I've recently been listening to my favorite audiobook--a dramatic reading of Once On a Time, by A. A. Milne. I've been listening to it as I fall asleep too, actually. 🙂

And does it count that the other thing I've been "reading" is a pdf showing microscopic views of various fiber types? I've been reading it too, but more just looking at the pictures 😛

Well, I'm re-reading the Lord of the Rings, quite slowly, and reading all the poetry around this time 🙂

Tolkien was a poetic genius. I love poems with a rhythm to them, especially because that's something I've never managed to do in my own poems. Plus, his poems sound great to music. 😎

Well, I'm re-reading the Lord of the Rings, quite slowly, and reading all the poetry around this time 🙂

WHAT?! You skipped the poems? That's cheating! 😉 (says the girl who only read through the entire book from start to finish this year although she's been reading it since 1999 - but that's another story and had nothing to do with the poems)

I totally agree Ariel. I think Tolkien is one of the most under-recognised poets of the 20th C. Have you read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil?

Have you read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil?

If that question is being directed at me like I assume it is, no, I haven't. I've only read LotR, TH, The Silmarillion, and Children of Hurin thus far.

Well, Ajjie, I'll confess I most likely skipped all the parts with Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli, too... I wasn't ready to read it last year. I didn't quite yet have the right mind set and maturity to be able to handle everything in it.

And now that I have the patience to read it slowly to be able to catch the parts I missed last year, I'll admit, yes, I was cheating. I was cheating myself, Ajjie 😉 out of some of the most awesome poetry ever.

I've just arrived at Tom Bombadill's house (there's a whole book about him? wow, neat!) Second time through, I'm also noticing the thinsg they've changed about the films and kept in the films that were bookverse.

You guys have given me lots to talk about! What fun to contemplate so many great books.

ISLANDER:
I loved Once on a Time, and I've never found anyone else who read it. It is very different from his Pooh books, and quite delightful. I have never heard it as audio, but somewhere in my trove, I have an ancient paperback. So glad to find another fan.

As for your fiberart book, I love reading those, even if I just look at the pictures. I am more interested in quilting, doll clothes, and embellishing, but there are some splendid free-motion embroidery books out there, and I've literally bought books I can barely understand in terms of technique, just to have those photos to sigh over. Britain, Australia, and South Africa seem to be centers of this varied art form.

One eye-popping book I found, now out of print, is by a South African artist named Lesley Turpin Delport. It's called Embroidering Flora and Fauna. Her website is www. followed by les-designs and then dot-com. (CAUTION that this isn't a TLC site, but hey, it's embroidery!) The Amazon entry for this book has a "Look Inside" feature, and it's lovely. Other great embroiderers with good books out there (Jan Beaney's are harder to find): Jan Beaney and Judith Baker Montano. I love their textures, their shapes, and their color schemes.

TENETHIA:
I first read LOTR when I was about fifteen. I know that I didn't get everything the first time around, but the first read always makes the later ones more profound. Each rereading adds layers of understanding, and that's as it should be. As Lewis said, the best books can't be read just once. If you read the poems and such this time around, you'll see why many of us were disappointed in the amount of dialogue Legolas was given in the otherwise admirable movies. Of course the filmmakers had to leave stuff out, and Legolas's accounts of Elvish lore would have slowed the film down. So Jackson took out Elves and put more Orcs. Unfortunately, the effect was to reduce Legolas to a mere action hero and to being part of a comedy team with Gimli. Another change from the book is that Faramir's character was roughened up a bit in the film. In the book he is far more noble (and also gets more to say than he did in the movie). But since we have the books, we are not deprived. We can just go back to them.

Keep us posted on your progress through the books!

I've just arrived at Tom Bombadill's house (there's a whole book about him? wow, neat!)

Not exactly a whole book. It's a collection of poems and only the first two are about Tom Bombadil. But it's worth reading because. Tolkien. Poetry.

I'm currently reading some of Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. A friend bought me a couple of her books as a gift while I was in Oxford and now I'm reading a couple from the library. For those who don't know, she was a friend of the Inklings although she never officially joined. The CS Lewis Society in Oxford consider her an honorary Inkling none-the-less.

