The 306 Greatest Books #35 - The Lord of the Rings

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This book can be found on the Observer, BBC, and My Book Lists. 

Following The Hobbit, I dove headfirst into the tome that was The Lord of the Rings. Although it is often listed as a trilogy of books, my book list treats it as a singular novel, and really that was what it was meant to be. Looking at the detail that Tolkien puts into this world, it is absolutely incredible. For a book that took ten years to write, you can tell. The story is so in depth and the languages that were created so complete that you can almost feel like this is an actual world. Word of advice, I recommend that you read it like I did. Read The Hobbit first, then expand into this book because The Hobbit flows into this book. Also, watching the movies after reading these books gave me so much more insight that upon first viewing I missed. The characterization in these novels is some of the best I have ever read. I love stories that tie back into a whole wider universe. This novel alone had urged me on to explore all of the Tolkien stories tied together, from The Silmarillion to the Lost Stories. If you don't like fantasy novels this might not be for you, but it is dead center of my alley. Overall, the book is fantastic, you just need to read it to appreciate it. Definitely on my must read list.

The 306 Greatest Books #34 - The Hobbit

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. This book can be found on the BBC Book List. 

Since books are notoriously better than their movie counterparts, I wanted to wait until all of the Lord of the Rings films finished up in theaters before starting this series. The third movie was released in December of 2003 and so I could get started on the books at any time. I also like to read books in the order that they were meant to be read, so that meant starting off this series with The Hobbit. Overall, I felt that this was a fantastic book, however it definitely was not as intricate as The Lord of the Rings. The one thing it does do fantastically though is it sets up the events of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows a hobbit names Bilbo Baggins, while he goes off on some adventures with the wizard Gandolf. It definitely feels like a kiddie version of the Lord of the Rings movie/book though and so may be a good stepping stone getting into the series, but for those already accustomed to the movies, this may end up not being what they expect.

The 306 Greatest Books #33 - A Christmas Carol

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This book can be found on the BBC Book List. 

A Christmas Carol tells the story of a miserly scrooge who eventually learns to feel the Christmas spirit after being threatened by three Christmas spirits. The story in the book is just like the story many people already know through its countless adaptations. However, anyone who is familiar with adaptations knows that the books can be very different from their adapted counterparts. After reading the story I discovered that, for one, this story is rather short and therefore many of the adapted versions actually follow the story fairly well, with each one leaving out one thing or another for the sake of flow and brevity. Overall, this is an enjoyable story which is a quick and easy read. A perfect read for the holiday season.

The 306 Greatest Books #32 - Persuasion

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Persuasion by Jane Austen. This book can be found on the BBC Book List. 

Many of the books on my list remain with me long after I have read them and some are forgotten completely. This is one of those forgotten completely books. This is easily not the best of Austen's work, which is probably the reason why it is not mentioned alongside Pride and Prejudice, and it is also not even close to my favorite. The plot-line was a little hard to follow and the book was slow to start off at first, however about halfway through I had no troubles at all. The book is a love story, like many of Austen's works. It follows a young girl who was persuaded to let her one true love get away (hence the title). The book then picks up seven years later while she is still alone, when her true love suddenly returns. Persuasion does stand out from Austen's other works, primarily Pride and Prejudice, because the main character is not looking for marriage, but is actually trying to avoid it. She does this mainly because she feels she is too old for marriage. If you are an Austen fan then you should read it because it is not all that bad, however it was just not for me.

The 306 Greatest Books #31 - Pride and Prejudice

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This book can be found on the Sybervision, Norwegian, BBC, and My Book Lists. 

During the early part of the 1800's there was a series series of books written that could generally be classified as romantic time period pieces. Many of these books were written by women who remain as popular today as the day they were written, especially Jane Austen, who is possibly the most famous of them all. The first of Austen's novels that I dove into, Pride and Prejudice, is possibly her best, if not her most famous novel. The story follows the lives of several socialites, all of varying social classes, trying to woo each other. Austen's writing style is full of whit and satire, and although it is incredibly intelligently written it still remains easy to read, a feat many authors fail at. She manages to take a variety of people, all with various attitudes and mannerisms, and involve them in a believable, yet very funny, series of verbal confrontations ranging from topics of marriage, money, and social class. This is definitely a book on my must read list and my favorite of her works.