Did You Finish?! And, LOTR Marathon Pics

I never got in touch with everyone last week when we had our last day of reading! Has everyone finished The Hobbit? I know that Aimee said she is almost done, but did everyone else finish? I hear that Rory and Brinley finished! Rory & Brinley, I'd love to hear from you on the blog about what you thought! Have your mom show you how to make a blog post on here.

If you did finish, what did you think? Overall, I really liked it. I liked it from the beginning, although it didn't become as much of a page turner for me until the last half. It is most definitely much lighter in tone than The Lord of the Rings, which is much more complex and expands more on the good vs. evil themes. The Hobbit is fun, though, and I think these movies will have a lot more humor in them than The LOTR trilogy did. I liked seeing Bilbo's transition and how his confidence grew, and how the dwarves eventually respected him and looked to him for what to do in a lot of situations.

What I liked least of all, though, was that I felt like the ending was a bit rushed. It kind of reminded me of the last Hunger Games book where you have this big story built up, and then all the sudden it just ends abruptly without an unraveling conclusion. It was such a big adventure leading up until the end of The Hobbit, and then it felt like there wasn't as much emphasis on detail in the end that I would have liked to hear. For example, (warning *SPOILER ALERT* if you haven't finished reading!), Thorin is one of the main characters and the leader of the group, and there wasn't much story to his death. Like all of the sudden it happens, and we don't hear much about it or from him.


I am super excited to see the movie coming out TOMORROW!! You better believe we already have our tickets for the IMAX 3D showing. I'm normally not into the recent 3D hype, but I do appreciate it if the movie was originally filmed in 3D rather than being converted to 3D, and this is originally filmed in 3D. If you don't know much about Peter Jackson (the director of LOTR and The Hobbit), he is not only awesome at what he does, but he is WAY into using the latest technologies available, so he always has some new awesome thing on his movies that nobody else uses. If you haven't heard, this movie is the first movie being released in theaters that was shot at 48fps (frames per second). Since 1927 movies have been shot at 24fps, so this is a huge jump. It is getting mixed reviews, but it's just because people aren't used to that technology (some people still prefer to listen to vinyl records instead of newer technologies; it's just a style preference). It is supposed to be so detailed and so lifelike, so I am interested to see what it's like. If you are interested in that (I'm thinking maybe just Dad would care about this like I do..), you need to look up which theaters near you are actually showing it in its full 48fps format, because not all of them are (not nearly as many as should). Also, for the ones that are showing the 48fps version, it is only the 3D version that you can see the full 48fps for some reason. Anyways, if you are interested in that kind of techie stuff like I am, you can see if any theaters near you are playing in that format here: http://www.48fpsmovies.com/48-fps-theater-list/

***If/When you go see the movie, send me a pic of yourself (or post it to the blog yourself if you want)! We only ever got a pic of Amy reading her book! I actually need to still post mine..dang it. We will take a pic of us at the movie tomorrow. I DO, however, have pics of what we did last weekend in preparation for The Hobbit release tomorrow!

Yes, that's right, 682 glorious minutes of watching all three extended editions of The Lord of the Rings all in a row on the big screen! I've always wanted to do this, and it was so much fun. I was already REALLY lacking in sleep from the past couple days, so that put a slight damper on it (totally bad timing for no sleep), but it was still really good. I loved seeing these all remastered on a huge screen one after the other. We went at about 10:30 that morning (the first movie started at 11), and the last movie ended around 11:30 pm. Good times. Still doesn't beat the number of hours we were in the theater to watch 7 Harry Potter movies in a row a couple years ago!

I doubt any of you would recognize this, but I AM wearing a LOTR shirt. It's the Tree of Gondor. I totally ran out of time to make some awesome and funny shirts before we went like I wanted to, so I bought one instead. HOPEFULLY they do this again next year for the 2nd Hobbit movie and I can redeem myself. Well, I love this shirt too, but I was looking forward to making our own fun ones. I wanted something that was a little more obvious to non-LOTR fans that I was in fact wearing a LOTR shirt, but I think Eric would have been embarrassed and he chose this one for me since it's a little more inconspicuous :)

phone shot..

Ladies, Viggo is not even one of those actors I normally have an actor crush on, but as Aragorn I totally love him, AND on the big screen, iyiyi. Ok AND Orlando Bloom as Legolas. And I also have a girl crush on Cate Blanchett (she plays Galadriel - you will see her in The Hobbit a little) and I love Liv Tyler as Arwen. So basically they chose the best cast ever all around.

Getting excited for The Hobbit!

