The Hall of Fire

I wish to offend no one, and I offer my toes for stepping on since I've gotten rather numb over the years. It's a consequence of reading too much. :) Earlier posts have made it clear that the NT refers back to the OT often, so at the very least it must have been deemed necessary to include the OT ju...

This is fascinating. Food is fascinating anyway. :) I did learn long ago that "high tea" is really a meal, but the finer details given here are new to me. Thank you. My experience has been like Prim's: breakfast, lunch, and supper, unless one of them is a big meal or a meal out, and by tha...

Whoof! Is there a US set??

I got the Sil when it first came out, in hardback in 1977, after having been immersed in M-E for ten years. I read it straight through at least that first time, and I've dipped into it since, though I don't think I've ever re-read it all the way through. I have some favorite and some not-so-favorite...

It's such a sad thing. There's Alzheimer's on my mother's side of the family and you can bet I'm watching the medical news. My husband and I are huge Pratchett fans--we have everything so far except the third Science of the Discworld, which we may finally get this autumn. Hubby has just finished the...

Leaping into this discussion rather late... My husband and I had resisted the Harry Potter phenomenon, but several of our (adult) friends told us how enjoyable the books were. Still we held out, until Goblet of Fire won the Hugo. At that point we gave in and bought all four existing books, and read ...

I am super-late to this discussion, having discovered this site less than a year ago; but I'm now following the LOTR discussion with great interest, and wishing there were something I could say! All these points are so interesting! A couple things about this chapter, though, I do want to mention, th...

I'd say the biography, then Road to Middle-Earth. I adore Shippey, and I blew the one chance that came my way to hear him speak in person (last year's Boskone in Boston MA) because of unavoidable crises at home. I've read a lot of books on Tolkien over the years, many of which had great insights, bu...

I maintain that it is Aragorn who is the protagonist of the story, and that the hobbits (while important) are secondary characters. The story can be construed as a culmination of the Akallabêth. And I suppose if you want to get right down to the roots, it is a final ending of the War of Wrath. It s...