Portfolio Tag: Supernatural - Fantasy - Horror - SciFi
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
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 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 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
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 […]
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
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 […]
Read More
An Alphabet of My Likes and Dislikes
This project is based on a very similar series of blog posts that I saw in BeetleyPete‘s blog and liked so much that I decided I’ll have a go at it, too — not least because it may also serve as an introduction to those of you who haven’t been following me for a long […]
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 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
Halloween Book Bingo 2020
My Blacked-out Card: The Books: Sleepy Hollow: Alice Hoffman: The River King – finished Sept. 26, 2020. Film at 11: Ellis Peters: The Devil’s Novice – finished Sept. 24, 2020. Southern Gothic: Sharyn McCrumb: The Ballad of Tom Dooley – finished Sept. 19, 2020. Murder Most Foul: Michael Connelly: The Night Fire – […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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, […]
Read More
24 Festive Tasks 2019
The Markers: Books: Candles Tasks: Stars The Squares DOOR 1: DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS Book: Ngaio Marsh: Death and the Dancing Footman (audio version, read by James Saxon) Task 1: Miss Marple limerick. Task 2: Chili con carne. Task 3: Epitaph for The Disappearing Spoon. Task 4: Gaby in Mexico (& Guatemala). Points: 5 […]
Read More