What made me happy today?

[DLC]

I've read the first few pages at least a dozen times and still can't get past it. I know it's supposed to be one of the great ones, but I find the language impossible.

My problem with it was the first story, that of the priest and cruciforms, was outstanding, but never got to that height again. I won't spoil it for our chum but you don''t find out many things, and what the point of Kassad was. Wouldn't rate it high as Canticle for Leibowitz or Dune.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

I'm happy at this moment because Dayquil works pretty well.

Glad to hear it! Hope you feel better soon.

I read The Hobbit as a child and didn't understand much of it. I came back to it as a young adult and enjoyed it much more.

I tried reading LOTR (in Hebrew, no less) after watching the first Peter Jackson film, and read it through in English much later, and enjoyed it. It's a long read, no doubt, but the descriptions of the places that the company passes through are wonderful. Some of the dialogue is sentimental, and some is old-fashioned, but that doesn't matter to me.

LOTR wouldn't be the same if the characters started speaking like people speak today. For instance, Aragorn meets the hobbits in Bree and starts off by saying "Yo, what up, dawgs?"

 

[Naomasa298]

I never finished LoTR. I stopped at Sheol, and have never felt an urge to pick it up again.

 

[Louanne Learning]

I hit over 5,000 posts!

 

[Dogberry's Watch]

I switched teams at work so now I'm working the evening shift. I have so much time before work to do stuff, so yesterday and today, I did some batch cooking and made a red lentil curry with some flatbread. I won't insult a culture by calling it roti, which is what I was aiming for. But this is one of the best things I've ever made. Kind of made up the recipe a bit, so I doubt I'll ever make it the same way again, but it's very good and I have leftovers in the freezer.

 

[Amontillado]

I was quite unhappy with the appearance of AI driven Flock cameras, monitoring every car entering or leaving our city. That degree of oversight bugs me, even if getting uninsured cars off the road is a good thing.

Then I realized I just needed to get on board the fully monitored society bandwagon.

City wide drug use surveys are already being done in some places with sewage testing.

We need to take that to the individual homes. Drug tests need to be run on individual sewer cleanouts, starting at the homes of the City Council members who voted to buy the Flock cameras.

Surely none of them would ever toot up, using "toot" in the context of drug use, not the sonic signature one might associate with sewage creation.

I'm also certain, because I'm as naive as they come, the city council wouldn't mind anyone digging through their crap.

Interestingly, there's probably no search warrant needed to collect what you've already flushed.

Maybe I shouldn't be so unhappy about those Flock cameras. Maybe I should just push for biochemical monitoring of council members.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

You had to experience it at the right time in your life. Usually as kid or a teen in the pre-Internet years when fantasy was difficult to come by. It was one of my favorites growing up, but when I reread it maybe 10 years ago, I found the writing difficult and stodgy. Not sure I'll read it again.

Call me an anomoly. I first became aware of LOTR in 1967 when I was the only kid in 7th grade who didn't grab a chance to scribble Frodo Lives on the blackboard in Mr. Wood's history class. Over the next six decades, I made multiple attempts to read it without notable success. In September of 2024, I bought a copy of The Hobbit in Glascow, thinking I'd be forced to give Tolkein an honest chance if I was stuck on a plane with nothing else to read for upteen hours. I ended up writing a lot on my own novel instead, so I suppose having nothing to read worked in my favor after all.

I am happy to announce my official retirement from trying to read Tolkein. Please have a piece of cake to help me celebrate.

 

[Heartlet Happer]

I am happy to announce my official retirement from trying to read Tolkein. Please have a piece of cake to help me celebrate.

Being aware of body of work existing somewhere on a literary landscape. A mountain of time, at the distance, a cultural claim on a mental space of hoards of forever young adult readers. It gives a warm feeling of belonging, even if never read in person. And also, there is movies

 

[Naomasa298]

Call me an anomoly. I first became aware of LOTR in 1967 when I was the only kid in 7th grade who didn't grab a chance to scribble Frodo Lives on the blackboard in Mr. Wood's history class. Over the next six decades, I made multiple attempts to read it without notable success. In September of 2024, I bought a copy of The Hobbit in Glascow, thinking I'd be forced to give Tolkein an honest chance if I was stuck on a plane with nothing else to read for upteen hours. I ended up writing a lot on my own novel instead, so I suppose having nothing to read worked in my favor after all.

