Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Arrivals

So, I shd have noted the arrival of the new biography of Father Francis Morgan, which arrived on the 18th. But I've been so busy getting ready for Kalamazoo after losing a week to the cat-bite incident that posts have lagged behind. So let me just quickly note some new arrivals/purchases of interest:

 LA CONEXION ESPANOLA DE J. R. R. TOLKIEN. This looks to be an interesting and consequential book, but I'll have to brush up my long-rusty Spanish to be able to make any headway into it at all. Once I get back I'll try to post a list of chapter titles/topics, the better for folks to see what the book covers.

The second of the two WETA WORKSHOP making-of-the-film books. The first was much more interesting than I expected, so I'm looking forward to making my way through this one too at some point.

3-MINUTE TOLKIEN, by Gary Raymond [2012]. I heard about this one recently on the MythSoc list, and saw that Wayne and Christina have weighed it and found it wanting. Looking through the 'bargain books' (remaindered) shelves at Barnes & Noble turned up a small stack of them (as well as the Tolkien Trivia book I blogged about a while back and the David Day). Thought it'd make for light reading on the plane (varied with re-watching the Peter Jackson HOBBIT). I'm about half-way through, so I'll hold off comment for now.

And finally something really weird: a coffee-table biography of H. P. Lovecraft by S. T. Joshi. I shd have thought HPL the last author to lend himself to such treatment, and Joshi the last scholar to have his work come out in that format. Live and learn.

And so it goes on the eve of the medieval congress, where I'll no doubt find some interesting books I never heard of while looking and failing to find several I'd like to pick up. The book room at Kalamazoo never disappoints, but it's capricious in its discoveries. We'll see what it yields up this year.

--John R.,
in Kalamazoo,
the night before the day before.
(the biggest 'arrival' being myself, at Kalamazoo, completed draft of my paper* in hand)

*8000 words

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