Tuesday, March 12, 2013

A Matter of Time - Top Ten Tuesday #4

Today's Top Ten Tuesday Topic is "Top Ten Books at the TOP of My Spring TBR list!" If perchance this is your first experience with Top Ten Tuesday, you can find more information about it here.

At last! A topic that I don't need to rely on Wikipedia!  Huzzah!  And there was much rejoicing.

Silliness and Monty Python references aside, there are a great many books I am hoping to read in the upcoming months, though only time will tell how many I will actually manage to read, time ultimately being the determining factor.  Nevertheless, here is my list of books that are my top priority to read this spring:


1. The History of Middle Earth - J.R.R. Tolkien
Technically a series of books totaling 12 in number, I still count them as one because otherwise, this list would be entirely too focused and therefore not a good indicator of what I actually plan to read.  Being something of a Tolkien enthusiast, I look forward to seeing how Middle Earth changed over time, eventually resulting in the books we know today.

2. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun - J.R.R. Tolkien
In case you haven't heard, Tolkien worked on more than just Middle Earth and a few children's stories (well, I hadn't anyway, so it was quite a surprise to see this in my recommendations from Barnes & Noble).  Only recently published, Tolkien's adaptations of old Norse tales is not a book for the casual reader.  Having glanced over its contents briefly, I can say this - it will take notes. Lots and lots of notes.

3. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - J.R.R. Tolkien
If you're beginning to sense a pattern, you're right - I read these from left to right across my bookshelf, so naturally these come first.  Another adaptation of a classic tale, this one comes with recommendations from a friend whose opinion I value highly, so I shall undertake to fit it in to my busy schedule my free time.

4. The Dark Tower and Other Stories - C.S. Lewis
A collection of short stories by Lewis, I know absolutely nothing about it, except that it contains one story titled The Dark Tower and, just maybe, a few other stories as well.  In all seriousness, I have yet to pick up anything by Lewis that I didn't enjoy, and this set in particular caught my eye some time ago.

5. Paradise Lost - John Milton
I apparently have decided to give stories told in verse a try (this is #3 on the list so far).  Milton is quoted as saying the purpose for his work is to "justify the ways of God to men".  I'm curious to see what this entails, so on the list it goes.

6. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain
A book I read long, long ago as an abbreviated children's story, I was excited to receive this one as a Christmas gift.  It has now been near to three months, it's time I read it.

7. Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
I actually liked the musical based on this book, so I'd like to see how they compare.

8. The Jungle Books - Rudyard Kipling
When I was little, we used to watch Chuck Jones' adaptations of Rikki Tikki Tavi and The White Seal and it's hard to forget Disney's version of the story of Mowgli, who forms a central role in the book.  More poetry too, I guess I've decided to give poetry a try.

9. Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan
Same scenario as Connecticut Yankee, only that version had a picture on every other page, so I'm fairly certain there's even more that I've missed out on.

10.  Teind & Underking - Me
So, technically, reading something you've written shouldn't count, but it's been some two months since I've been able to even look at them due to computer troubles and, at a combined page count of 438 pages, they nearly count as a full book between them, so on the list they go!

And there we go!  This is the first list where I did not need to use Wikipedia to confirm I had names and titles right!  Since my post last Thursday, this blog has surpassed 200 pageviews!  Not a tremendously high number, but it's a milestone and I'm proud of it, so thank you for reading!

3 comments:

  1. I have Lewis and Tolkien on my list as well. And it would be interesting to see how Phantom of the Opera the book compares to the musical!
    - Amy, http://odetojoandkatniss.wordpress.com/

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  2. Oddly for a Tolkien geek I have surprisingly little interest in reading the histories of middle earth. I just can't comprehend how middle earth could need more of a history than the Silmarillion. Pilgrims progress is overrated, and Paradise Lost is beautiful.

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    1. The History of Middle Earth books aren't so much additional history as an exhaustive behind the scenes look at Tolkien's work. The first book (or maybe two, I haven't time to check) is a collection of early version of the Silmarillion that were scrapped for being non-canonical when compared to his later, finished works.

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