Challenge update! I have now read two books from my list for the Daring Books Challenge, thusly:
Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Gathering Blue, by Lois Lowry
Messenger, by Lois Lowry
Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry
The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales, by Brothers Grimm
The Secret of the Old Clock, by Carolyn Keene
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights
Challenge status: Incomplete.
The Hobbit is one of those books I’ve read a millionty-billion times already (or, I dunno, four or five times, anyway) and so I don’t know if I have anything particularly fresh to say about it. It had been a while, however, and so I did notice one particular aspect: lazy writing! Seriously, Tolkein, it’s embarrassing.
I mean, everyone already knows about the whole eagle ex machina bit going on in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf is treed and the orcs and wargs are encroaching? Never fear, the King of the Eagles is here! The battle of the five armies has begun and things are looking grim for Our Heroes? Don’t worry — the eagles will save the day. Frodo and Sam are trapped on exploding Mount Doom, half-starved and soon to be tossed into a boiling lake of lava? Hey, maybe the eagles could come get them! Brilliant!
It just strikes me as lazy plotting. And, let’s face it, a little lame.
Also lame: do you know how many chapters end with Bilbo getting conked on the head and/or otherwise falling unconscious, and then waking up at the beginning of the next chapter with everything set right by other people while he was out of it? More than one, which is definitely too many. It just keeps happening! And I realise that it’s a huge convenience in the narrative sense to be able to spend a few paragraphs summing up what otherwise would have been a whole chapter’s worth of action … but still.
This is not to say that I didn’t once again enjoy The Hobbit. It is still wonderful. But it also has some definite weak spots.
The other book I’ve read for this challenge so far — which I actually read first — is Katherine Paterson’s 1978 book Bridge to Terabithia. Why hadn’t I read this before? It’s really good! And YA’s not even a genre which I have, historically, particularly enjoyed. I believe it was in grade nine when I informed the school librarian that “once you’ve read one YA book, you’ve read them all.” (I have since more or less rescinded that opinion).
Bridge to Terabithia is very well-written, and sad, and think-making. I found it a little bit dated in terms of some of the pop culture references — it was written near on a decade before I was born, you see — but I don’t think that’s a downside, just something that sometimes made me go “huh?”. Leslie and Jesse are well-characterized, and I wanted to spend more time with them … well, especially with Leslie. It’s very, very good and I was impressed at how well it stood up when read by an adult reader. So, three cheers for Katherine Paterson.
Next up? I think that I’ll skip over Lord of the Rings for the moment as it’s a very cold-weather book for me. Perhaps I’ll re-read Misty of Chincoteague. Wild horses! Digging for clams! Isn’t New England fun!
Bridge to Terabithia also reviewed by:
I would completely be up for a challenge like this, except this one is explicitly designed for Girls Only. Even though the contents (Tolkien? Asimov? Robinson Crusoe? Treasure Island? Bullfinch’s freakin’ Mythology?) are, in my opinion, gender-neutral.
Until males are finally extended the right to participate fully in blog book-reading challenges as equal human beings, I will just have to set myself arbitrary reading challenges once I finish the books on my list at the moment. I’m thinking Proust.
Lol Bilbo does get hit on the head a lot now that I think about it
Still a great story.
I saw Misty (the real horse, I mean) on a childhood trip to Virginia (not New England!). I think I read the whole series later, but Misty of Chincoteague always was special for me.
Bridge is on my TBR pile over there. Should it pop to the top?
Osbert — I don’t know that the challenge is Girls Only; it’s just inspired by The Daring Book for Girls. That book might have restrictions on it, but I’ve never read it and so cannot tell you. I say go for it — you can even read some freakin’ mythology. (Although I have to say: Proust is also delicious).
Mom — well, you know, somewhere Statesward… I thought that New England has clams. Clam chowdah? Something?
Glum — I’d say so. It’s good and it’s quick.
Ooo I just read Bridge to Terabithia for my Children Lit class. I loved it!!! We are trying to come up with a list as to why it is challenged. A couple ideas we came up with were the death of leslie and how traumatizing death can be for children. Another was the idea that a boy and a girl were “going off into the woods together.” Another might be the switched gender roles of Jess and Leslie. Leslie was the stronger one and Jess more shy.
I LOOOOOVE The Giver, it is one of my favorites, i would suggest reading that soon. afterward, i can share some ideas as to why it is challenged with you. Its an easy read, but thought-provoking all the same.