The Two Towers...random thoughts

First of all, I just have to say thank you to you all for the incredibly sweet comments you left yesterday! I was literally left in tears over all your kind words! There are still times when this whole blogging thing just totally amazes me...how I can feel so close to people I've never even met. How people I've never laid my eyes on can bring me such joy. How I can consider people whom I will probably never see face-to-face real, true friends. Yep, it still boggles my mind at times. Anyway, thank you!

So, about this book...

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien.

What really can I say about it? You know, how exactly do you go about reviewing a book that nearly everyone on the planet has already read? A book that is so adored and treasured. I'm at a loss. Truly. But I feel like I "should" say something since I've used it as a challenge read. So, I'll just throw out a few thoughts and call it good.

I think I mentioned (but I'm too lazy to actually go look) when I finished The Fellowship of the Ring, that I had come to think of my reading time spent with these books as a "gift to myself". That's really what it is. I know it's taken me forever to read The Two Towers, but the reason isn't because I didn't enjoy reading it or that it didn't hold my interest. Quite the opposite, in fact. I wanted to savor the experience. So I refused to pick it up for a minute here, and five minutes there like I do with most books. That's just how most of my reading is fit into my days. But this wasn't a book I picked up as I stirred the spaghetti sauce or waited on hold "for the next available customer service representative". No, I saved this for those rare times when I could curl up and know that I could read uninterrupted. Sometimes that meant I went for a couple weeks without picking it up, but I was always carried immediately right back into Middle Earth as soon as I opened the pages again.

This is one (well, by one, I actually mean the trilogy) of those rare books, that so gracefully takes you away from your own life and transports you to its own world. You don't just imagine you're there...you ARE there. I have to admit, in some ways, I didn't love this second book as much as the first. It's just that I enjoyed the story in the first better; I loved when they were still all together. But then again, with the second book, I was for some reason more able to enjoy Tolkien's extremely beautiful writing. I know some people think he can really babble on at times, and I think that notion is what kept me from reading these books for so long. But if what he's doing is babbling, I say babble on! His rich descriptions are one of the reasons I think I can so easily "live in" this story.

It was dreary and wearisome. Cold clammy winter still held sway in this forsaken country. The only green was the scum of livid weed on the dark greasy surfaces of the sullen waters. Dead grasses and rotting reeds loomed up in the mists like ragged shadows of long-forgotten summers.

You not only see it, but you feel it and you smell it and you can even nearly taste the air, can't you?

Every step was reluctant, and time seemed to slow its pace, so that between the raising of a foot and the setting of it down minutes of loathing passed.

I literally felt my body shrink up in fear and dread as I read this. Seriously, could he have worded that any more perfectly? I think not.

Oh man, it's me who is beginning to babble now, isn't it? Only I don't do it with such skill and grace and beauty, so I'll just shut up now.

*****

If you've reviewed this, please feel free to leave a link in the comments and I'll post it here. Please! These books obviously deserve better than my rambling.

*****

Read for:

Pure and utter enjoyment!

Inklings Challenge.

Numbers Challenge.

Initials Challenge.

please stay on, please stay on, please stay on...

Our internet has totally flaked. Going on and off constantly. Someone's supposed to come check it out Monday. I've managed to read a few blogs during it's "on" moments, but frankly, it's more frustrating than it's worth. And I'm not even going to attempt to write any reviews with it acting this way. And I do actually have 2 to write, because I finished The Two Towers last night and The 6th Target a few minutes ago. Which means that I finished The Numbers Challenge just in the nick of time (thanks to fact that Callista extended the deadline). Hooray me for actually finishing one!

Th1rteen R3asons Why...random thoughts

More random than ever, I'm afraid. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if I can put together any kind of coherent review at all. This book got to me on a gut level. There were things in this book that just took me back 25+ years and plopped me right back into high school. I wish I could explain. But while I would be o.k. talking to many of my blog friends about this, I'm just not willing to throw this out there for the whole world, if you know what I mean.

I can say that I think that this is a book that every upper middle school/high school kid should read. I know this book is fiction, and it's entertainment, but I really think it could be so much more to kids as well. A chance to let some see they're not alone. A wake up call to many that their actions have consequences, horrible consequences that they may never even be aware of.

The book is really told by two people at the same time. Clay receives in the mail a box of cassette tapes recorded by Hannah. Hannah committed suicide a few short weeks ago. The cassettes tell Hannah's story, what led her to the drastic solution she chose. Clay's thoughts and actions are interspersed throughout the book as he listens to Hannah's voice talk about the actions of those around her and how these actions affected her. For the first couple of pages, I found the constant flip-flopping from Hannah to Clay irritating, but that irritation quickly subsided. I think it turned out to be the perfect way to tell this story.

Again, I apologize, I realize this isn't much of review. I thought about waiting a few days to write it, but ultimately decided that wouldn't make much difference. The good news is that I know there are others out there who have reviewed it. If you're one of them, please leave me your link I'll add it. Thanks.

*****

*Becky of Becky's Book Reviews
*Dewey of The Hidden Side of the Leaf
*Joy of Thoughts of Joy
*Alison of So Many Books, So Little Time
*Alessandra at Out of the Blue
*Eva at A Striped Armchair
*****

Read for:


Young Adult Reading Challenge.

Numbers Challenge.



A-Z Reading Challenge.

Homeschooling.

100 Cupboards...random thoughts

I adored this book. In fact, as I read it, I kept thinking to myself, "I just love everything about this book." I stopped thinking that during the last two pages, however. I didn't like the epilogue. I'm not really even sure why. It's not that it changed anything about the book, or that it wasn't well-written, or that it didn't make sense. Maybe that's it...it made too much sense. It almost felt like the beginning of a new book...the sequel that you could already tell was coming anyway. I apologize...I don't think I'm making much sense here, am I? So let's move away from this trifling little criticism and on to what was so wonderful about this book...everything else.

