tolkien's time in the trenches during the war, and the feeling of change in the Shire and the way the England was becoming more industrialised while Tolkien was growing up. What I really want to do at some point is sit with a copy of The Lord of the Rings and treat it like one of the book tree books, going through it highlighting and underlining bits, and maybe writing some essays and doing some research into things that might have inspired Tolkien.
Another thing I found myself picking up on this time which I don't think I've ever really been aware of before was the use of colour and description in that sense. I really became aware of it from Book IV onwards, with Sam and Frodo heading towards Mordor and a great deal of emphasis seemed to be placed on things that were red and black. It was quite the contrast from the golden hair of the Rohirrim and the silver trees in Lorien.
When I wrote an essay on it at school I had a section about darkness and shadows. Whenever there is any kind of internal battle shadows or darkness seems to be referred to - starting from the beginning when Gandalf is persuading Bilbo to leave the Ring behind, right the way through to where Frodo is claiming the Ring for himself.
If anything, I felt more emotionally touched by the story this time around. Perhaps it was just because I was feeling all PMSy yesterday when I was reading about the hobbits returning to the Shire and everything being different and ruined or perhaps it was something else. I could easily have cried right alongside Sam when they discovered that Bagshot Row had been dug up - even though I knew it had been, I've read it enough times before!
I suppose it's tugging at that sense of change that you feel as you get older. The first time I read it I was about fifteen and I didn't really think about things changing in a bad way as you got older - as you grow up you get more freedom and you can do more, now I'm almost ten years older than the first time I read it and I'm able to look back at the past more nostalgically.
Gah! I can take so much from this book. I'm hoping for some paperback copied of The History of Middle-earth for my birthday, so I can start reading them and I found some other books in Waterstones in Glasgow which were detailed annotations on The Hobbit. I may have to go on a splurge and get all academical about researching and writing about The Lord of the Rings.