Day 2

Ah, back again. I don't really know if I'm supposed to feel so accomplished after only doing this for two days, but really I do! Four hours of reading a day, plus everything else in my schedule, plus a blog post.... It's really quite a big deal, at least in my mind.

I do feel kind of bad about letting my other reading languish, though. I was lent an audiobook of The Help recently, and I haven't even started listening to it yet. And I'm a quarter of the way through Flora Frasier's biography of Queen Caroline, too! And I do hope to get back to them soon, after I pick up some sort of a routine for my normal Monday through Friday readings. Alas, I'm just not ready yet.

Regardless of any other reading I may or may not be doing, I did accomplish an hour (or slightly more) with each of my books today. Huzzah!

1) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. Progress: 56/265 pages.

I had a friend insist a few months ago that The Lord of the Rings was written before The Hobbit, which he said was merely a prequel meant to throw a bone to the kids. I didn't feel like looking it up at that point, but he was wrong. Very wrong, in fact, and I kind of wonder if he had actually bothered to read The Hobbit at all. The first few chapters of the book are quite different from Tolkien's later works about Middle-Earth, from what I've been able to force myself to read of them.

It's not just that the tone is different; it's not just that this is a children's story and so the ideas are smoothed around the edges. It feels much more like a traditional fairy tale, with trolls and giants and elves that sing annoying songs because they're tricky creatures and not the genteel ones encountered later. It's very clear that Middle-Earth hadn't really settled into what it would later become, and you know what? I like it.

2) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Progress: 40/143 pages.

Yet more distractions, sadly. At least I actually got to meet Zaphod Beeblebrox (which is a name I enjoy typing more than a little), and Trillian, at least in passing. Unfortunately, instead of really enjoying myself with this one, I feel more like I just want to get it done with so I can move onto the next book. As I mentioned in introducing the book, I've never read its sequels, and I have read Hitchhiker's Guide several times before, so I guess I'm really just looking for something new. This is interesting for two reasons: First, I've read The Hobbit about as many times, and I can't get enough of it, and second, I still don't remember how it ends. I'm sure it'll come back to me soon.

3) Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Progress: 53/324 pages.

And finally Ender volunteers to go into training. I've never finished the book before, but I did start it back in August, so I'm rehashing old territory right now. As with Hitchhiker's Guide, I feel like I'm trying to plow ahead to the new stuff, but at least with Ender's Game I'm enjoying the retread -- for now, at least.

4) Dune by Frank Herbert. Progress: 65/762 pages.

Well, looks like it's getting some better. It's not good, certainly, but I sat down and read for an hour without wanting to chew off one of my limbs. This is a marked improvement, ladies and gentlemen. I didn't remember that a good deal of the annoying pretentiousness exits with the Reverend Mother (not nearly enough, in my opinion, but I'll take what I can get).

Also there were no Harkonnens in the section I read today, which is good, because they are not good villains. They bore me to tears because they aren't creative. They feel like stock characters. The absurdly fat dictator, the heir who's dim-witted and full of himself, the devious advisor kept in line by feeding his drug habit.... Oh yeah, and two of the three have Russian names. Way to be subtle there, Herbie.

As long as I can stay away from old Witchy-Face and the Three Stooges, I should be fine. Then I can resume the long, long wait for something, anything at all, to happen.