Reading Report

Perhaps this post should be called, "Re-reading Report." Goodreads allows you to mark books as Want To Read, Reading, or Read. I think they should have an option for Re-Reading.

Anyway, I'm re-reading The Lord of the Rings. This is either the 3rd or the 4th time, I think, but it's been a good long while since the last reading. In fact, I think I understand it a little better now. One thing I marvel at is Tolkien's attention to landscape details. There is nothing generic about his descriptions of landscape. In fact, it is vitally important to his narrative. Related to that is the thinginess of his writing. It is relentlessly earthy, concerned with tools, homes, furniture, clothing, etc. Tolkien is nothing if not rooted and grounded.

At the same time, I'm re-reading a well-known book by Tolkien's fellow-Inkling, C. S. Lewis. The book is The Screwtape Letters. Again, for the 3rd or 4th time. The book is a marvel. I consider it extremely useful and will come back to its many lessons in this blog at some point.

I gave up on Suicide of the West, by Jonah Goldberg. I am sympathetic to the argument of the book and definitely learned some things, but it was becoming a bit of a tedious slog. It is no shame to give up on a book. 

And as if I need to be reading something else, I am greatly enjoying An Irish Country Doctor by Peter Taylor. This was a library discovery. Most of the Goodreads reviewers give it a moderately positive review, saying it was "sweet," which seems to be a damning with faint praise kind of word in this context. Others said it was "sweet" and meant they hated it. Me, I'm totally enjoying it. And yes, it is definitely sweet.