Summer Reading- LOTR, Carl Sagan, a girl named Jane and a boy named Biff

I find it hard to believe that I last wrote a post at the beginning of June and now it’s the beginning of August. What happened to the time?

Oh, I know SUMMER! Even though my summers are very busy – full of adventures with my seven year old – I still find time to read. My son reads too, and we read with him. He’s participating in the Local Library’s Summer Reading Club; he records the books he reads and gets prizes for the weeks that he completes. It’s cool. Right now his favourite books are “The Magic Tree House” series by Mary Pope Osborne and “Dinosaur Cove” series by Rex Stone. I’ve also noticed that when we go to the Library he still gravitates to pictures books, which is great and lately they’ve been about school – Bunny School, When an Elephant comes to school, How does a Dinosaur go to school?

Is he missing school yet?

For myself, I’ve taken a detour in my reading these last two months, dropping the 100 books and reading some other books that I would consider contenders for my personal 100 list.

They are in order:

Lord of the Rings 1, 2, & 3
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King

Jane of Lantern Hill

Lamb, the Gospel of Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal

Lord of the Rings (LOTR)

This will be my 3rd complete read of the Best Trilogy ever. (Don't question me on the best - I'm scrappy in a fight) I’ve read parts of it more often, but this summer I re-read all the books from start to finish without a break in between. THAT I’ve only done three times.

I first read LOTR when I was 14 (give or take a year) I was in grade 8 or 9, hanging out with the arty/pot smoking crowd (but I didn’t smoke mom, serious) who were all into LOTR’s. They even – on occasion- pretended to be specific characters, this is before we knew what LARPing was, but they did it. For me to be “cool” and understand what the cannabis induced conversations were about I needed to do two things: Listen to every Pink Floyd album ever made and read Lord of the Rings. I made it through all the Pink Floyd with ease, LOTR was a bit of a slog.

I was an impatient reader and tended to skip over what I deemed the ‘boring parts’ – thus I skimmed the Council of Elrond and really had very little idea of what was going on for most of the rest of the book. If you have read these books, then you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t please stop what you are doing/reading right now and go read these books – start with The Hobbit and do not stop until you’ve reached the Grey Havens. Then we can talk.

So my first read left me with a sense of confusion over the whole book, but the parts that I did read I fell in love with and I confess becoming a slightly geeky/hippie LOTR’s obsessed Fan. I have the Silmarillion, but haven’t read it. (Has anyone?) And a number of non-fiction books based on the series. For those claiming to have read it, I believe you -if you can tell me what the heck it's about?

My second reading of LOTR’s occurred just before the first Peter Jackson movie was released and much like most geeky obsessed fans I was re-reading to refresh my memory so when the movie came out it could be properly judged against the books. I was amazed, awed, in love with Peter Jackson’s depiction of Middle Earth. Though, as a true geeky obsessed fan I do have to point out that leaving out Tom Bombadil, while understandable, was pretty lame.

I recall sitting around with some friends post Fellowship of the Ring watching discussing the movie. There was a girl there; I don’t recall her name or connection to the group of friends, who didn’t like the movie. She didn’t understand it, said it didn’t make sense and was confusing. The enviable question was, “have you read the books?” No she hadn’t, which was of course the problem. As great as Peter Jackson’s transfer of books to film was, the common refrain post movie from those who’d not read the books was that they didn’t get it.

He did a good job trying to get the complex details of the plot to transfer, but I can see missing some elements without prior knowledge of the book.

This is pretty common when books get turned into movies. I can honestly say that I can only think of one book/movie that did an astounding job at this transfer and that’s “Contact”. But we’ll discuss Carl Sagan at a later date I’m sure.

But back to LOTR’s. This, my third read though, is my first after seeing all the movies (numerous times) and I’m not 14 anymore. I found this read through the most enjoyable. I didn’t rush and read without skimming or skipping. This is an amazing series. I am again awed by how magnificently detailed and beautiful the story is.
As I read this 100 book list I am, as mentioned complying my own 100 books list and Lord of the Rings tops my list.

Jane of Lantern Hill

Written in 1937, by Lucy Maud Montgomery McDonald (L.M.) of Anne of Green Gables fame, Jane is my second favourite character created by L.M. My first being Valancy in “The Blue Castle”. Both books make it on my favourite list. I read Jane when I’m tired and want some good brain candy, that isn’t fuffly chick lit. (another topic to discuss later). There’s nothing difficult about reading Jane. Like most of L.M’s characters Jane doesn’t have a happy childhood. She’s shy and is made to feel stupid and awkward by her bitter grandmother. She and her mother live in Toronto with her and Jane, called Victoria by her Toronto family, hates it. All of her life she believes her father is dead, but as it turns out he’s not. He’s alive, living in, or course Prince Edward Island. In L.M’s books PEI is the Promised Land, it’s where dreams come true and all of her waifs find their hearts desires. This follows her own life, which like her characters was full of hardship.

Jane goes to her father on the island determined to hate him, he did after all abandon her and her mother. At least that’s what her grandmother has always said. Jane however finds a loving dad and finds a confidence in herself and the transformation is wonderful and a very satisfying read. It, of course, has a happy ending is perfect L.M. style, which to some might seem contrite. But if you’re an L.M. Montgomery lover then such endings are necessary.

I think I love Jane because I can relate to her. I too was painfully shy as a child and felt awkward and out of place most of the time. I see a lot of myself in Jane and so it’s extra pleasing to experience her coming out of her shell and finding self confidence. It was and continues to be inspiring to me.

Lamb, The Gospel according to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal

I intended to get on with the Sheltering Sky after reading LOTR’s but I was lent 'Lamb’ by a friend who knew I liked this sort of thing. Or maybe he was testing my Religion vs. Sacrilege. In my other life I am a student of Theology and Philosophy. Lamb is not for the faint of heart, or anyone who has no sense of humour when it comes to religion. If you believe in the bible as Literal Truth, don’t say I didn’t warn you about Lamb, before reading it.

I like books that make me laugh out loud. Not just smile quietly as you read, but books that you have to put down because the laughter has made your eye’s water so much the words have gone blurry.

Lamb did that for me.

One of my favourite scenes is when Jesus, called Joshua and Levi, called Biff, are in a Market and they try coffee for the first time. They are searching for one of the Magi who attended Joshua’s birth to ask some questions about Joshua being the Messiah (and what the angel means that he may not know a woman) when they are given shots of espresso. Joshua, on caffeine high, jostles his way through the crowd pointing his finger and healing random people – “pow! there’s your sight back! And now you!” The way Christopher Moore describes it one can almost imagine this 15 year old using a gigantic super-soaker to blast the crowds with holy water. It’s so awesome – full of anachronisms and horrible slang. Both Joshua and Biff have very dirty minds, they are teenagers after all

As mentioned this isn’t the book for you if you take Christianity seriously. But it’s a fun read.

Lamb takes place during the period of time in Jesus’ life where the Biblical gospels fall silent. We have stories in the Bible of Jesus’ birth and an incident when Jesus is 12 at the temple, then nothing until Jesus is 30 and taking up his ministry. What happened during that time? What education did he have?

Christopher Moore’s story is an explanation of that time period, made up of course, but with a very detailed and accurate presentation of the world at the time.

Irreverence is at an all time high when it comes to his depiction of the personality of Jesus, but i think he’ll be forgiven. I’m pretty sure God has a sense of humour – have you seen these things?

Now that I’m done my summer reading detour it’s time to get back to the 100 list. I’ll be going back to school in the fall and I may detour yet again, so in the time I have left I need to get some reading done.