Book Club

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Back in January, my brother decided to make himself a resolution.

MY BROTHER: I am finally going to read The Lord of the Rings by the end of this year!

So he took a dive into the beloved fantasy series. In February, I asked him how it was going.

MY BROTHER: I have amended it somewhat! I am going to read The Fellowship of the Ring by the end of the year!
ME: That boring, huh?

Okay, yeah, Fellowship starts out pretty slow, what with half a book of dicking around and musical numbers. But even so, my brother's managing to exceed his new goal and called me not too long ago.

MY BROTHER: I finished The Two Towers!
ME: Whadja think?
MY BROTHER: Okay, you were right. Those last chapters in Shelob's lair?
ME: When Sam goes bugfuck?
MY BROTHER: OMG HOW AWESOME WAS THAT
ME: I KNOW RIGHT

Yes. I'm still willing to argue that overall the Peter Jackson movies told a way better story than the books and made the scenes much more interesting and exciting. But the book version of Shelob's Lair--and, god, The Choices of Master Samwise--blows the movie version out of the water. I like the movie's GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU BITCH moment, but it was in the book when I got into the fight and was all "Fuckin GET HER! YEAH!!!" when Sam just launches himself at Shelob.

Also, I'm curious to see what my brother thinks of that cliffhanger at the end of Book 1 of Return of the King. It was not really possible with the movies because the stories were told parallel to each other, but it is pretty effective when the last you hear of Frodo is "Frodo was alive but taken by the Enemy" and then suddenly the Mouth of Sauron shows up with Frodo's stuff to destroy everyone's morale.* That's pretty good.

We'll have to see if my brother makes it through his original goal. Nothing quite tops Shelob, but there's some fun stuff with Return of the King nonetheless. And I want his comparison of Movie vs. Book Denethor & Sons. Those changes could keep me talking all night.


*First time I read the books I remember really picking apart his dialogue and deciding, "This guy is totally bluffing. 'He was dear to you or maybe his mission was important'? Yeah, he doesn't know shit about what Frodo was up to or he'd taunt them with that failure." I suppose Sauron could have kept it from his loyal servant, but even so you'd think he'd still say something like "Make sure to tell this little ragtag group that nyah nyah, their ploy has failed."

Comments

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Heh. Every now and then, I sit down and read the whole thing in a weekend or so. I definitely agree with all your commentary here.

[broken-moons.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on all of that :) And I also hope your brother makes it to the end! Be sure to update us with his final thoughts ^__^

The last time I read the books was about 15 years ago (I went momentarily 'it can't have been that long!' but the movies came out 10 years ago, and the last time I read the books I was still a teenager, so...) and I must admit that I skipped about everything that wasn't about Merry & Pippin. The Frodo & Sam stuff was great but after 7 times didn't have much reread value anymore, and I loved loved loved Pippin's interaction with the squire dude in Minas Tirith, which in the movies they sort of meshed with his interaction with Faramir. Not quite the same, but the guy was only in a few scenes, so I can fogive Peter Jackson for cutting him out...

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

It's doable as long as you don't include the appendices. It took me a couple of tries before I was able to get through those.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

I love Lord of the Rings, but I gotta be in the mood for dense text, which happens only once in a while. Still, I find a certain charm in the denseness of it; it makes it feel old and layered, a tale told in a ritual style.