Mission accomplished

OK, it wasn't such a big deal but I finally read The Lord of the Rings!

In the '60s when everyone was reading, I couldn't quite get into it, same for the '70s....Meanwhile Robert had read every iota of Tolkien, participated in rec.arts.books.tolkien extensively. And then last year I saw The Fellowship of the Ring and I resolved to read it then. I got out the books, and looked at the first one and put it aside for later. ...a year passes...

And the Two Towers is out. In preparation for seeing that we rented the Extended edition and saw it. I thought the extra stuff improved the story. I particularly liked the Director's commentary. Peter Jackson is a charming, brilliant director/writer as were the rest of his team. These extended edition versions are really interesting. What a bargain for $4.19 rental - actually I think I'll buy it. All the stuff about how they made the movie is intriguing to me. (Also I saw Charlie Rose the other day when he had Viggo Mortensen and Elijah Wood on - they were sooo cool.)

So I read them straight through with only a few interludes between. (I wish I had an atlas, the maps weren't good enough). Why did I wait 35 years? And now I am prepared to see Two Towers. It will be interesting for the contrast of seeing the first movie cold and now seeing this one shortly after reading the book. Next Wednesday with pinkfish.