Portfolio Tag: Classics
The Big Books and Series Binge Challenge
2023 seems to be my year of reading (or listening to) long books and bingeing on book series, so, when an online friend recently posted about her summer reading plans, she set me thinking about my own plans for the upcoming summer … only to end up deciding that I might just as well go […]
Read More
Halloween Book Bingo 2022
Blackout: Oct. 28, 2022 Reading Blackout: September 30, 2022. The Books Amateur Sleuth: Ianthe Jerrold: Let Him Lie – finished Sept. 6, 2022. Murder & Mayhem by the Book: Terry Pratchett: Mrs Bradshaw’s Handbook – finished August 29, 2022. Cozy Mystery: Miranda James: Murder Past Due – finished Sept. 22, 2022. Spellbound: Terry Pratchett: The […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
Middle-earth
Introductory post HERE 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) – […]
Read More
2021 Holiday Reads
We’re less than two weeks away from Advent and the beginning of December, this year’s incarnation of “Festive Tasks” includes a “holiday books” square, CrimeReads recently published their 2021 Holiday Gift Guide, and I just succumbed to the purchase of electric tealights for my holiday candle holders so as to be able to enjoy them […]
Read More
24 Festive Tasks 2021
Books: Christmas Tree & Ribbon Tasks: Holiday Socks Door 1: Southern Hemisphere Book: Read a book set in the Southern Hemisphere, or that has a beachy scene on the cover. => Peter Temple: The Broken Shore Task 1: In Australia, it’s common to brag about having the “biggest ‘X’ in the Southern […]
Read More
Halloween Book Bingo 2021
My Card and Game Progress The Books Amateur Sleuth: E.C. Bentley & H. Warner Allen: Trent’s Own Case – finished Sept. 18. Relics & Curiosities: Barbara Hambly: Graveyard Dust – finished Sept. 15. Halloween: Washington Irving: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – finished Sept. 18. Mad Scientists and Evil Geniuses: Barbara Vine: The Blood […]
Read More
Summer Games 2021
So, I’ve finally come up with a summer reading theme: Seeing as both the Olympic Games and the European Football (Soccer) Championship have been pushed back to this year from 2020 due to the pandemic (and 3 of the four tennis Grand Slam tournaments are also set while it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere), I […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read MoreDiversity Bingo
Central America – Laura Esquivel: Like Water for Chocolate South America – Gabriel García Márquez: El coronel no tiene que escriba / Nobody Writes to the Colonel, and Other Stories Caribbean – Various Authors: Trinidad Noir (Akashic Noir series) North Africa – Assia Djebar: L’amour, La fantasia Sub-Saharan Africa – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Dear […]
Read More
Christmas Reading 2020
My usual Christmas reads / movies: Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (book & movie) Agatha Christie: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (aka The Royal Ruby) (short story & TV adaptation) Arthur Conan Doyle: The Blue Carbuncle (short story & TV adaptation) Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (book & TV adaptation) Charles Dickens: A […]
Read More
24 Festive Tasks 2020
Books: Festive Branch Tasks: Ornaments Door 1: Winter Solstice Book: Read a book that takes place in December, with ice or snow on the cover, where all events take place in a single day or night, that revolves around the solstice, set in Persia / Iran, China or the American Southwest or […]
Read More
2020 Summer Sojourn
As current events make actual travel — at least, leisure travel — either undesirable, unwise or flat-out impossible, I decided to devote my 2020 summer reading to literary armchair travel, and to call it the 2020 Summer Sojourn. Then the BookLikes meltdown happened and I had to start sprucing up my WordPress blog … as […]
Read More