Week 2 of The Hobbit

I hope you have all been reading! As of this last Wednesday the 14th, we all should be reading chapters 6-10. For anyone who needs the reading schedule again, check out the right sidebar ------->

I just happened upon this brief book review on Deseret News about a new book called "The Christian World of the Hobbit" that I found rather interesting. If you listened to the intro Tolkien Professor podcast about how to read Tolkien and why, you'll learn that Tolkien, unlike C.S. Lewis, did not write his stories as a direct religious metaphor, but he did say that there are some religious themes throughout his works (whether intentional or that we observe and interpret on our own); they are just obviously much subtler than C.S. Lewis books since that was not Tolkien's primary objective. Here's another short very article on Deseret News about Christianity in Tolkien's books.

We all still need to submit a picture of ourselves with our books (myself included!). We only have one of the cute Greenberg girls in Virginia. Rory and Brinley, are you reading with us? Take a pic with your snazzy new phone Ror!

If anyone is interested (and actually has time while driving or cleaning or whatever), here is the link to the Tolkien Professor site for his commentary on a couple chapters at a time that you can listen to after you read those chapters (these links are also on the right sidebar on our blog along with other reference links).

DISCUSSION:

So far, have you noticed any subtle religious or interesting moral themes/principles in the book?

I like how Gandalf treats Bilbo with the potential that even Bilbo doesn't know he has. He keeps telling the dwarves that they will soon see Bilbo's worth and that he will do great things by the time their journey is through. That is something that is big in The Lord of the Rings too. I remember a fireside I went to at BYU one time with Stephen Covey as the speaker. He talked about how we should treat other people as though they have reached their highest potential and that then they will be more likely to rise up and reach that potential. It's basically remembering that "the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." I still am not very good at practicing these things, but I have always remembered that talk and have observed in other people how well it works.            

Although I'm only about halfway through The Hobbit, I feel like I noticed more religious themes in The Lord of the Rings, but we'll see what else might pop up in the last half!                    

Have You Started Reading Yet?

I hope everyone has their book! I just started last night when I was going to bed and made it in a few pages before I got sleepy eyes. Not because it was boring, but because I have a cold and took some nighttime cold drugs! Earlier in the day I listened to the intro podcast in that Tolkien Professor series while I was cleaning about how to read Tolkien and why. It was actually pretty interesting. And I felt like a geek the whole time that I was actually listening to something like this, which was the best part.

I just invited everyone to be a blog contributor, so feel free to make posts whenever you want (I don't know how it works, I just sent you an invite..let me know it doesn't work).

Here is our first picture of some very cute Chicklits, Amy & Eden! Send me your pic or make a post with a picture of you with your book!

Welcome Chicklits!

Hello Chicklits! Welcome to the grand commencement of our new book club. I don't know about any of you, but I am super excited about this. I think it will be a really fun way for us all to feel more connected. With help from Aimee, we named our book club Chapter Chicklits! Get it? Instead of Chiclets like the gum it's Chicklits - chicks and lit..erary? *cue Dad's "get it" laugh*  However, I should mention that this name should not deter any men in our family from joining. Dad, if you are reading this, I heard that you just read the first chapter of our book, so I would like to invite you to be an Honorary Chicklit with us! 

Any ideas of things we want to do to make our long-distance club more fun would be appreciated! I've never even been in a normal book club, but since we're not all in the same state I'm not sure if we just want to keep it super simple and just read the same book at the same time and then maybe at the end we can each write our overall thoughts about it, or if we want to do some sort of discussion type things along the way. Comment what you think! I will also add each of you as a blog contributor so you can make a post any time about ideas, thoughts about something we're reading, post pics, or whatever. 

For our first book, regardless of if we decide to do little discussion questions/comments, I will probably post some links and interesting resources corresponding to each week's reading assignment (and later some info about how the book will differ from the movies so you don't have a horrible book-to-movie experience), but I really don't expect everyone to be that interested in any of that, nor will I be offended if none of you even looks at the info I put up  :) I like reading about background stuff, so I'll just post a few things I find interesting for my own fun. 

As you probably noticed, in the side bar on the right-hand side of the page I listed several resources for anyone who might be dorky like me interested in additional scholarly study :)

Our First Chicklit Selection

As we all know, we will be starting out with The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien in preparation for the first installment of the The Hobbit movie trilogy released on December 14th (woot!!). September 22, 2012 was actually the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, and coincidentally is also the birthday of the book's main character, Bilbo Baggins.

This is obvious, but this will be pretty different than the types of books most of you read, so you may need to make a greater effort to see why it is such a classic rather than just reading for entertainment. More importantly (and I mention this later), I think that there are some great messages in a lot of Tolkien's stories. The Hobbit is actually just one fairly short book, so at first I was surprised that they were making a trilogy for the movies. Then I found out they are taking a lot of background material out of the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings books that relates to The Hobbit story, so it won't be too surprising if there are some things you see in the movies that you think were completely made up that really are still part of Tolkien's original writings. 

