Class Notes: Lord of the Rings

I've been seeing a lot of blogs focused around picking apart the Twilight Saga chapter by chapter. I would be lying that I haven't considered doing the same thing, but for multiple reasons I probably won't ever actually do so. Chief of all being that it would mean reading the series again, but also because badmouthing another author is not the smartest thing aspiring authors could do.

Instead I have decided to do something a little different. For my last semester of college, I am taking a class on Tolkien and Lewis. Specifically focusing on the influence medieval literature had on their styles. One of the requirements is to read through the entirety of The Lord of the Rings over the course of the semester. Along with a variety of other class readings. By Friday I will have to have read the first five chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring.

Unfortunately, despite being an English major, I am not the best at doing class readings. Even when it's something I am genuinely interested in. However, because I am more than "genuinely interested in" The Lord of the Rings, and it's been a few years since I last read it, I have every intention of actually finishing this. Granted, I know the story well enough that I could get by in the class by doing none of the reading, but that just feels like cheating.

So, in order to keep myself honest, I've decided to imitate the Twi-haters and regularly post my thoughts on my readings of The Lord of the Rings. Granted, it would make sense for the blog to go through it chapter by chapter, but considering how much I need to get through I can't take the time to write up each individual chapter. So, instead you will be getting my opinion on the chunks that I have to read for each class period.

Expect new posts ever Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I will hold off on posting the posts until after my class, so I can add in what we went over during class. This helps to ensure that I not only get the reading done, but I also pay attention in class. I'm...not a very good student. But hopefully this will help be get better, and allow me to have some regular content on this blog again.

Hope you enjoy it, and who knows, there might be those of you that get interested in The Lord of the Rings thanks to these posts. Once I would have assumed that everyone has already read the books, but my recent sojourns into Youtube comment territory has shaken that belief. So to those of you that haven't read the books yet, the movies are great, but go read a book you damn kids!