29th June 2003, 12:03 PM
Yeah that's nuts. The level of detail on Lord of the Rings (which is all ONE book actually, told in 3 volumes) is one thing I LOVE about it. He keeps it up in the Silmarillion (which is a VERY good read and together with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit pretty much fully completes the tales of Arda (reading Silmarillion, you find out there's more to that planet then just Middle-Earth). You really get some good detailed explanations about what on Earth the ending of LOTR is supposed to mean in Sil. As for the other tales, I've heard they also add bits of detail here and there and are good stories in their own right besides. I'll be reading all of those eventually, though I don't look forward to the massive torment that will come from reading a whole book of unfinished tales :D. To each their own, but I LOVE being able to perfectly picture every single thing in a book like I can with JRR Tolkein's stuff.
Oh, one of the side stories I'm wanting to read most is apparently the result of a challenge between JRR and CS Lewis, one was to right a story about space travel and the other a story about time travel. The time travel one was worked into the stories of Arda, so of course I'll be wanting to read that. Considering I also enjoyed reading the tales of Narnia, I may also want to read whatever book Lewis wrote about space travel.
Oh, one of the side stories I'm wanting to read most is apparently the result of a challenge between JRR and CS Lewis, one was to right a story about space travel and the other a story about time travel. The time travel one was worked into the stories of Arda, so of course I'll be wanting to read that. Considering I also enjoyed reading the tales of Narnia, I may also want to read whatever book Lewis wrote about space travel.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)