So I went with my dad to our local library today to see if they still had the same copy of Lord of the Rings that I checked out and read for the first time about 15 years ago, and, unsurprisingly, they didn’t. It was a beautiful old red clothbound book - with all three books in one - that looked old and smelled old and I still remember it vividly.
So out of curiosity I started looking around the internet to see if I could find the edition I remembered so fondly. I managed to find a copy that I am 98% sure is the same one I originally read, and nearly crapped myself when I saw it is worth almost $16,000.
The one I found was signed by Tolkien, hence the crazy price, but apparently by itself it is worth quite a lot too.
So it’s hilarious to think of 9 year old Brynn sitting on her lime green air chair (it was the 90s, ok?) and reading this massive book worth thousands of dollars. Although if I ever manage to find that book again (it was probably sold at some long forgotten library book sale) I don’t think I’d sell it for triple that amount.
Why Tolkien Would Be Proud: Peter Jackson's The Hobbit Is a Better Book Adaptation (and Film) Than Any of the Lord of the Rings Films | Huffington Post
This article is a sequel of sorts to this article, which is also a must-read.
I don’t want to get into a whole big thing, but the seemingly overwhelming negative response to The Hobbit has been bumming me out a bit (it seems to be more positive in Tumblr-land but I’ve seen my share of ranty text posts here) and these two articles beautifully illustrate why everyone needs to calm the eff down.
I don’t necessarily agree with the all the harsh criticisms of the original Lord of the Rings films (mostly because the LOTR movies are so beloved in my heart that all criticism, no matter how true it is, doesn’t even exist to me- which may ruin my objectivity on the subject but I’d like to think I know a good movie from a bad one) and perhaps the author here is missing the point of some of the criticisms of The Hobbit, but I also think a lot of the critics are missing the point of The Hobbit, and am glad someone much smarter than I is defending Jackson’s choices.
The Hobbit may have been told with simpler words, but it is not a simpler story. Maybe Tolkien really is turning over in his grave, but as someone who loved Tolkien as a kid, and now as an adult, I have nothing but love for what Peter Jackson has done. Which isn’t to say I think every Tolkien fan should feel the same way as I do - everyone is more than welcome to dislike it for whatever reason - but I just feel that people, film critics especially, have been putting forth some pretty unfair arguments.
tl;dr sorry, I have a lot of Hobbit feelings, and I needed to haphazardly throw them out to you. Going to bed now.
Gollum's Song
by Emiliana Torrini
Gollum’s Song :: Emiliana Torrini & Howard Shore (The Two Towers OST)
Today Lauren & I discovered inserting the word 'cheese' into Lord of the Ring quotes is highly amusing.
- One Cheese to rule them all, one Cheese to find them. One Cheese to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
- The cheese goes ever on and on; down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the cheese has gone, and I must follow if I can.
- I will take the cheese to Mordor! ...though I do not know the way.
- Even the smallest cheese can change the course of the future.
- KEEP THE CHEESE SECRET! KEEP IT SAFE!
- Cheese is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is it early. It arrives precisely when it means to.
- 'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the cheese that is given us.”
- The Cheese stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all.
