Tag Archives: tolkien

Reading Together #16

I present to you my sixteenth instalment of Weltenwanderers and Schlunzenbüchers „Gemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together).

Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from today’s German post.

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

This week I’m kind of reading two books.
On the one hand did I start with The Fellowship of the Ring, Part One of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, which I chose as part of BiblioSmile’s Summer Book Challenge as a book I always meant to get around to.
With this one I’m on page 69.
On the other hand did I start with The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis, which is the first part of the Chronicles of Narnia, even though it was published last.
Here I’m currently on page 146.
I kind of switch between them on occasion and today I explored Narnia.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

„What’s the Thing talking about, Horse?“

or in German:

„Wovon redet das Ding, Pferd?“

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

One of the reasons I switch is because it is exhausting to read the long and carefully structured sentences in the Fellowship. I have to read some of them several times before I fully grasp what they mean and that means I can’t follow the story as easily as I had hoped. The Narnia book is a nice alternative here, as the phrasing is fit for children, though sometimes just as confusing.
While reading I remembered bits of the first LotR movie already and I think, I also already saw a few differences between the written and the movie-version. But it’s still nice to get a different angle on the whole thing.
And there weren’t as many pages describing the Shire (I had to think for a moment what it was called in English as I’m too used to the German version: Auenland – meadowsland) as I had anticipated from others‘ tales.
The only thing that actually bugged me was that it was never said which dwarves visited Bilbo on his 111th Birthday. I wanted to know if there were some we knew from the Hobbit. >_<
And I was surprised that Frodo turned 50 before the whole story actually began…the movies give you a totally different impression here…
Narnia has a completely different narration and it’s odd when the narrator addresses the audience, but it is still quite interesting to read about the discovery and birth of Narnia.

4. Do you put the books you are going to read into an order early on or do you decide spontaneously which one will be the next after you finished a book?

Like so many things this depends.
Most of the times I just pick a book I feel like reading, but there are also times – especially now in regards to the challenges – where I think which would be best to read next in order to finally finish them.

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

Reading Together #15

I present to you my fifteenth instalment of Weltenwanderers and Schlunzenbüchers „Gemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together).

Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from today’s German post.

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

I couldn’t resist finishing Die Seiten der Welt (The Pages of the World) by Kai Meyer yesterday, but I didn’t feel like tackling the next book yet. Though I know what it will be: The Fellowship of the Ring, Part One of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
As part of BiblioSmile’s Summer Book Challenge I chose it as a book I always meant to get around to.
I’m currently on page 1, if I actually skip the forewords and the ring-poem at the beginning. I’m impressed that this version really starts with page one after all the ones before that and not with a numbering according to the empty pages again.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history.

or in German from this edition:

Dieses Buch handelt zum großen Teil von Hobbits, und der Leser erfährt daraus viel über ihre Wesensart und ein wenig auch über ihre Geschichte.

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

For the longest time I meant to get around to read LotR, but never really felt like it, though I thought that if I read the books I would finally be able to understand the movies better. I’m curious how that’ll turn out.
Even though we have a German version at home – which is the weird translation where Sam refers to Frodo as Hey Boss – I chose the English version, as it was recommended to me and because of the fact that I managed to read the Song of Ice and Fire series so far without any understanding problems.

4. With whom (aside from the Internet) are you exchanging thoughts on your reading passion? Do you have like-minded people in your circle of friends or family?

I’ve got my passion for reading from my Mum, so when she finished a book I asked her what it was like, just like I tell her things about the books I’m about to read or currently reading.
Aside from her I can discuss books with pretty much every person I know. Recently mostly with Anice or Unmei, but I also had face-to-face discussion with the people from The Forum, the Black Pack and colleagues.
So, technically I don’t have a shortage of discussion partners.

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit

Back in October I spent a weekend with Anice in Berlin. As I knew she’d be sleeping in and I would wake up early I had brought two books with me: A Graveyard for Lunatics that I was close to finishing and Earthsea for when I finished. But Anice had a book with her as well: The Hobbit, so when we showed each other what the other had brought we decided to switch books. I got the Hobbit and she the Earthsea book. So thus I was able to read one of the fantasy classics for the first time.

What is it about?

4 of 5 stars


The Hobbit Bilbo Beutlin leads a quiet life in his Hobbit hole until twelve dwarves knock at his door one after the other and occupy his living room, eat all his food and drink all his beverages.
The sorcerer Gandalf has let them there to turn Bilbo into the thieve they needed to reclaim the Lonely Mountain as home of the dwarves and crown Thorin Oakenshield as King under the Mountain.
But before they even reach their destination they have to travel through Middle Earth and face foes and friends alike, not to mention Smaug the dragon who is guarding the dwarven gold and cast out the dwarves in the first place.

The reading experience

Before I started reading I expected the writing style to be completely different. It was a translated version, but I still didn’t think it would have been written like a children’s tale, as the narrator explained things quite easily. It was a nice surprise though.
Besides the Fairytale-like narration the book was also filled with sketches. You could see the dwarves, Gollum, trolls and of course Smaug, who looks a bit different than in the movie adaptation. 😀 Additionally, some of the books characters also fell into song on one or the other occasion.
It was a nice and fluent read and even in German you could see Tolkiens love for language.

The characters

Bilbo was a quite interesting character. A no-one that grows with his tasks and experiences, who is smart enough to know what is the right thing to do.
The dwarves on the other hand were kind of walking on the thin line between like and dislike, while swaying from one direction to the other. Whenever Bilbo did something good they praised him and called him their best friend, but if he, however, had a strange idea or did something that seemed wrong at first they talked him down and even insulted him. I have no idea how Bilbo managed to stay as calm as he did when they were like that and even how he could stay.
Most prominent with this behaviour was Thorin, whom I didn’t like for most parts of the story. His opinion and moods were ever changing and he was basically just an ass. Still, the finale caught me off guard and I didn’t like what happened to him.
The dwarves I sympathised most with were incidentally also the once that treated the Hobbit best: Balin, Bombur, Kili and Fili. Balin the eldest and most reasonable, Bombur, with his good nature and a heart that seemed to be about the same size as his appetite and the youngest brothers that were still less stubborn than the other dwarves. Needless to say I again questioned my luck with character-choices at the end of the book…
The side character were also quite interesting even though they had very little screen time. Still, an enjoyable contrast to the stubborn dwarves. Though „you-thought-I’d-be-accompanying-you-all-the-way?“-Gandalf,  didn’t really earn many sympathy points from me either.

General Opinion

I liked reading this book. There are some things that didn’t go well with me (annoying Thorin, some conclusions and characterizations,..), but they don’t really matter as the bigger picture leaves you quite content in the end.
The story was fun, exciting, interesting, sad and all those things that I can’t name. The end could have been a bit longer, as it felt a bit rushed, but every journey comes to an end at some point.
It’s really a story I wouldn’t mind reading again one day and I’m not sure if I’m disappointed in myself that I haven’t read it sooner or if it is all right that I can now appreciate it more.

Stuff I’d like to add

As I said before is the spelling dwarves based on Tolkiens writing and I still think that is pretty cool.
By now I’ve also seen the movies, which I didn’t want to see before reading the books, but I don’t know if and when I’ll be writing a review about them.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner