So, Monday brought a book that I'd heard about but not seen, another Walking Tree Press collection, this one edited by Stratford Caldecott & Th. Honegger: TOLKIEN'S THE LORD OF THE RINGS: SOURCES OF INSPIRATION [2008, 'Cormare' Series #18]. I'd held off ordering this, since I already have three Stratford Caldecott books, two of which (SECRET FIRE [2003] and THE POWER OF THE RING [2005]) turned out to be more or less the same book under two different titles, while the third (TOLKIEN: FAERIE ET CHRISTIANISME (2002)] is in a language I only read with difficulty (French). So I was wary that this volume might be another iteration of a book I've bought twice but still not read yet, despite amazon's persistent insistence (via 'Recommendations') that this was something I'd be interested in.
What tipped me over into ordering it was the discovery, quite by chance, that this was the proceedings from the August 2006 Exeter College Tolkien Seminar Week, about which I'd heard lots of good things from one of the participants (hi, Bruce). It includes essays by Verlyn Flieger (always a good thing), John Garth, the three OED Tolkienists (Gilliver, Weiner, & Marshall), and Patrick Curry, as well as others (Oziewicz, Candler, Br. Pereira, Milbank, Br. Spirito), plus Caldecott & Honegger themselves.
No time to read the essays yet, between being on deadline and planning an upcoming trip to Arkansas, but these are definitely something I'll want to read, especially the essays by Flieger, Garth, and the OED Three.
--John R.
current reading: NOAH'S FLOOD by Wm Ryan & Walter Pitman [1998]
opera review: The Magic Flute again
19 hours ago
2 comments:
This is a historic occasion. This is the first time since you started this blog that you've referred to the acquisition of a new book that I already have.
Hi David
I blame it on my hesitation over whether or not to get this one, plus your diligence in getting titles as they come out for your invaluable YEAR'S WORK IN TOLKIEN STUDIES work (which means that even if I get them first, I suspect you usually read them before I do). There are one or two others I've been dithering over that you might well beat me to as well.
--John R.
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