I will say, though, that Peter Jackson (the director of the LOTR and Hobbit movies) still makes some changes to make things more exciting and appealing to a movie audience just like any book-to-movie. These are old books, so it's not always the completely engrossing page turner type style like Harry Potter or whatever "anatomy" novels that Grama Jackie used to read (still reads?)! But the stories are really intricately thought-out, and it's amazing to see how creative Tolkien was with creating this whole other world and his own languages, and there are several important moral messages if you are paying attention, so that's why I like them. And hey, now you can say you've read one of the many classic must-reads on all those book lists! I was surprised when I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy how much more I had to pay attention while I read to really understand some things rather than other novels that you can read really fast. The Hobbit is much lighter and easier to breeze through, so you may not notice that as much with this one as much as if you read LOTR. When you really think and pay attention and understand how incredible and unique these "adventures" are that Tolkien created, you can see how they have become so timeless and classic. 


Reading Schedule

Our reading sched is below. Since we probably aren't going to be all super official and clubby-like organized, obviously feel free to move ahead of the reading schedule if you want since everyone has different schedules, especially with the holiday season quickly approaching! Or, if you are traveling on day one of our schedule (Mom and Aimee..), you might have it done in two days! I just set it up so we can have it done in 4 weeks and it's one week before the movie comes out. The first 2 weeks are longer segments, which might work out nice since after that will be Thanksgiving and the beginning of December when everyone's family might be getting a little busier. 

November 7-13 : Chapters 1-5 

November 14-20: Chapters 6-10 

November  21-27: Chapters 11-15 

November 28 - December 4: Chapters 16-19 

If you are interested, below I have some background info about the author and the book, and then some optional pre-reading assignments/references and a brief first discussion question! 

Brief Background of the Author and the Book:

J.R.R. Tolkien — John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) was an English writer, professor, poet, and philologist (an expert in the history of languages). He taught at Oxford University, where he was a close friend of C. S. Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia). His writings were influenced by Germanic, Old English, and Norse mythology and sagas. Tolkien is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, and for creating the imaginary setting for these works, Middle-earth.

The Hobbit — Also titled The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. A classic fantasy novel for children, published in 1937, this book was Tolkien’s first work describing events in his imaginary world of Middle- earth. The tone of The Hobbit is largely light and targeted towards children, and introduces hobbits, dwarves, and Gandalf, and the Ring that later figures strongly in the plot of The Lord of the Rings. 

(and just to clarify..) The Lord of the Rings — Published in 1954–55 as a sequel to The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings is a darker, more serious work of high fantasy that tells a wider, more far-reaching, and more dire tale of events that threaten the fate of Middle-earth.

ABOUT THE HOBBIT

Many decades ago in England, a highly respected professor at Oxford was correcting exam papers and, having a few minutes to spare, idly scribbled on a blank page in an exam book, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” He didn’t even know what a hobbit was, or why he wrote those words. But they were, nevertheless, the beginning of one of the most famous fantasy adventure tales ever written. The professor was J.R.R. Tolkien, and the book, of course, was The Hobbit.

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit— a hairy-footed race of diminutive peoples in J.R.R. Tolkien’s imaginary world of Middle-earth — and the protagonist of The Hobbit (full title: The Hobbit or There and Back Again), Tolkien’s fantasy novel for children first published in 1937. Bilbo enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. He does not seek out excitement or adventure. But his contentment is dis- turbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum, and entwine his fate with armies of goblins, elves, men and dwarves. He also discovers he’s more mischievous, sneaky and clever than he ever thought possible, and on his adventure, he finds the courage and strength to do the most surprising things. The plot of The Hobbit, and the circumstances and background of magic ring, later become central to the events of Tolkien’s more adult fantasy sequel, The Lord of the Rings.

“One of the best children’s books of this century.” — W. H. Auden

“One of the most freshly original and delightfully imaginative books for children that have appeared in many a long day . . . The Hobbit is a glorious account of a magnificent adventure, filled with suspense and seasoned with a quiet humor that is irresistible . . . All those, young or old, who love a fine adventurous tale, beautifully told, will take The Hobbit to their hearts.” — New York Times Book Review

Pre-Reading References & Discussion Question:

Listen to the podcast "How to Read Tolkien and Why" by The Tolkien Professor (28 minutes). You can either download the mp3 from his website, or you can go to The Tolkien Professor in iTunes under Podcasts (scroll all the way to the bottom of his podcasts, since this is the first one in his series) -- Corey Olsen points out some of the errors that people tend to make when they first approach Tolkien’s stories, and he explains some of the terms that Tolkien uses when he discusses the nature of story-telling. Understanding these concepts is very helpful as you read Tolkien’s work, and Olsen refers back to these ideas throughout his lecture series.

The Hobbit Reader's Guide: http://hmhbooks.com/files/content/sites/hobbit/files/pdfs/Hobbit_readersguide.pdf

The Hobbit Reference Guide: http://hmhbooks.com/files/content/sites/hobbit/files/pdfs/Hobbit_referenceguideguide.pdf

First Question (leave your answer in the comments section!)

1. Have you read The Hobbit before? If so, when was it, and do you remember very much about it?