The Hobbit: check

I FINALLY FINISHED THE HOBBIT!!
To be honest, the point I made in my last entry still stands. However, I was happy to see that Bilbo did not slay the dragon. Having the dragon die at the hands of someone else was slightly disappointing to the part of me that was very into the story, but it was exciting to the part of me that hates all things cliché.
So as much as I liked the Hobbit, I did not find it as interesting as I had anticipated, but I am excited to get to the Lord of the Rings books. I do enjoy Tolkien ‘s writing style, but I think I am slightly distracted at the current moment by the Madonna episode of Glee that is coming on in 1 hour and 20 minutes, which is hindering my ability to say anything intelligent.

Next up: The Fellowship of the Ring

What's SO Great About The Hobbit?

Let me start off this post by saying that I am in fact enjoying reading The Hobbit.

But here's the deal: I have read numerous books about people or creatures wandering through the woods and making a long journey for some epic purpose. Some books by Brian Jacques come to mind; I spent an entire summer reading him on summer during middle school. So, if this is the case and many characters from books have made epic journeys just like Bilbo and his band of 13 dwarves, why is this book so much better than the others? Tolkien created an entire world, but so did Jacques. The characters are just as memorable. Perhaps Tolkien's writing style is better, but from what I can tell, the story itself is at the heart of this matter. Why do people love the story of Bilbo more than that of any other wandering character from literature?

I know that the Lord of the Rings series is currently quite popular because of the movies that have come out within the last decade. However, I know that these books were also popular before that. I have come to realize that The Hobbit is a good book, I am just wondering how much better it actually is than others. Also, I know this is just an arbitrary list of books that I am reading. Thus, The Hobbit may not actually be one of the best out there (although I would bet money that it is on the best books ever written list) so my question in this entry may be null and void.

Perhaps the ending will answer this question.

Still reading the Hobbit....

My life has been rather hectic these past few weeks, so I haven't been as into my reading project as I would have like to have been. Bottom line: I am still reading the Hobbit, just at a snail's pace. Luckily, though, all my projects are now over (FINALLY!!!) and I can devote myself to this project again. (and the weather is getting nicer so I can be outside and fight paleness at the same time!) Plus, next week is spring break so I won't be doing ANYTHING all week, which will be fantastic because I can just read (and shop a little...as a reward for doing school stuff/working).

Tonight, though, I think will be Hobbit-reading night and the next thing I write will actually relate to me having read something instead of the opposite.

The Hobbit-Part 1

I'm up to chapter 7 in the Hobbit. So far Bilbo has set out a journey with the dwarfs but got separated from them in a cave and found Gollum's ring. Then he tricked Gollum into showing him the way out of the cave and back to the dwarfs.

I have tried to read this book at least once before and it ended probably before page 20. This time I got past the part where nothing happens for a while and on to something a little more exciting. I like it, so I ordered the whole series (along with a couple other books on the list) and they should be arriving soon!

So...that's all I have to say about the Hobbit so far...lame, right? I should have way more to say considering it's such an epic story, but oh well. School work and trying to find a summer job (let alone a real job) have taken all my energy.

Books I HAVE Read

I mentioned before that I had read 13 books on this list. I should probably list out what they are:

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
76 The Inferno – Dante
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

I'm debating rereading some of these...it has been a long time since I have read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Anne of Green Gables, Animal Farm, and Winnie the Pooh. Although I remember loving these books (not Animal Farm, though) I can't remember much about them besides what I can recall from movies and tv shows. So, to be fair, I may end up reading these again.

Also, I will probably, along with my friend, who is now embarking on this journey with me (so that when we get an apartment together we can have a lot of impressive books out) revise the list slightly, or at least take off a few of the books we will never read and substitute a couple that we will. Although I suppose I can report on that when it happens.

Favorite book so far: Anna Karenina, hands down. (I also really like Because of Winn Dixie, but that's not on the list. I guess it's the teacher in me.)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland-part 3

"Cheshire-Puss," she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. "Come, it's pleased so far," thought Alice, and she went on. "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where--" said Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

"--so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.

"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

So true! If you don't have an ending goal or desired result in mind, there is no way you can choose the wrong path. In this part of the book, at the very least, I feel like the cat is the only source of reason. And that is what I like the most about the Cheshire cat--the character who is a talking animal that can appear and disappear at will, relocate to other locations in a flash, and make only parts of his body appear in thin air is the only character in the book worth listening to.

...replied Alice; "and I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy!"

"All right," said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.

So, I finished Alice in Wonderland. I really was interested in the details from the book that contributed to continuity among film versions. One example I noticed was the queen's croquet game. In both the Tim Burton version as well as Disney's animated version, the mallets were flamingos and the balls were hedgehogs. This detail did indeed show up in the book. Another detail that I thought Disney may have taken liberties with, but was actually in the book was the painting the roses red part. Being unfamiliar with Carroll's story until this point, I wasn't sure how much of these films were people's interpretations influencing each other vs. how much was actually included in Carroll's writing. However, I was confused when I got to the end of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and I had not yet met Tweedledee and Tweedledum. They do show up in "Through the Looking Glass," which I am currently reading.

Burton's version, although it uses many characters from Carroll's two books, does not follow the storyline much at all, save for the key-table-eat me-drink me part from chapter 1. However, the plot in the Burton version seemed much more cohesive than Disney's animated version. Before reading the book, I though that perhaps Disney was in a strange stage with its movies and perhaps having disjointed scenes was part of the style. However, each chapter in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" as well as "Through the Looking Glass" tells about a new place or person that Alice met. However, there is not really much of a story in "Wonderland" besides Alice looking for a white rabbit and exploring. I was interested in the book because I wanted to see what would happen to Alice next, or who she would meet, but as far as a plot driving the story forward, there is not one that stands out in my mind.