I'm also rereading The Silmarillion (for probably the 5th time). And I've been reading up a bit on Roman period Greek to start getting ideas for my PhD thesis ^.^

I love the Peter Wimsey mysteries! To my mind the best one is the one set at Oxford itself, Gaudy Night. But that shouldn't be the book one starts with. You need to get to know Wimsey and Harriet better first. The very earliest ones include Whose Body? and one splendid book set in the Fen Country that deals with change-ringing of the great church bells, The Nine Tailors. (No tailoring involved. The Nine Tailors are the great bells themselves: Gaude, Sabaoth, John, Jericho, Jubilee, Dimity, Batty Thomas and Tailor Paul.)

Alert (my duty as a worrywart Aunt): Those of you who are younger, be sure to check with parents before reading these. They are written for adults and deal with the motivations for some dire behavior. They're not graphic or anything, but they''re murder mysteries and more novelistic in detail than Agatha Christie, for example.

Sayers also wrote great theological nonfiction, such as The Mind of the Maker, as well as some theological plays. The one I remember is The Zeal of Thy House, about William of Sens, the medieval architect who worked on part of Canterbury Cathedral. Sayers was just about as smart, as well-read, and as cogent as Lewis. I think she was a vicar's daughter, and she was comfortable enough in Latin to converse in it, adept enough in Italian to translate Dante for publication (by Puffin Books), and completely fluent in French (and did the older Puffin translation of the Old French epic The Song of Roland).

The two I was given were Strong Poison and The Nine Taylors. I really enjoyed the Nine Taylors, and was proud of figuring out "whodunnit" before the end. I've since found Have his Carcase and Striding Folly at the library. The former I enjoyed (I especially liked the development of Harriet from Strong Poison) though it felt a bit long and drawn out after a while and I didn't like the resolution so much. The latter was fun as a collection of three short stories.

(I echo Mini's warning to young readers to check with their parents)

The reason I haven't posted about my progress is cuz I haven't made much 😛 I've been swallowed up in school and stuff, and have barely had time for anything (including TLC)

But I'm now headed towards Rivendell (or already in it -- I don't remember 😳 ). Can't wait to meet Boromir again!

@Mini -- I got ahold of the music books, and some of Tolkien's poems were put into Elvish and sung as background music.

So I'm also reading my new music book -- does that count?

I finished Treasure Island a few months ago. The fact that Stevenson let Long John escape in the end has left me very hesitant to sail the seven seas any time in the near future.

So recently I've gotten distracted from LotR and have been reading the book series "The Wingfeather Saga." The first two books I've read twice each so far, and expect I'll be reading them quite a bit more. The characters are loveable, and the author, Andrew Peterson, handles both humor and intensity wonderfully. The plot drew me in almost immediately and I was stuck to the book from page one to the end.

I have been bouncing from different books but recently I have gone back to rereading Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart by Chuck Black. Same author who wrote the Kingdom Series. This book is following the knight Sir Dalton and his battle of Doubt. Doubt in his identity in the Lord (the Prince) and whether or not he is a true follower of Christ or just following the motions. It shows how the seed of doubt can grow over time. This "seed" was portrayed as a child (when he was still training as a Knight of the Prince) and growing as he grew. Instead of growing strong in the Lord (the Prince) his doubt of who the Lord is, his mission as a knight and where his heart is grew instead. It shows how the stronghold of doubt can distort and destroy our relationship with Christ and make us weak and vulnerable to Satan's lies.

Another book I am reading is called "To Live is Christ" by Beth Moore. This is more of my quiet time reading. It is not however, a devotional that you can just pick up for five minutes and then lay it down. I read about five chapters this morning and started on the sixth tonight. You will get hooked on it once started because it is so rich and packed full of scripture and how God can radically change someone's life. It is a great book to dig deeper into Paul's life, his missionary journey and the impact of Acts and all through his epistles. It shows how the faith hero was just as weak, just as human but over came his old self and totally dedicated his life to Christ's mission, to reach the Gentiles and others with the saving grace, mercy, amazing Salvation and radical change that Christ brought to this earth. I personally love the book of Acts so this book

I recommend both books to anyone who needs a good shovel and some where to start digging. Also I recommend Sir Dalton or any of the Knights of Arthrentre books to those who deal with such strongholds as doubt, escapism or other issues. We all do and they are great simple ways using scripture to break those strongholds and live a better godly life.

I saw you guys talking about Legolas and LotR poetry, and that somehow brought to mind one of my friends (Who is a huge LotR fan) saying "In the books, Legolas actually sings more than he talks." I somehow found that rather funny. 😀

I just started Return of the King. I decided that my favorite LotR quote is, "I am taller than you." It was Bergil, son of Beregond who said that. I wonder how many times someone's looked at me and thought that. 😉