Tag Archives: Tolkien

Day 2 – rereading + most read

Quite probably a topic I shall return to again & again …

five repeat offenders: re-reading

It is far, far better to read one book six times, at intervals, than to read six several books.
— D.H. Lawrence, Apocalypse

going back into the depths of time
Blyton survives despite mild dating dilemmas 
her Five will always be Famous

Anne of All the Different Idyllic 
19th Century Canadian Places*
glorious masterpieces all

for twenty years Tolkien was Christmas
holidays to me with repeated rereads
giving as much delight as presents under the tree

gosh, it’s getting hard down this end of the list
why did I set myself only 5 when 8 or a dozen 
would’ve enabled far more faves 

there’s newcomers like The Princess Bride
quirky Thursday Next, & Pullman’s Dark Materials
but I guess I must really mention oft-reread big guns

Austen outshines the Brontes; & Shakespeare, Dickens; 
earthy Lawrence over elegant F. Scott, & the Greek 
playwrights are repeatedly visited but all here are intimates

we are today overwhelmed with such quantities of books
but these are valuable as jewels, or a lovely picture, 
into which I can look deeper & deeper 

— & yet still have a profound experience every time

*****

Factoid 2 – best selling books

best sellers

several sites agree
on the three best-selling 
books in the world

the Holy Bible
the Harry Potter series 
Quotations from Chairman Mao

one i’ve read a couple of times
one at least seven
& one never

as Meatloaf semisang
two outta three ain’t bad

*yes I know they were written in the 20th century
but the first ones were set at the end of the 19th which sounds better so,
poetic license

Day 13 — omnibus: bills + books

Foray into politics & legislation-passing. 

*****

Big Uglies

While I understand the need 
for bundling pieces of like-legislation
into the same bill so Parliament 
doesn’t get bogged down passing 
thousands of unique, highly specific laws;

too often omnibus bills: bury 
controversial provisions; complex &/or 
controversial material (not all of which 
might have been adequately 
debated in either of the houses);
or hide pork barrel clauses
amid the thousands of pages.

Furthermore, their sheer massiveness 
& often quick adoption timetable
prevents parliamentarians from informing 
themselves concerning all relevant issues.

To me — these Big Ugly bills ring Big Loud 
alarm bells every time they’re proposed …

*****

Day 13 – TI  disagree with Professor Tolkien

*Not 
One book to bring them all
   and in the omnibus bind them

conversely & perhaps unsurprisingly 
i’m also not a huge fan of omnibus 
editions when it comes to books

books previously published separately
should under no circumstances 
be brought together as one volume

& not just because the paper’s cheaper
to lower costs — or that they weigh as much
as two household bricks off their diet

but because they lose both elegance 
& individuality when crammed together
between the same two mass-market covers

& this even applies to The Lord of The Rings
(Tolkien only grudgingly allowed it published
as three volumes considering it one big book)

— to me three is the absolute perfect number
even if Book IV The Ring Goes East drags till Faramir
& The Return of the King does kinda give it all away