Sunday 9 September 2012

Classics Club September Meme: Favourite Review by Member


This is a meme held by The Classics Club, an awesome club dedicated to classic literature.

Pick a classic someone else in the club has read from our big review list. Link to their review andoffer a quote from their post describing their reaction to the book. What about their post makes you excited to read that classic in particular?

I choose for this meme a review of Silmarilion by Amanda, a very nice one, I must say. I personally like the book, and I agree to what she says about it:

When considering Tolkien’s achievement, I am stunned. Not only did he conceive of an invented mythology spanning thousands of years—I would consider The Silmarillion closer to mythology than fantasy—but he created several languages for this world, even to the point of working out how they would have evolved over time. All those “unpronounceable” names? Not just random strings of letters, but names with careful meaning and origin in his invented languages. An appendix at the back provides “elements” of the names, so that I can see that the alqua in Alqualondë is “swan” and derives from the root alak-. Not necessary for the casual reader, but all this background informs the larger works with a depth rarely encountered.

She makes me want to read Silmarilion again (but for the present I have plenty others to read).

6 comments:

  1. Thank you! I'm always happy to hear that I've tempted someone to read a book I love. I've started rereading The Hobbit and I keep finding myself poking back into The Silmarillion, trying to remember the reference I see in The Hobbit. Definitely a book that's good the return to!

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    1. You're welcome. I can't agree more. It's a book of reference to be read again and again, almost like book of history or geography for high-school students.

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  2. I've never gotten through it - I definitely should retry at some point! I have a copy on my shelf, but it just sits there laughing at me.

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    1. That's very lucky! I only have the ebook, but that's better than nothing. Happy reading.

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  3. I read Amanda's review and it is very interesting and detailed. And the quote you chose is very intriguing. I haven't read any Tolkien yet but after I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings I may add this to the list.

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    1. Please do so. People even jest about how Silmarilion is the text book for Middle Earth history. It's a good reference.

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