Christians and LOTR

[Anne]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Amy Z" <lupinesque at y...> 
wrote:
> > > And seriously - there are good bits in the Silmarillion? So it 
> really is
> > worth me trying to plough my way through it? Becuase I have it on 
> audio tape
> > read by Martin Shaw and I've never got past the first side - it's 
> the best
> > cure for insomnia I've ever found. 
> 
> LOL!  My dh and I have been reading it as bedtime reading, and for 
a 
> while there we were getting through about a paragraph a night 
before 
> I would drop off.
> 
> But it does pick up, honestly.  Just don't listen to Martin in the 
> car in the meantime, or you may drive into a ditch.
> 
> Amy Z
> whose religion practically *requires* her to read HP AND LOTR

Well, Amy, I guess you've convinced me that *our* religion pretty 
much requires both of us to read both HP and LOTR (actually for our 
congregation's upcoming fall retreat, I suggested an HP role-playing 
game as one of the fun intergenerational activities :-) Seriously 
though, I never managed to finish the Silmarillion, precisely because 
of the doorstop tenor of the writing. I do recall that Tolkien's 
family found the manuscript --unfinished-- after his death, and based 
on the size of it, and the density (and I don't mean weight), it 
could have stood some serious editing. But, I mean, who can edit 
Tolkien, eh? I don't think I got more than 1/4 through it... I spent 
too many nights falling asleep over it, I finally gave up. Maybe when 
I've stopped re-reading OotP I can try the Silmarillion again. I 
think it's still taking up half a shelf in my bookshelves.

Anne U
(who seriously disliked the lack of Frodo and Aragorn in that book...)