…

I really should go to bed now.

The films are right up there in my all time favorite movies lists. Having read the books around the same time I saw them it was very interesting hearing the odd line you recognized or the occasional deviation from the plot of the original. As for: I haven’t seen the films as I found the prospect of gnawing off my own leg more appealing. - I pour scorn in your general direction. you’ll say you didn’t like Star Wars next.

Anyway, there are hardly any Dwarves in Lord of the Rings.

Greg - We had a policy of holding onto all our books for a long while, until we had no more room in our home for another shelf. We ended up giving 75% of them away and haven’t missed them a bit. We still have a few that are unlikely to be re-read, and a fair few that are waiting to even be opened.

Recently blogging has taken over from reading for me, it occupies the same hour or so slot before I go to sleep. I keep meaning to make more time for reading though.

Jared - If you think Cervantes has a fabulous sense of humor than I advise you never to go near a PG Wodehouse novel or you may have an aneurysm.

You are more than welcome to have my Don Quixote once I’ve finished
with it, but I haven’t given up yet - I’m just floundering. I even read four pages last night. At that rate I don’t think I’ll be done by the time you go to Spain though.

I’m happy to take ‘Don Quixote’ off your hands. The Grossman version is very popular, and has a long waiting list at our library. I had it for two weeks, but had to return it. What? I’m cheap. We’re traveling to Spain this summer, and I’m this close to buying it.

I didn’t think I’d enjoy ‘Don Quixote’ as much as I did. Cervantes has a fabulous sense of humor!

(p.s. Send Tesco’s red-label. Our supply is dwindling.)

An example: We must hold the ford at Osgiliath against all costs and we will talk about this for 400 pages about how important and exciting it’s going to be.

“And thusly the knights did ride out to Osgiliath and did fight and lose a battle and had to ride back home again.”

Brilliant. Ooh, ooh, quick, there’s some more landscapes I can describe in brain aching detail instead.

Pity, because the world itself is great. Still, the films are brilliant.

I could go into more detail about the vast amount of books I’ve not managed to finish but to be honest the list is enormous. I’ll either be on a roll and steam through four or five boks in a row or i’ll be completely uninspired and start, and fail two or three until the next roll comes along.

Once we had a couple over and one of the pair is a librarian. We were in our basement when I noticed them looking at the collection of books we have down there. I saw them smirk at each other. At first it bothered me then I thought our cache of books probably does deserve a smirk. They recognized my “books as decoration” habit. These days I keep acquiring the things but I never actually get through them.

When I was younger I took this quote seriously, “If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads but what he rereads.” Don’t know who said it - but it made me hold on to every book I read more for display purposes than because I loved it and hoped to read it again. The truth is, most of the books I put on my shelf weren’t treasures to be revisited, they were more a matter of, “Well, I got through that one.” These days, I don’t even try. I have good intentions but I’ve pretty much forgotten about that reading list of classics we all have buried in the back of our heads. The one that we’ve been told everyone else has completed by the time they’re my age. The books that supposedly moved readers to see the world with different, far more enriched eyes than those of us too lazy or too stupid to bother.

So once again I hate you, Dan. This time it’s because you’re willing to give Don Quixote a try and I’m too lazy and too stupid to bother.

I like TV:

http://www.g4tv.com/ninjawarrior/index.html