More New Books

So, yesterday's visit to the Barnes and Noble in Federal Way showed that three more of the movie tie-in books have now been released, two of which I picked up (I went by the Barnes and Noble in Tukwila today to pick up the third, but they don't have it -- interesting how the 'Hobbit Table' contents vary from store to store).

#10: THE HOBBIT -- AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY: THE MOVIE STORYBOOK by Paddy Kempshall [Nov. 2012]

This is a simple re-telling of the first HOBBIT movie, plentifully illustrated with photos from the film.* As such, it's the ultimate spoiler: those who want to experience the film with minimal spoilers beforehand shd stay clear of this one till after seeing the movie itself. That said, does a nice job of doing what it does: a glossy teaser for the film before it comes out, and then a useful reminder of what was and wasn't in the movie after the film's release but before the dvd is available.

#11: THE HOBBIT -- AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY: VISUAL COMPANION by Jude Fisher  [Nov 2012]

Somewhat more substantial, but still pretty much focused on spreads with large stills from the film showing people and places from the film. It does the best job I've seen yet of distinguishing between the dwarves, giving a photo and backstory for each (which often differ markedly from what Tolkien tells us about them). I think I'll now be able to tell them all apart, most of the time. The book also contains a few interesting tidbits, like two pages from Bilbo's pocket notebook, or a glimpse into Ori's Book

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In other news, I took our jar of pennies, into which we throw spare change (despite the name, not just pennies but nickels, dimes, and quarters as well) to the CoinStar machine. It took a long time to process them all, occasionally telling me to stop adding coins while it processed what was already in it.  The total, once it'd all been counted, was $164.72. That's a lot of coins -- but then, it did fill a five-pound honey jar, so maybe I shdn't have been surprised. Since you get less for cash (they deduct their cut) than for a gift certificate, I opted to get the whole thing as credit for Amazon. Now seems like a good time to get several books that have hovered in the 'save for later' portion of my amazon.com orders basket for several months now, including several Tolkien books. More later.


current reading: Snicket's ALL THE WRONG QUESTIONS (#II.3034), Atwood's TRUE STORIES (II.3035), Kempshall's MOVIE STORYLINE (3036A), Fisher's VISUAL COMPANION (3036B) (concluded); Atwood's THE HANDMAIDEN'S TALE (just started), Sibley's OFFICIAL MOVIE GUIDE (just starting)
current anime, new: THE AMBITION OF ODA NOBUNA (on Crunchyroll)
current anime, old: EL HAZARD: THE ALTERNATE WORLD (dubbed, on vhs!)


*and, oddly enough, a few pieces of concept art -- maybe there scenes hadn't been finalized by Kempshall's deadline?