by J. R. R. Tolkien

Small book with three distinct parts. First part is Tolkien expounding on “faerie stories” as a concept. It’s rather professorial. The second is a lovely short story called “Leaf by Niggle”. Tolkien has stated that he doesn’t like allegory. But this is a story about an artist who can’t ever complete his painting of a tree, because he wants each individual leaf to be beautiful and unique. Makes me think of someone – except, thank all our lucky stars, Tolkien DID complete LORD OF THE RINGS. It’s a tree which is beautiful above and beyond all its individual leaves being beautiful. Finally, the end of the book is a long poem in iambic pentameter. It’s a bit cryptic but I read it as being about the existence of God in nature and art.

by Nathaniel Ian Miller

I read this because I loved his second novel, RED DOG FARM. This is extremely different. I was hooked early on, but the hook lost me after 60 pages or so. Sven is an interesting character and goes off to the north to seek adventure, and makes a sympathetic friend. Then there’s a mining accident, and I lost the thread. He goes off further north to become a trapper. Eventually the story jumps the shark when his spunky niece shows up with her baby, yes in the wilds of the north, to stay with him. By the end I was actively disliking this meandering story. It didn’t seem to matter what happened, the story would just wander wherever it wanted.

edited by Benjamin Hedin

“They’re songs. They’re not written in stone. They’re plastic.” – Dylan, Songwriters on Songwriting, April 1991

“From the bottom of my heart, however, I want to thank Bob Dylan for his poetry, his music, his soul. He’s made life, sometimes a desperate crawl through a vicious universe, clearer, cleaner, and quieter for me, even when he was at his noisiest. I hope never to meet him. This meeting would involve very little. A handshake. he’s already shaken my hand. Good God, thank you, Bobby Zimmerman.” – Barry Hannah, written for this collection

by J. R. R. Tolkien

(re-read)

I really don’t like The Hobbit. I re-read it to brush up on things. But not only because it’s a kid’s book and it trivializes important things from the masterpiece LOTR… but because it bored me! I found the ending boring. I also thought Beorn was outlandish and didn’t fit into the LOTR world.