duckens Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Welcome! This is the third installment of the Monthly Book Club. We're still here (or at least I am...possibly talking to myself), so that is a good thing. We voted on books to read, and the selection to discuss during April 2013 is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Please feel free to drop in and join us if you have EVER read this book and have something valuable to add to the conversation. First, some housekeeping: 1) Future books (according to the vote): Hey! We have no future books! It is time to recommend new selections for our future months! Do not make proposals here. The place to make book proposals is here. The thread for book proposals that will be open for 7 days of suggestions. Then I will try (around April 8th) to start a separate thread for 7 days of voting on the top nominees. When future books have been decided upon, I will edit this post and try to list them in this spot. 2) If you are not interested in reading specific a book, then skip that month. Our time is too valuable to be reading things we resent reading. Likewise, we welcome those who are only participate sporadically. The ideal is that many voices will result in a good discussion. 3) Keep in mind suggestions for future books clubs (if we can make it through the first few months). 4) Play nice. I don't want to get banned! PSA: I have never run a "book club." I am not planning to start now, beyond the basic organization of voting and starting monthly threads. However: --Please feel free to pm me if I miss something mechanical. --Don't take it personally if I don't get right back to you. Sometimes life gets busy, and I am absent from the boards for a week or so at a time. ETA: link to book suggestion thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckens Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Maybe I am just talking to myself. :laugh: Spoilers (through the 2nd chapter) here. That's all the further I have read so far. I had read The Hobbit nearly a decade ago, and I struggled to get through it, and the first two LOTR books. I shuddered when it was chosen for a selection this month. Instead, I am laughing my head off at the story so far. Chapter 1 Poor Bilbo has 13 unexpected guests come for tea. They eat him out of house and home. I'm not sure that he likes ANY visitors in the first place, but this is a version of a dinner party from hell! Poor Bilbo! Bilbo thinks that an adventure would be a fine idea. He thinks this during the dinner party, but comes to his senses the next morning. Gandalf pushes him out the door without a cloak or handkerchief or....Second Breakfast!!!! Within a few weeks, he is camping in the mud. Isn't this just like so many brilliant ideas we have? It sounds good at first, but it is much less glamorous in reality. Chapter 2: Bilbo encounters the trolls. The names of the trolls: Bert, Tom, and William. William??? What self-respecting troll-mother names her boy WILLIAM??? I love the name William, but it is totally inappropriate for a troll. Good troll names: Zunabar Hokajin Tzane Zufem Alwan Rashi Haijen Trolgar Alwan Zulabar (Thank you troll name generator on the internet!) Please note that William, or any version of William, is NOT on that list. I have to wonder if Tolkien was naming the trolls after real-life trolls in his world. The lesson of the trolls is to not be sidetracked from what is important in life. Getting back to one's cave before daybreak was important. The trolls lost sight of that in their epicurean arguments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funmamacita Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 I'm not participating in the book club, but I discovered the Tolkien Professor when I was rereading The Hobbit this fall and enjoyed his lectures so much that I can't help recommending them to anyone who is reading The Hobbit. He points out some really interesting things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Smith Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Dh read my boys the hobbit last year, and we have listened to it twice since then. I loved listened to the cartoon soundtrack while reading it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 The names of the trolls: Bert, Tom, and William. William??? What self-respecting troll-mother names her boy WILLIAM??? I love the name William, but it is totally inappropriate for a troll. Good troll names: Zunabar Hokajin Tzane Zufem Alwan Rashi Haijen Trolgar Alwan Zulabar Please note that William, or any version of William, is NOT on that list. I have to wonder if Tolkien was naming the trolls after real-life trolls in his world. Tom is not really a great troll name either, although somehow Bert seems apt. There must be a lot of trolls named Alwan, you listed it twice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Smith Posted April 14, 2013 Share Posted April 14, 2013 Tom is not really a great troll name either, although somehow Bert seems apt. There must be a lot of trolls named Alwan, you listed it twice. I have an older family member whose real first name is Troels. So how about a Troll named Troels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 Hmm...what's the ethnic background of that name? It might be a bit weird to have a Flemish troll or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Smith Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 Hmm...what's the ethnic background of that name? It might be a bit weird to have a Flemish troll or something. It's Danish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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