I've Been Pretty Busy

Well, OK, I've been kinda busy lately.


I've been spending a lot of time reading. I've been neglecting my books for a while and now I'm on a major reading binge.


I've read about half of my Darkover series, plus some I picked up last week at the local Friends of the Library bookstore -- Exile's Song, Shadow Matrix and Traitor's Sun. I ordered the next one, The Alton Gift, plus a Patricia Briggs and another Norton book last night online.

I'm also working my way back through my collection of Andre Norton.

Plus I'm currently reading Lucy by Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey.

I'm such a book fiend, little do my friends know, unless they've been to my house. Even then, most of them don't know that I still have boxes of books in the spare bedroom and about five boxes under my bed.

I've always been a voracious reader.

I've been trying to remember when I started reading everything I could get my hands on. I remember when I was young, my parents had a little nook in the living room where my dad had his reloading gear. And one entire wall was books and magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics (oh, I wish I had those today!!) That was where I discovered the Hardy Boys (the old series, not the new stuff) and Edgar Rice Burroughs, I think it was Cave Girl.

I also remember that there was this school librarian that thought she should limit my reading to what SHE thought was an appropriate reading level. I didn't know it until years later, but my parents went in and had a little discussion with her about my reading abilities. So she stopped trying to tell me that I couldn't read the upper grade level books. And I read and read and read...

People, I have to tell you, having parents that read plus many books and magazines in the house really led me down the reading road.

Now, my own kids? Yes, they read, but not as much as I do.

LOL, then again, most people don't read as much as I do.

Frodo Lives

You know, the other day I was talking about Darkover.

It brought back memories of other favorite books, chief among them, The Lord of the Rings.

I can't count the number of times I've read and enjoyed The Hobbit and the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings. (Too bad I foolishly lent out The Two Towers from my set, now I need to find another copy or buy another set. Darn it all, and you wonder why I don't lend my books out!)

I was so excited and pleased with the LOTR movies. While some fans may criticize some of the characterizations and changes from the original book, the sweeping tale was very well done.

Let me say, Hollywood at its best. A rare thing.

Being a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan, I've seen some pretty bad movies made from some pretty darn good books. Somehow Hollywood manages to skew the book to fit the flavor of the month.

Yes, the LOTR movies did justice to the books.

Frodo lives. Immortalized in book and movie, Frodo will always be with us.

Darkover

I've been re-reading some of my Darkover novels, by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Darkover was huge in the 70s.

A complex world, mistaken by Terrans as a feudal culture, Darkover is filled with angst, conflict, death and life. A telepathic society that has already had its Age of Chaos, Darkover chooses to remain independent of Terran technology.

I've really been enjoying re-reading my old friends.

I would recommend starting the series with Darkover Landfall and then working your way through them chronologically. Well, as much as you can, since the books are all loosely set on Darkover, but were written over a long period of time. So the "first" book was actually written much later than the "last" book of the series.

Darkover, highly recommended.

(Hey, you can do a search on the Amazon, just look to the right, I have an Amazon link available for your convenience.)