Portfolio Category: Ongoing
The Geography of Arda and Middle-earth
The Years of the Lamps and the Years of the Trees Source: Wikipedia Andrey Maximov: Illuin and Ormal — Ted Nasmith: Illuin Karen Wynn Fonstad: The Spring of Arda — from Almaren and the Great Lake in the Time of the Lamps to Middle-earth and Valinor in the Years of the Trees. Aman and Valinor […]
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The Creatures of Middle-earth
Arda had a rich fauna, largely (though not exactly) coinciding with that of our world: it would be going overboard to try and list on this page every single type of animal mentioned in the legendarium even in passing; so the descriptions and commentary hereafter will be limited to those animals that significantly impact a […]
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The Timeline of Arda and Middle-earth
While there is no substantial difficulty in fixing the time periods known as the Second, Third, and (beginnings of the) Fourth Age of Arda and Middle-earth, it is somewhat trickier to determine what exactly was “the First Age”, how long it lasted and which events it comprised. For a discussion of the whys and wherefores […]
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The Weaponry of Middle-earth
Middle-earth was not a peaceful place; from the First-Age warfare between Morgoth and the Elves, and their Edain allies, to the War of the Ring at the end of the Third Age, armed conflict formed the constant background of its people’s existence — and while there were also numerous minor wars and disputes, the overarching […]
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Shiny Objects in Arda and Middle-earth
Arda and Middle-earth knew poverty, destruction, war, and hardship aplenty, but from their very own sources of light to precious jewels and metals, it also shone and sparkled with items of sheer magical brilliance, many of which were also of huge symbolic value. These are some of them: The Lights Amy O’Hanlon: Illuin and […]
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The People and Peoples of Arda and Middle-earth
Note: This is primarily a write-up for my own purposes; I am not trying to emulate or even approximate the many outstanding Tolkien resources already available on- and offline. As I prefer having all closely-related information available on one and the same page, I am keeping the information on Tolkien’s major (groups of) characters on […]
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Wars and Battles of Arda and Middle-earth
Battlefields are blood-soaked places of unspeakable horror, replete with corpses, body parts, the roar, thunder and clash of arms, the cries and whimpers of the wounded and dying, shouts of rage, often the fumes of smoke and fire, and always the all-pervading stench of death. And of course the legendarium’s universe far exceeds the various […]
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Middle-earth
J.R.R. Tolkien Author page: biographical sketch, bibliography, quotes, links (Auto-) Biographical Works Humphrey Carter: J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography Humphrey Carter: The Inklings Philip Zaleski: The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings Middle-earth The Books The Silmarillion (1977) The Hobbit (1937) – Audiobook performed by Andy Serkis […]
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Narrativium: Where the Falling Angel Meets the Rising Ape
The Discworld Novels (and Subseries) The Colour of Magic (1983) – Rincewind #1 ♦ Review HERE The Light Fantastic (1986) – Rincewind #2 ♦ Review HERE Equal Rites (1987) – Witches #1 ♦ Review HERE Mort (1987) – Death #1 ♦ Review HERE Sourcery (1988) – Rincewind #3 ♦ Review HERE Wyrd Sisters (1988) – Witches […]
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The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael
The Novels The Prequel: A Rare Benedictine: The Advent of Brother Cadfael (published in September 1988, set in 1120) The first Chronicle: A Morbid Taste for Bones (published in August 1977, set in 1137) The second Chronicle: One Corpse Too Many (published in July 1979, set in August 1138) The third Chronicle: Monk’s Hood (published […]
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Appointment With Agatha: The Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration
This is my master update post for a group project to read all of Agatha Christie’s full-length novels in the order of their publication, beginning in October 2020, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the publication of her first mystery novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which introduced the world to Hercule Poirot and […]
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The (Mostly) Dead Writers Society Reading Projects: Birthday Challenge & Authors in Residence
(Dead) Author Birthdays This is a reading challenge associated with the (Mostly) Dead Writers Society on Goodreads; I decided to join it because it is as much an invitation to reconnect with the classics as it is one to walk down literary paths less traveled; so it ties in nicely with my own 2021 reading […]
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Completed Series / Authors
It occurred to me that there is a third “series reading” master post I should keep, in addition to the First in Series and Ongoing Series projects that I created, as inspired by Moonlight Reader; namely, one to collect all my completed reading. So this project collects everything from books / series recently finished to […]
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Ongoing Series
Following up on my First in Series post and, again inspired by Moonlight Reader, this reading list collects all of my ongoing series; i.e. all series that I have started and neither fully completed nor decided to discontinue. Like my First in Series list, this is primarily for my own reference, so in order not […]
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First in Series
Moonlight Reader created a post like this and I decided it might help me keeping track of my series reading plans as well, so here we are. These are all the still-to-be-started series that I’ve added to my TBR in the past two decades (ever since I started keeping track of my reading at all). Obviously, […]
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Women Writers: Reading List
I originally compiled this list for the 2018 Women Writers Bingo, but decided to undust it and continue using it for my Around the World in 80 Books, Mostly by Female Authors project. Basically this is an extract from my bookshelves (both TBR and read — “read” where I’ve already read other books by the same […]
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The Detection Club
With my Detection Club Bingo card now blacked out, I’m going to track my reading here. (Note: for purposes of completeness, this includes books by the below authors already read prior to the creation of this list.) My priorities are going to be: Arthur Conan Doyle’s / Sherlock Holmes’s adventures, biographies, contemporaries and rivals, as […]
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Around the World in 80 Books – Mostly by Female Authors
[World map created with Mapchart.net] The aim: To diversify my reading and read as many books as possible (not necessarily 80) set in, and by authors from, countries all over the world. Female authors preferred. If a book is set in a location other than that of the author’s nationality, it can apply to either […]
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The BookLikes Crowdsourced Reading Lists
The Complete Lists Crowdsourced! A Badass Booklikes Booklist: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qYl32e0L3R3X_82XldWaCOt2naBFtvoJsaQY8zzUU3E/edit#gid=0 Historical Fiction Essential Reading: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PqlPzGtuuiuoy8z04LNVl-QWJpe2M0ihTV_xkMSTMBM/edit#gid=0 Essential History Reading List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Wvymq7mUjdIllr0a2eNoN6XXwIhu6UvpUAsRUNFtObQ/edit#gid=0 Own Contributions General / Main List Books With a Difference Crowdsourced: More Books With a Difference — Fiction Crowdsourced BookList: A Shorthand Quickie Towards the 1001 (Part 1: General Fiction & Nonfiction) Crowdsourced BookList: […]
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Freedom and Future Library
Introduction (2018) You’d have to be living under a rock buried somewhere halfway down to the center of the earth in order not to be aware that in recent years our beautiful world has been shaken up by a number of crises the likes of which I, at least, have not experienced in my entire […]
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