The Book Thread Book • Page 56

haven't even tried oops. amazon basically made me audible's greatest addict. they put my second favorite book of all time in a sale this week and i've spent most of the week convincing everyone i know with audible to get it.

 

I tried to be gentle with that part, I know it's a hot take. I think at 15 I just wasn't yet into the level of detail that Tolkien was giving, it just seemed to mire me down. by contrast, I loved and still love the Hobbit so I don't think I'm hopeless

 

What book?

 

Enjoyed Adjustment Day quite a bit. Quickly read through Seriously... I'm Kidding by Ellen Degeneres after and got some good laughs out of that.

Currently reading The Comedown by Rebekah Frumkin, which is a digital ARC that I have. Not totally sure how I'm feeling about it yet, but I'm only a couple chapters in.

 

Yeah, the difference between The Hobbit and Fellowship really does drive home quite quickly. I think you'd get a lot more out of it, now.

If you haven't heard of it, Tolkien has an essay called "On Fairy Stories" that really revealed all that he was trying to do with his mythos and I adored it so much.

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It's 100% the cause of my obsession with Barcelona. It's a literary mystery with a slight paranormal/gothic edge. The most beautiful prose I've ever read.

 

Sounds interesting.

What do you mean by literary mystery?

 

I am definitely going to reread The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy this year, hopefully soon. I keep getting copies of books to review or library books I requested ages ago that have finally arrived and need to be read and returned... but as soon as I've gone through them, I'm definitely going to do it! It's been on my to do list for far too long.

 

good luck! I started and quit a bunch of times before I finally made it through last year haha. I do think it's worth it though. let us know what you think so we can talk about it!

 

Story of my Life

 

For one, it's a book about books. But it's literary in the sense that it operates more in the literary subgenre than the mystery subgenre.

 

I'm definitely intrigued now eventhough reading the synopsis I'm a little turned off by the time period it's based

 

Spain wasn't really involved in WW2, if that's a concern. The setting is handled so amazingly (especially having been to Barcelona now--I spent a whole day exploring the plot locations like a true nerd), that the time period creates more of the mood than acts as a character?

 

Read that from Nov to January and it kicked my butt.

 

Will definitely put it on my list. Probably won't get to it anytime soon though.

Appreciate this

 

if you ever want to borrow my audible log in you know where to find me

 

I'm positive that I would as well but it's all about finding time to be invested in possibly three very long books. I'll give that essay a read though, sometimes it's as simple as getting the point to make something more engaging

oh man I read it as "I don't think it's worth it" at first and was like that's discouraging hahaha. hopefully I can get a decent chunk read through spring break. I'll definitely report back with thoughts and whatnot

 

Wow, The Shadow of the Wind sounds really really cool. I'll have to get it soon and add it to my little box of books to read! Yay!

Also, just gonna shamelessly admit that I've never been able to get into Tolkien. I tried when I was like...12? And got halfway through the first one before I was so furiously bored that I just stopped. I have never had the urge to return to it, lol. I guess that makes me a bad book nerd, but there you have it. I do appreciate the level of world building and grand history/plot of the thing, and how influential his work has been on all the fantasy writers to come after him, but... I just can't do it.

That said, one of my favorite fantasy series of all time is The Chronicles of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander, which isn't super far off in terms of style/time period.

 

I love fantasy but things changed for me when I realized that my favorite is type is urban fantasy. it's like such a consistently good genre, at least it was in it's heyday. the YA urban fantasy that's popular now is still mostly pretty solid but obvs there's more fluctuation now since it's just a more crowded genre than it used to be

 

obligatory: TRY AGAIN AS AN ADULT from my tolkien loving soul

 

what are some of your favorite urban fantasies? it's a genre i've honestly not explored all that much

 

Haha, I just might - it might be easier in audiobook form, I think. I struggle with books that have large casts, especially with names that are hard to pronounce, so hearing it aloud would probably be better.

 

I'm a firm believer that not every book is for everybody, but that trilogy just transcends so much of my life that I become obnoxious about it. I listened to them last year, and the reader isn't that bad. Kinda wish they'd get updated with a new reader (or maybe even a full cast), though. Definitely sounds "older" if that makes sense if you're familiar with audiobooks.

But also yeah, Shadow of the Wind (and it's companion novels, The Angel's Game and the Prisoner of Heaven (and the fourth/final one coming out at the end of the year in English, it's already out in Spanish)) are spectacular.

 

have you heard of the Bordertown series? it's a shared world anthology series, so it's a bit different bc a bunch of authors have their hand in it. the series was extremely formative for me so it's my favorite series in the genre for that reason alone. a lot of them are out of print but you can still find them used fairly easily. they recently tried reviving the series and that one is still in print, and I think the anthology before that is still in print as well. there's also a couple of novels taking place in that universe written by will shetterly (or maybe it's shutterly?) and there's a book by one of the B-town writers called War for the Oaks that isn't in that same universe but does cultivate a similar vibe. Charles de Lint writes p consistently good urban fantasy, although not all of it has aged pristinely. in terms of recent output from the genre, I'm a big fan of Holly Black, even if sometimes she's a little corny/edgy. adds to the charm imo

 

Didn't Jim Dale do the audio for LOTR?

He did HP too and he was pretty great.

 

I'll have to check these out. I've read "Tithe" by Holly years ago.