What 📔book are you reading right now?

[Starbrow]

I'm reading The Annotated Hobbit. I'm paying extra attention to the uncommon words that Tolkien uses and delighting in his word choices.

 

[Deimos]

I'm reading The Annotated Hobbit. I'm paying extra attention to the uncommon words that Tolkien uses and delighting in his word choices.

Intricate wordplay is sooo much fun, both in appreciating someone else's and originating one's own. 🙂

 

[Idril Celebrindal]

I recently read The Jungle, and am halfway through To Kill a Mockingbird.

 

[Idril Celebrindal]

I just finished To Kill a Mockingbird. I really liked the writing style.

 

[Deimos]

I recently read The Jungle, and am halfway through To Kill a Mockingbird.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair?
If that's the book you read, what did you think of it?

 

[Starbrow]

I'm really enjoying Redshirts by John Scalzi.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I looked it up, assuming it was about the Garibaldini! 😄

Sounds entertaining

 

[Deimos]

I just finished To Kill a Mockingbird. I really liked the writing style.

So what did you think of the story?

 

[Idril Celebrindal]

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair?
If that's the book you read, what did you think of it?

Yup, that one.

So what did you think of the story?

I don't know if it would be exactly correct to say I enjoyed reading it but I'm definitely glad I read it. The writing isn't amazing, but the story is, and it ripped away a lot of veils for me. It's dark, but there are moments of beauty in it.

 

[Deimos]

Yup, that one.

I don't know if it would be exactly correct to say I enjoyed reading it but I'm definitely glad I read it. The writing isn't amazing, but the story is, and it ripped away a lot of veils for me. It's dark, but there are moments of beauty in it.

Thank you commenting; so many people seem "afeared" to voice an opinion of "controversial" books. (Montag, call your office...)
It was assigned reading in either my freshman or sophomore year of HS.
It had a kind of cache with us teenagers because of the "yuck/gross out" factor.
IIRC (you may correct me on this) Sinclair wrote the story to expose how badly workers were treated.
But instead the press /politicians ended up concentrating on how bad the meat processing/packing industry was.

 

[Idril Celebrindal]

I've just started The Pilgrim's Progress (my dad found our copy), and I recently read The Pearl.

 

[Elwing the White]

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

 

[Idril Celebrindal]

I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to my younger sister. I was really surprised when she guessed that
1. Tom Riddle was Voldemort
2. The phoenix's tears had healing powers.
She was asking me "Is Harry gonna be okay?", "Is Ginny going to be okay?" "Is Fawkes going to be okay?" literally every five minutes during the culmination, it was cute how worried she was for the characters 😂.

 

[Rivendell_librarian]

I'm reading a book of Anglo Saxon poetry and prose translated into modern English. The first poem is The Dream of the Rood a remarkable poem which examines the crucifixion from the point of view of the Cross or Rood. When reading it is very hard not to read it out loud as it was certainly written for public recital. A remarkable dramatic take on the familiar Christian story which one suspects Tolkien would have read as a schoolboy.

P.S. Tolkien would read it in the original Anglo Saxon.

Listen! I will speak of the sweetest dream,
what came to me in the middle of the night,
when speech-bearers slept in their rest.
It seemed that I saw a most wondrous tree
raised on high, wound round with light,
the brightest of beams. All that beacon was
covered in gold; gems stood
fair at the earth’s corners, and there were five
up on the cross-beam. All the angels of the Lord looked on;
fair through all eternity; that was no felon’s gallows,
but holy spirits beheld him there,
men over the earth and all this glorious creation.

Wondrous was the victory-tree, and I was stained by sins,
wounded with guilt; I saw the tree of glory
honoured in garments, shining with joys,
bedecked with gold; gems had
covered worthily the Creator’s tree.
And yet beneath that gold I began to see
an ancient wretched struggle, when it first began
to bleed on the right side. I was all beset with sorrows,
fearful for that fair vision; I saw that eager beacon
change garments and colours––now it was drenched,
stained with blood, now bedecked with treasure ...

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/159129/dream-of-the-rood-translation

 

[Starbrow]

I'm reading LOTR. A family member's typical reaction. "You're reading that again?!?" I respond with a big smile and a "Yup!"

 

[Deimos]

I'm reading LOTR. A family member's typical reaction. "You're reading that again?!?" I respond with a big smile and a "Yup!"

I answer that question this way:
"I'm not 'reading that again'...I'm still reading it; I've never stopped. I just take long breaks (of several years) while reading it."

 

[Laurë]

I forgot to mention over here that I've started Unfinished Tales! I'm a hit slow going because it's exam season, but I'm really enjoying it so far. I loved the first story ('of Tuor and his coming to Gondolin' I think it's called?), and I'm excited to keep reading.

I started a hobbit reread last weekend as well. I wanted to read something on a road trip I went on, but my copy of Unfinished Tales is really heavy. I'm not sure how seriously I'm going to take this reread, but I do really want to reread lotr soon, and I ought to reread the Hobbit first for continuity's sake.

 

[Deimos]

I'm reading about what are people are reading, or rather, buying, and which I hope they do read.
(Should this post go somewhere else? And I mean besides the Trivia Thread, because there is nothing trivial about paying thousand of dollars for a book.)
Most expensive [recent] book sales:

And lastly...
(For those who may not be aware of it – and I really don't think there's anyone who is not aware of it – this book is the story on which the movie Blade Runner is based.

 

[Idril Celebrindal]

I finally finished Pilgrim's Progress! It took me WAY too long because I had a couple of big projects that I was working on. I'm currently reading Gulliver's Travels and am hoping to start Pride and Predjudice soon. I'm also looking forward to reading a lot more this summer when I visit my grandma, since there is a library really close to my grandma's house.

 

[Starbrow]

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. I'm really enjoying it.