Writer & Translator
A few years ago I received this beautiful and rather amazing book as a gift. It's called The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound. Just like the title indicates, the book chronicles the making of T.S. Eliot's famous poem The Waste Land in astonishing detail, with images of… Continue reading The importance of rewriting & editing: for T.S. Eliot and other writers, too
I was a voracious reader as a child, and I still am, even though I read a lot less than I did back in those days. My husband and I read to our kids every night before bed, and they have also started reading by themselves - even though both of them still seem to enjoy the "read… Continue reading Books to read for kids, young adults, and adults
At this point in my life I don't even know how many times I've read Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. 20? 30? 40? Not sure. Not as many times as Christopher Lee (who apparently re-reads it every year), but still: quite a few times. Even now I find new details and shades in the… Continue reading Reading Tolkien – some of my favourite bits of “The Lord of the Rings”
I love it when I read a new book that pulls me in and doesn't let go. It happened to me when I first read Bernard Cornwell's books about King Arthur: The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur. (They're a truly original take on Merlin, magic, Lancelot and all that jazz. A book that… Continue reading My favourite books to read again and again and again
J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Hobbit has been on my mind the last few days, ever since I watched the final installment of Peter Jackson's movie trilogy based on that book. I won't post my full review/rant here, but you can read it on my Tumblr-blog. The Hobbit is not my favourite Tolkien book. That would be The… Continue reading Thinking about “The Hobbit” this morning
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings This is it for me. This is my favourite book of all time. I re-read it every year. I love it. I worship it. I cried the first time I read it, and parts of it still make me cry. The scope, the breadth, the depth, of… Continue reading Fantasy books I love
These are the first Tolkien-books I ever read. On the left is The Fellowship of the Ring, and on the right is The Hobbit. They're in Swedish, and I borrowed them from my dad, or maybe he gave them to me at some point... I'm not even sure anymore (it was quite a long time ago by… Continue reading The first Tolkien-books I ever read
I'm currently reading Tolkien's "The Hobbit" to my 6-year old daughter, and though she loves all the stuff about goblins and dragons and trolls, this exchange between Gandalf and Bilbo is so far her favourite part of the book. She just really likes Gandalf's somewhat grumpy and acerbic style, I think. “Good Morning!" said Bilbo,… Continue reading A quote from “The Hobbit”
I just saw this wonderful review on explore-blog over at Tumblr: it was written by Lewis in 1937, when "The Hobbit" was first published. Of course, Lewis and Tolkien were friends, so I guess he could be said to have been biased, but it's a wonderfully insightful review anyway. And he was certainly right about… Continue reading C.S. Lewis’ wonderful review of Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”
I was watching an old interview with Ursula Le Guin on YouTube today, from around the time when her book "The Lathe Of Heaven" was adapted into a movie for PBS. It made me think of how much her writing affected me, both as a reader and a writer when I was in my teens.… Continue reading Writers & books that shaped me
Maria Haskins 