Sep 21, 2012

The Hobbit

Well, it doesn't feel right to let today go by without a shout out to J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit. Today is the 75th anniversary of its publishing. I first read this book in grade 4 and have read it many times since then. I still have my original copy of the book which is very battered and bruised after so many years, but I wouldn't give it up for anything. It is considered to be one of the highest selling books of all time (along with its sequel The Lord of the Rings) and with a movie coming out about it soon those numbers are sure to remain high.

J.R.R. Tolkien was a Christian author whose faith wove through everything that he did, including the writing of his famous books. However, he was also against the concept of his novels being viewed as allegorical. No matter what else though, I love the books and it was through his books that I first got into the fantasy genre.

So this is it, my shout out to a great book, written by a great author and it concludes with an encouragement to read the book, or read it again if you've read it already. There's always more to find!

Sep 6, 2012

Hobbies

Sometimes a hobby can be a hard thing to maintain. Now, I obviously don't actually count reading as a hobby as it is both mandatory as well as optional in my life. Not to mention that I think everyone should read a few books a year, no matter what their view of reading is, but I appreciate that I'm biased.

For me, hobbies would include...movies, needlework of varying types...hmmm...is Facebook a hobby? If it is then we can toss that in there too. The rest come and go and aren't really hobbies at all. Hobbies (for me at least) require a certain amount of discipline, okay, not Facebook, but the other ones, and especially needlework. I tend to start a project and then it takes me forever to finish it. So, I am trying to be more dedicated to my hobbies. I put down the book for awhile and pick up the cross-stitch. I put down my work after hours or on my days off and pick up the knitting needles.

Work is still the priority and the siren call of reading will always be there but hey, maybe I can actually finish my list of scarves and blankets that I want to get done and, even more remarkably finish the cross-stitch I'm working on (picture below - can you see what it's becoming?).

I will say though that there is one thing that is never hard to put down....my housecleaning...sigh...back to the dishes I go :).