Day 4

This is the earliest I've completed my reading for the day. Granted, that's not saying too much, but I hope that this signals good things to come. I'm sure that my husband would like that, as I'm afraid I've been cutting into my time with him by keeping up this habit. I will get better! I promise!

I'm just not sure when.

1) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. Progress: 115/265 pages.

I find the character of Beorn to be puzzling at best. He remains largely unexplained through the whole book, merely the subject of conjecture (and there is a bit of that). Tolkien seemed to have a gift for side characters, whether they turn out to be important later on or not.

You know who I think about when I think of Beorn? Tom Bombadil, whose acquaintance I'll be making in a short while in The Fellowship of the Ring. Both of these characters are so magical, so incredible that I want to know everything about them. And yet, no explanations are ever given for them. If I find someone to be interesting, I frequently want to know more from their perspective, know more about them.

I realize it's impractical and impossible, but I don't care. I want to know where Beorn comes from, are there more people like him somewhere? It drives me batty, really it does.

2) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Progress: 110/143 pages.

I love Arthur, really I do. His confrontation with Zaphod and Trillian makes me giggle every time I read it, as does Ford's reaction to the whole thing. And I think it's rather nice that he is the one who saves the day and makes the big discoveries when they finally reach their destination. Everyone rags on him for not knowing anything, but being out of his element doesn't negate the fact that Arthur has a solid head on his shoulders when everyone is losing theirs.

Also I wish to write my words of condolences to that sperm whale. Godspeed, big fella.

3) Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Progress: 115/324 pages.

I have a hard time imagining this book. Usually I sort of half-play out scenes from books in my head, but it's hard for me to do that when I'm reading about children so young. It doesn't help that we're rarely given ages to go along with characters that aren't in Ender's launch group, since kids change very quickly as they grow older.

How much younger is Ender than the other members of his army, anyhow? I know they said that children aren't generally assigned to armies before they're eight, but is assignment at eight a rarity or a fairly common thing? How long do they have to be in an army before being considered for becoming a commander, or is it marked on age as well? When do they normally leave the Battle School? There was that boy from the beginning who was twelve or something, and he was considered old. So how long does one even have to be in an army or be a commander, anyhow?

I'm sure all of my questions will be answered in a while, but that's not going to stop me wondering in the meantime.

4) Dune by Frank Herbert. Progress: 130/762 pages.

I'm still waiting for things to happen. Is the suspense killing me? Not really. My main complaint of the night is that there's so much suspense and so much build up for Harkonnen treachery that there's no way that it'll ever be able to deliver. My goodness.


Also I am getting really sick of the Princess Irulan's "writings". Either shut up or show up soon. I know it's a literary device, but it's not a very good literary device if it takes me out of the story so completely that I wish I never read it at all.


All in all, I think that Frank Herbert is, in himself, Dune's greatest downfall. The characters are (mostly) good and the descriptions are (usually) very vivid, but the actual writing? The pacing, the gradual reveal of information? It's bad. Really bad. How did enough people sit through it for this to become such a classic?