Meditations on Middle-Earth

There's this interesting book out of different fantasy authors' writings about their experiences and impressions from reading the Lord of the Rings. It was compiled and published 1 year before the Fellowship of the Ring came out on film, and it's quite interesting to read. Some of the authors are quite funny - for example, Michael Swanwick wrote:

"[Frodo] offers [the Ring] outright to Galadriel, who says to him, 'Gently are you revenged for my testing of your heart at our first meeting;' and then, in one of the most memorable scenes in the book, proceeds to scare the snot out of him, before concluding, 'I pass the test. I will diminish, and go into the west, and remain Galadriel.'"

I laughed out loud, quite to the surprise of my mother, when reading the essay of Esther M. Friesner, whose experiences reading the Lord of the Rings was very similar to mine, even if they were over thirty years apart:

"The book did sound kind of....interesting. I went to the library and checked it out. Shortly thereafter I was back at the library, clawing at the card catalog like a refugee from a Romero movie, only instead of "Braaaaiiins....Braiiins...", I was moaning, "Tolkiiiiiieeeeeen.....Tolkiiiieeeenn...."...I turned on the television. There he was. Him. My him: Legolas the hottie elf. I could tell it was Legolas because he had pointy ears and, as everyone knows, all elves have pointy ears. Previous to beholding him, I had not realized that all elves likewise had pointy sideburns, puddingbowl hairstyles, upswept slanty eybrows, and blue velour shirts, but I was willing to learn. By the time I finally came to comprehend that what I was watching/drooling over was not a televised version of the trilogy (William Shatner would not make a good hobbit in this or any universe) it was too late - I'd become hooked on Star Trek. I was doomed."

In my personal experience, I actually bought library-cover versions of the books from the early seventies for fifty cents each at the library book sale after I read them. I still use them and haven't gotten any other copies. The movies came out shortly afterward, and I was truly doomed.

I'm still hooked, and not just on the Lord of the Rings.

I'm still in love with Star Trek.