I am not enjoying "Through the Looking Glass" as much as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" although it is answering my questions about characters I did not encounter in the first book (the Tweedles, the singing flowers) and things I knew were coming (Walrus and the Carpenter, the Jabberwocky). I'm on chapter 5 of that one now, with about 70 pages to go.

One last quote from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

"Every thing's got a moral, if only you can find it"
-spoken by the Duchess

I love this quote as well because if you really look for it, you can find a moral or reason for everything. I guess there is a lot of truth in this book that is embedded and spoken by mad people and thus disregarded by the reader due to the character's mental state.

Next up: THE HOBBIT

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland-Part 2

"Who are you? said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, "I-I hardly know, Sir, just at present-at least, I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."
I am up to chapter 6 in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland now. I'm going to do a summary of chapters 2-6 for my own purposes (spoiler alert!) and then talk about what

Summary: Alice grew to 9 feet in the hall, and then cried, and then shrunk back down so that she was swimming in the "pool of tears" (title of chapter 2). At that point, she came across a swimming doormouse that lead her to shore. At the shore, Alice met a dodo bird that had everyone running in a circle to get dry. The White Rabbit appeared again, thought Alice was someone named Mary Ann, presumably his maid, and she followed him back to his house. In the house, Alice saw more "Eat Me" cakes, so she ate them and grew (point #1). Alice then grew too big for the house and was entirely stuffed inside. The White Rabbit found his friend Pat and Bill, a lizard, to determine what was in the house and to get it out. When they realized that it was Alice, they started throwing more "Eat Me" cakes at her, so she ate the cakes and shrunk once again. She ran from the house, encountered a dog, ran from the dog, and then came upon a large mushroom with a caterpillar smoking hookah on top. The caterpillar and Alice talk in circles and Alice comes to the conclusion that she doesn't really know who she is anymore, and is frustrated with changing sizes so often (point #2). The caterpillar walks away, telling Alice that one side of the mushroom will make her grow, while the other side will make her shrink. She bites the growing side and becomes taller than trees. A bird thinks that she is a serpent, and although she tries to reason with him, telling him that she is a girl and not hunting eggs, he does not believe her. She then eats more of the mushroom and shrinks to her regular size (point #3). At the end of chapter 6, Alice encounters a little house, about as tall as she, and so she decides to find out what is inside, but not before shrinking a little more as to not frighten whoever or whatever is inside.

END OF SUMMARY

In general, the growing and shrinking is getting a little old at this point. It is making it increasingly difficult to figure out what size Alice is at any particular point in the story. Also, I can't remember another book I have read where a character shrinks like this. So, I've come to the conclusion that shrinking means something, but I'm not sure what exactly.

Point #1: When Alice eats the "Eat Me" cakes while inside the Rabbit's house, she says "I know something interesting is sure to happen....whenever I eat or drink anything: so I'll just see what this bottle does." Alice is indeed very curious about her new surroundings, and adventurous to be trying whatever she comes across, hoping that it will bring about some welcome change. She goes on to say "I do hope it'll make me grow large again, for really I'm quite tired of being such a tiny little thing!" and then she grows too big for the house. There are definitely tones of "be careful what you wish for," but also the idea that it's not always luck that puts one in a strange situation.

Point #2: Because Alice keeps eating everything in sight, hoping things will happen to her, she is really bringing all the changes upon herself. Her desire to get into the garden in the beginning of the book started this, and as she grew and shrank even more, more problems arose. If she had, in the first chapter, brought the key with her, or unlocked the door when she was tall, before drinking to become small, all of these problems would not even exist. Alice is frustrated with her lot at the beginning of chapter 6, but in reality she has no one to blame but herself. She followed the rabbit, and she drank and ate strange food and drinks, so she is the only one responsible. Luckily there are creatures in Wonderland to help her out so far, providing her with cakes and drinks, or a magical mushroom in the case of the caterpillar.

Point #3: At this point, Alice has realized, thanks to the caterpillar, that she is in control of her size. Due to her experience with the bird in chapter 6, she now has the foresight to make herself the correct size for each new event or setting in Wonderland. Although, she desires so much to be her regular height, but who is to say what is actually "regular" in Wonderland, or even in general. And is Alice able to know if she is the perfect height that she is used to being? I'm wondering if I had grown and shrank and was transported to a magical land, and given a mushroom, as Alice was, I'm not confident that I could make myself the height that I am now.

I do love the caterpillar, though. I found him very creepy in the Disney version of this movie, and also saw the caterpillar played by the voice of Snape in Tim Burton's version. However, in the book he seems less grumpy. Although he does have very short answers, he is testing Alice to see if she knows herself. I mean, if I were a caterpillar smoking hookah on a mushroom, and some teeny tiny girl comes up and looks at me, I would ask her who she is as well. And if she couldn't answer, I would become frustrated with her. I love that he gives her the mysterious mushroom to try to make her happy (as if that could happen....human nature comment, what?) I kind of wonder though, what makes that mushroom so special. Maybe the hookah seasoned it, haha.

I think that's where I'll leave Alice for a day while I start my grad school homework, which consists of reading a Twilight-esque book. I feel like perhaps that is not the most scholarly thing but I guess I can comment on that later.