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Book No. 53 was "Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works," translated by Diane J. Rayor, with introduction by André Lardinois. If you know anything about Sappho, you probably know that she's an ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos and that her work is very fragmentary. But exciting things have been happening in just the past 10-15 years, with a nearly-complete poem of hers discovered in 2014, and significant fragments found in 2004. This volume contains those newer fragments along with ones we've known about for some time. I really liked that the end note material explained how they pieced the fragments together, how they made choices about what words to insert based on context, and how they know some of the fragments were hers rather than by other poets of the time. Some of the fragmentary poems are interesting in their own right, but the longer, more complete ones really show her mastery of imagery. It's thought that most of her poetry is actually song lyrics and that she wrote a lot of songs to be sung at weddings. This was really fascinating.
Book No. 54 was "The Fellowship of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien. I'm a 45- year-old nerd and I've just gotten around to reading this! I read "The Hobbit" as a kid and also read a biography of Tolkien but gave up on the "Ring" trilogy after trying it once in my teens. This time around, I had it on audiobook and I think that helped a lot. I've seen the movie adaptations (both animated and live action) multiple times, so I know the basic story well, but it's fun to get the more detailed account in the books, even though the pace is a bit slow in places. I love Tom Bombadil, though I understand why he's left out of most adaptations. I also love Tolkien's absolutely gorgeous descriptions of nature. And because there are so many songs (at least a dozen) in this book, it's fun to have it read & sung on audiobook. I'm glad I finally got around to reading/listening to this.
( The other books I've read so far this year: )
Book No. 54 was "The Fellowship of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien. I'm a 45- year-old nerd and I've just gotten around to reading this! I read "The Hobbit" as a kid and also read a biography of Tolkien but gave up on the "Ring" trilogy after trying it once in my teens. This time around, I had it on audiobook and I think that helped a lot. I've seen the movie adaptations (both animated and live action) multiple times, so I know the basic story well, but it's fun to get the more detailed account in the books, even though the pace is a bit slow in places. I love Tom Bombadil, though I understand why he's left out of most adaptations. I also love Tolkien's absolutely gorgeous descriptions of nature. And because there are so many songs (at least a dozen) in this book, it's fun to have it read & sung on audiobook. I'm glad I finally got around to reading/listening to this.
( The other books I've read so far this year: )
