Tag: Folklore & Mythology

30x30, Books, Quotes

Book 317: The Two Towers (LOTR #2) – J.R.R. Tolkien

Geoff W

I’m still reeling at how fast I read The Two Towers and yet excited that it was so much better than I remembered. I hope I haven’t misspoken over the past 10 years and that the next book was the boring one. If I did, I have a long trek before me. Having read The Fellowship of the Ring and now this, I’m 2/3 of the way through another 30×30 list item!

Even though I still find Tolkien’s descriptions incredibly heavy and often times dampening, this time I felt as I read the descriptions increased and bogged you down the further I read. I guess Tolkien is an even greater writer than I ever gave him credit for. (Shocking I know right?) The only time I found it hard to continue reading was as Frodo and Sam began their journey as I was so daunted by my memories of reading the book that before I knew it I was over 300 pages into the book and then I’d finished.

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #19 – Finish visiting the entire MFA with Caroline

Geoff W

2014 11-23 MFA - MapI’m calling this one. And with that I’m down to eight remaining on my 30×30 list. I told you I’d be moving through quite a few this week! After almost four hours at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Caroline and I were exhausted. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen 99% of it and what we haven’t seen I’m sure we will. Below is just a taste of what we saw today and if you’ve followed this blog for a while you know I’ve been to the MFA many times. You can see some of my related posts by clicking here or on the Museum of Fine Arts tab at the bottom of this post or by using the search bar!

We’ve been quite a few times together, but the last time we went we saw specific exhibits and I knew that there were still large portions of the museum I hadn’t visited and figured I might as well drag her along with me 🙂 Our main goals today were the Art of the Ancient World and Art of Asia, Oceana and Africa wings of the museum, as we’d previously viewed the Art of the Americas, the Contemporary Art and most of the European wings.

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30x30, Books, Quotes

Book 315: The Fellowship of the Ring (LOTR #1) – J.R.R. Tolkien

Geoff W

I can’t believe I let ten years go by before re-reading this. I first read these in high school just before the films were released and I don’t think I truly appreciated how great they were then and still probably don’t. I’ve already re-read The Hobbit twice since then and I’m re-reading these as part of my 30×30 list and am incredibly happy I added it to the list, it might go on my 40×40 too!

As much as I love the films, this re-read reminded me just how much was left out and how much was shifted around for dramatic effects in the films. Things that happened in this first book. i.e. the forging of Andúril, didn’t happen until the third film and it’s like WHOA. I was also sad that Tom Bombadil didn’t make it into the movies, even the extended edition, because he’s such a great character and establishes the youth of the ancient elves which is something you don’t really think about. However, I completely understand why Jackson made many of the decisions he did and mostly I’m glad they made these before it became popular to split the final movie of a book trilogy into two films!

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Books

Book 314: The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5) – Rick Riordan

Geoff W

This is one of those books that I probably should’ve re-read the entire series before reading. So much has happened in the novels, especially if you go all the way back to the first Percy Jackson book, but even just within the five books of this series it’s been a long journey.

As much as I want to say this was the best book in the series, I honestly think The House of Hades was better. And this is for a couple of reasons. If possible The Blood of Olympus had TOO much action. I get that this is the end of a series which is a spin-off/second half of another series, but this book just didn’t stop with the epic battles. Sure they’re facing the end of the world and Riordan said it best,

“Today, one way or another, their journey would end.” (378)

But honestly, the book left me exhausted and not in a good way. It felt like there was so much that happened off the page that I couldn’t keep track of who was where and what was happening. There are spoilers to the series and this book so don’t read past here if you’re planning to read it.

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Books

Book 312: The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

Geoff W

As a lead up to my long over-due re-read of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I decided to read The Hobbit again. This was my third time reading the novel and I last read it in December 2012 just before the films began (I needed a refresher). I will say re-reading this book along with following Eric’s Sweating to Mordor over the past few months has seriously gotten me excited for my re-read as part of my 30 x 30.

If possible I enjoyed it even more this time. However, I became even MORE frustrated with the film adaptations. Similar to my issues with HBOs Game of Thrones series, I realized rather quickly how fast I read and how slow the adaptations proceed. My friend Peter did point out that there is a lot of additional information included in the films, but it’s still like WHOA. The entire third film, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies will encompass what takes place in less than the last 30-40 pages of the book! So there will probably be a lot of additional stuff added. But enough about them, back to the book!

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