Currently Reading

[Sly Boots]

[Medicine Man]

You cant skip the songs!?

See? Rad Dad knows the score. Sing it loud and proud Sly.

[Sly Boots]

You cant skip the songs!?

See? Rad Dad knows the score. Sing it loud and proud Sly.

Even to myself? On the train?

I mean, if you say so...


*Sly was later detained under the Mental Health Act and not seen again*

[Maturin]

I read them, but it's more that I'm humouring Tolkein tbh. I don't put any great stock in them.

[Stormbringer]

I don't put any great stock in them.

THEN YOU ARE NOT A TRUE TOLKIEN FAN!!!

[Maturin]

I don't put any great stock in them.

THEN YOU ARE NOT A TRUE TOLKIEN FAN!!!

I shall now walk the lands in exile.

[Medicine Man]

I don't put any great stock in them.

THEN YOU ARE NOT A TRUE TOLKIEN FAN!!!

Preach it Rad Dad!

[Stormbringer]

Can I have "Rad Dad" written under my name, Mantis? ¬_¬

[Gibby]

See, I wanted to read/mentally sing the songs, but I cannot figure out the tune to most of them and spend TOO LONG reading them over and over getting a tune to fit. So therefore I also started skipping them. ¬_¬

I'm currently reading The Retreat - Mark Edwards. Wanting something a bit different to my usual fare, I found it for £1 on the Kindle Store as it's a Best Seller that's on offer. It's a psychological horror, I guess. I'm about half way through and I'm really enjoying it!

[Stormbringer]

See, I wanted to read/mentally sing the songs, but I cannot figure out the tune to most of them and spend TOO LONG reading them over and over getting a tune to fit. So therefore I also started skipping them.

I just make up a tune as I go! If it doesn't fit I just make it fit! ¬_¬

[Hatredsheart]

I got WAY too into Tolkien with like minded friends in my teens, to the point I could write fluently in both Quenya and Angerthas Daeron. Never went as far as tunes though, I was never musically talented.

[Snowy]

I am currently reading The Shadow of the High King: The Weaving Shadows Book One by Frank Dorrian. Almost done with it, and the second book queued and waiting on my Kindle - I am absolutely loving it.

It is a particularly dark Grimdark fantasy circling around a kingdom run by the Ironbrand, an absolutely ruthless king who has to be that way to keep his nobles in check. It also features a mercenary company (the Blackshield Dogs) and one of their number Harlin, a tribesman taken as a slave from his home island as a child and consigned to fighting pits but rescued by the leader of the Blackshield Dogs. From the North comes an old enemy not intent on conquest, just destruction. Harlin meanwhile wants to return to the ruins of his home to try and find clues to who destroyed his and his families lives.

It is very well written although there are a lot of typos in the kindle version, something that always niggles me. Also the plot, while written as above sounds very much the usual fantasy fare, has kept me guessing all the way through.

There is a lot of profanity and a lot of violence, including sexual. The characters are truly grey, no shining lights of heroism here although there is one spectacular baddie.

Early days, but as a debut novel, this is really very good.

[Stormbringer]

So I was reading The Lord of the Rings out loud tonight to my sons as usual. I'm at the bit where Frodo wakes up in Rivendell and Gandalf's just updated him on what happened with the Ringwraiths at the Ford of Bruinen.

Sam Gamgee then comes to visit Frodo in bed, and the text goes like this:

At that moment there was a knock on the door, and Sam came in. He ran to Frodo and took his left hand, awkwardly and shyly. He stroked it gently and then he blushed and turned hastily away.

`Hullo, Sam!' said Frodo.

`It's warm!' said Sam. `Meaning your hand, Mr. Frodo. It has felt so cold through the long nights.'

I burst out laughing then and found it very hard to continue with a straight face!

[Pew-Pew]

Some of it is so homoerotic. Do you think Tolkien realised what he was writing?

[Stormbringer]

Yes, I just don't think he expected immature blokes like me to read anything other than innocent friendship into his text. ¬_¬