The writing. It's so sweet and simple. Nothing complicated, but so completely endearing. The book begins:

"Henry, Kansas, is a hot town. And a cold town. It is a town so still there are times when you can hear a fly trying to get through the window of the locked-up antique store on Main Street. Nobody remembers who owns the antique store, but if you press your face against the glass, like the fly, you'll see that whoever they are, they don't have much beyond a wide variety of wagon wheels. Yes, Henry is still town. But there have been tornadoes on Main Street. If the wind blows it's like it won't ever stop. Once it's stopped, there seems to be no hope of getting it started again.

There is a bus station in Henry, but it isn't on Main Street. It's one block north--the town fathers hadn't wanted all the additional traffic. The station lost one-third of its roof to a tornado fifteen years ago. In the same summer, a bottle rocket brought the gift of fire to its restrooms. The damage has never been repaired, but the town council makes sure that the building is painted fresh every other year, and always the color of a swimming pool. There is never graffiti. Vandals would have to drive more than twenty miles to buy the spray paint.

Every once in a long while, a bus creeps into town and eases to a stop beside the mostly roofed, bright aqua station with the charred bathrooms. Henry is always glad to see a bus. Such treats are rare."

With those first three paragraphs, I was sold. I was in love with the little town of Henry, Kansas. And it didn't take long until I was taken with the characters, too. Well, with two of the characters, in particular. (Actually, I suppose some of the characters could stand a bit more development, but I suspect we'll see that in books to come should they begin to take bigger roles.) Uncle Frank is by far my favorite. Wilson writes,

"People liked Dotty. They said she was interesting. They rarely did the same for her husband. They said Mr. Willis was thin, and they didn't just mean physically. They meant thin everywhere and every way. Dotty saw much more than thin, and she liked him. Frank Willis didn't seem to notice much of anything beyond that."

We get to see much more than "thin" as well. We come to know a quiet, thoughtful man who loves his wife and family. I really came to respect Frank, and felt a genuine fondness for him. But he's not the main character in the story. No, that would be Henry.

Henry, a twelve-year-old boy, arrives on one of those rare buses into town. He's come to stay with his Aunt Dotty, Uncle Frank, and their three daughters after his parents are kidnapped in a foreign country. Henry has always been seriously over-protected, and while he's nervous about fitting into a new family and a new town, it's obvious that he's somewhat excited about it, too.

One night, bits of plaster fall into Henry's hair from the wall of Henry's attic bedroom. On closer inspection, Henry finds two knobs poking through the plaster. And this is only the beginning. Henry begins chipping away at the plaster, and finds little doors hidden beneath. He eventually uncovers the entire wall and finds it houses 99 cupboards. Yes, I know, the title is 100 Cupboards...but if you want to find out where cupboard 100 comes in and what these cupboards contain, you'll just have to read the book. Suffice it to say, that this book is quite suitable for the Once Upon a Time challenge.

This book is labeled as being appropriate for 9-12-year-olds. I think that kids even a little younger might enjoy it. Though it does become a bit darker and scarier toward the end, and I would keep that in mind if your kiddo is easily frightened...like my sweet little 7-year-old.




















And thus ends this rambling jumble of thoughts that I'm passing off as a book review for my challenges (Once Upon a Time II, Initials Reading Challenge, The A-Z Reading Challenge and Numbers Reading Challenge).

Fahrenheit 451...random thoughts

Fahrenheit 451. While this is only my third book by Mr. Bradbury, I just have to say that his writing is just the most exquisite I've ever read. And yes, I do love his stories, but its his writing that really blows me away.

"It was a pleasure to burn.

It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of the blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history...."

Thus begins Fahrenheit 451. I could spend years trying, and still never be able to put words together in such an amazing way. But now, having said all that, I have to admit that, for the most part, I wasn't quite as captivated by the writing in this book as I was by that in either Something Wicked This Way Comes or The Halloween Tree. The reason for that may be, though I'm not sure, that this story was just more thought-provoking. While Something Wicked This Way Comes is wonderfully sinister in its own way, Fahrenheit 451 was even more terrifying because of its utter plausibility.

Guy Montag is a fireman. But the profession of fireman in this novel is far different from what it is today. Firemen in Fahrenheit 451 destroy, as opposed to preserve. And what they destroy is books. And homes that hide books. And sometimes even the people who own these books.

In the space of just a single week, Guy Montag's world is turned upside down. Though really, the seeds of this tumultuous turn-around were sown long before. Montag just hadn't realized this before meeting Clarisse, a seventeen-year-old girl who still found wonder and beauty in the world. And because she did find wonder and beauty in the world, she was considered crazy. Montag's brief talks with Clarisse awaken something inside him. Later in this life-altering week, Montag witnesses a woman choose to burn with her books as opposed to living without them. From here, his world begins spinning out of control...

As I said earlier, this book was all the more terrifying because of its plausibility. The censorship of books in this tale did not begin with the government, though it did eventually become illegal to read books. It began with apathy. With people choosing to give up books on their own. With people choosing to spend their time in rooms comprised of wall-sized screens. Do I really see this book as a prophecy of what's to come? No. I'd like to believe it couldn't really happen. But then there's a lot happening in this world that seems unfathomable.

This is Annie's and my next literature selection for school, and it should make for some interesting conversations. But as for me, I'm anxious to now dive into another book for Once Upon a Time II.