Tolkien testosterone

[aldrea279]

AV: 
>>I'm actually really enjoying The Silmarillion for the first time - 
I 
think I'll finish it this time.  I think the first times I tried to 
read it, I hadn't read enough actual epics in my lifetime and was not 
inured to the nodoff factor. Now that I've gotten around to really 
reading more than my teenage self ever dream of Beowulf, the Epic of 
Gilgamesh, the Bible, the Kalevala, etc., the style makes more sense 
to me.>>

I can never do that, just put down a book once I've actually started 
it.  Maybe that's how I was even able to get through The Silmarillion 
the first time I read it... =P Out of the books you've mentioned, the 
only one I've heard of is Beowolf(well, besides the Bible...), and 
that's only because it was on my reading list for school this year.  
Hmm, I think I need to start reading more books, instead of just re-
reading Harry Potter and LotR over and over again. =P

AV:
>>I still wish it was broken up with a little more novelistic 
stuff, but it's OK. Morgoth is still sufficiently riveting. :)>>

I agree.  It was a good book, and I do wish Tolkien had been able to 
take those stories and write them the way he wanted to, but I enjoyed 
reading it all the same.  It took me ahwile to get through it, 
though.  Sometimes it would hold my attentions rather well, and other 
times...well, the nodoff factor played a big part during those times. 
=P  Another posthumous book of Tolkien's is The Book of Lost Tales, 
which I'm reading right now.  Or trying to, anyways.  It keeps making 
references back to The Silmarillion, which I don't have... plus, 
there's the fact that it's boring like The Silmarillion was boring.  
Which isn't a bad sort of boring, but still...

Frankie:
>>You're bang-on right. I ment "dictionary" as in JRRT's personal
encyclopedia of reference materials-- background notes, assorted
characters, universe/planet/deity history, etc. Guess I should have
said middle earth bible. It certainly reads like one! =P>>

Heh, while I was typing up my reply, I thought of that same thing, 
but ran out of time before I could add it.  That's exactly how I 
thought of The Silmarillion, sort of a bible on the Eldar and 
Etain...and a little bit on the Dwarves, also.  It's a very nifty 
book if you're re-reading LotR.  I checked my copy out from the 
library, and I wished I still had it while re-reading the trilogy.

~Aldrea, who now wants to read The Silmarillion again after talking 
about it...