I am happy to announce my official retirement from trying to read Tolkein. Please have a piece of cake to help me celebrate.

I discovered The Hobbit at around 5th grade, and obsessively collected the maps at the front of the LotR volumes for a while. And somehow, that all made me think all fantasy starts with a whole load of exposition (even though LotR doesn't).

I made it all of one page through the Silmarillion.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

My roommate had a collection of LOTR paintings decorating her room. When a friend saw them, he said he didn't need pictures to show him what Middle Earth looked like: he knew every inch of it by heart.

I decided I must've experienced a mutation on my Tolkein gene.

 

[Set2Stun]

I really enjoyed Hyperion. My only nitpick was that I don't believe I've read any other book that has had longer chapters. Imagine 100+ page chapters, it's just bananas.

 

[Homer Potvin]

I really enjoyed Hyperion. My only nitpick was that I don't believe I've read any other book that has had longer chapters. Imagine 100+ page chapters, it's just bananas.

I hate bananas.

 

[Set2Stun]

I read LotR when I heard they were making the movies. Only one chance to imagine the world and the characters for yourself before you see it on screen. At times it could be a bit of a slog. Especially all the random poems that can go on for pages.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Especially all the random poems that can go on for pages.

This. Ten thousand stanzas this.

 

[GoldMoon]

If I keep mentioning this book over the years, someone might shake their head so hard it will twist out of their neck. Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Been reading and posting that I've been reading it for years now. The slow pace is not due to the book, but due to some health conditions on my part.

The book is excellent and very interesting, but I'm looking forward to its conclusion now. I've heard it's the first book in a series, and depending on how it ends I might continue the series. However, I'm really looking forward to a change of scenery and subject, so I might get on to another on my reading list.

I finished it at the beginning of the year. I really loved all the stories (The only character I didn't love was Martin the crazy poet), but I won't spoil my thoughts of the ending for you.

With all the dense prose, I can understand why you would want something different. I'm reading a different series now, but will eventually get back to the rest of the Hyperion series.

 

[GoldMoon]

Also, our tomato plants are flourishing. We've started picking and dicing and freezing to make chutney later.

 

[defaux]

This. Ten thousand stanzas this.

I'll give you that one. As much as I loved lotr, I confess I skipped over the songs.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

I read LotR when I heard they were making the movies. Only one chance to imagine the world and the characters for yourself before you see it on screen. At times it could be a bit of a slog. Especially all the random poems that can go on for pages.

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Fair enough. I write historical fiction, which means that I want and have to describe the surroundings in as much detail as I can. The saying that "the past is a foreign country" is very true; the world of 40 or even 30 years ago is incredibly different to the world of today, never mind 1,000 years ago or longer. (1,001 CE is as recent as I've written).

The settings I chose are medieval Iceland, ancient Greece and Italy and Egypt, and ancient Sardinia. If I want them to be convincing, they have to be described in detail.

So I use LOTR as an example of how to do that (an inspiration only), but I don't get carried away like JRRT did.

 

[JT Woody]

My branch is only a year old. Its the smallest branch with low visitor count.
My goal with being hired in this position was to increase visitors and participation.

I checked the stats for last month.... we saw an 18% increase in visitors this past January (compared to Jan 2025).

And, for the month of Feb, i and doing Black History Month trivia where my staff are instructed to ask visitors 1 trivia question and they get prizes for participation. This week, we had 10 participants in thenimpromptu trivia game! (A couple stayed for multiple rounds)

I know it shouldnt be all about the numbers.... but im happy because there are a few people who dont agree with my branch being open in the first place. So the numbers help make my case

 

[Dogberry's Watch]

Gonna take myself to a movie this weekend (Dracula, for those curious. I'd be a spooky girl if I weren't such a startled deer in the dark), and I've been getting things in my house all sorted. I think the shift change was the best thing I ever done. A few people said I'll have less socializing time working in the evening hours, but joke's on them, I prefer to be alone. Out here living my best life finally.