Random Stuff, Thursday Thirteen and Booking Through Thursday

The other day I said that I would likely only read about a chapter of John D. Rateliff's book at a time, but that has since changed. I am actually almost done, would be done if I had more reading time, and I have learned a lot! I hope to finish it today, so expect a post on it as soon as I can. There is a sequel to it as well, it comes out in August. I like the fact that the framework is Mr. Baggins, The Hobbit, and Hobbits themselves, but that is not all that the author talks about. I do know one thing, now that I have read these older editions of The Hobbit, I hope to reread the published book to see all the changes for myself.

13 Things I have learned so far by reading The History of The Hobbit: Part One: Mr. Baggins is my Thursday Thirteen for the week.

1. Gandalf was not originally the name of a wizard, but of a troll.

2. The person that eventually became named Gandalf was not clearly marked as a wizard in the early stages of Tolkien's writing.

3. The One Ring did not get sinister until The Lord of the Rings. It was just a ring for invisibility.

4. Gollum was not described as a Hobbit in the beginning, his origin was unknown.

5. Tolkien was very thrifty with his paper, he would make corrections in pen over pencil and then just erase the pencil.

6. Tolkien's Goblins are closely like George MacDonald's goblins, but Tolkien's goblins like to sing and they do not have super sensitive feet.

7. Dwarves were more magical in the original manuscripts than they would become in the published version.

8. People thought that Tolkien followed an actual calendar when he was writing The Hobbit, but actually he makes several errors with the date in his early manuscripts that make this unlikely.

9. Elrond went through some drastic changes, I think, from the original character to the one that I know well.

10.The scenes that happen in the Misty Mountains are based on a near disaster that happened to Tolkien in the mountains of Switzerland.

11.Bilbo dreams about things that are going to happen very soon, while Frodo will eventually have dreams about the future. Tolkien was very big on dreams, it was one of his interests.

12.Bears were primary throughout his books because his first audience were his children and they liked bears.

13.I have seen a lot of how Tolkien's ideas are based on older writings, which makes the reading that much more interesting.

Booking Through Thursday Question for this Week.
Just Wild About Harry

1. Okay, love him or loathe him, you’d have to live under a rock not to know that J.K. Rowling’s final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out on Saturday… Are you going to read it?
- Probably not.

2. If so, right away? Or just, you know, eventually, when you get around to it? Are you attending any of the midnight parties?
- I might read it eventually, but totally not right away. More than likely on the night everyone is going Harry Potter crazy I will be waiting to hear if my friend had her baby or not as she is due this weekend.

3. If you’re not going to read it, why not?
- I am not a big Harry Potter fan. I have never been able to enjoy Rowlings writing style, but I might give them a try again one of these days. Just, not right now.

4. And, for the record… what do you think? Will Harry survive the series? What are you most looking forward to?
- I think she might have originally toyed with the idea that Harry would die, but now I think she wants to be able to continue the series later if she wants. After all the success she has had, she probably would not mind if she had this series to fall back on if her other projects do not work out.