Books
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF TOWEL DAY May 25 celebrates Towel Day to honor Douglas Adams, the author of the five (or six) book “trilogy” Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Created in May 2001 to mark the passing of English science fiction humor author Douglas Adams, the day is set aside for fans of his writings to carry a…
Reading Time: 6 minutesHISTORY OF STAR WARS The original Star Wars movie premiered on May 25, 1977. Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away… …in Berkeley, in November 1976, I picked up a new science fiction novel called “Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker” by George Lucas. I did not know then that…
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF THE KING JAMES BIBLE ver four hundred fourteen years ago, on May 2, 1611, marked the publishing, at the request of the Anglican clergy, of what would become the Authorized Version of the Bible to wide acclaim. But there are at least three problems with that statement. While it is true that…
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF CHARLES DICKENS oday marks the 214th birthdate of Charles Dickens, considered by many the greatest English writer since Shakespeare – at least he was during his lifetime in the Victorian age. He enjoyed the distinction of fame and a measure of financial success during his lifetime, starting in his 20s. Many of his…
Reading Time: 6 minutesHISTORY OF PETER PAN Podcast version All of this has happened before, And it will all happen again. o begins my favorite Walt Disney animated movie, Peter Pan, which debuted on February 5, 1953. The original movie poster said: “It will live in your heart forever” …and indeed it has. Why was…
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF MIDDLE-EARTH, PART 2: TOLKIEN’S ENGLISH INSPIRATION .R.R. Tolkien had a 35-year career at the University of Oxford, spending the last part of his time at Merton College, across the street from Magdalen College, where his friend C.S. Lewis taught. His younger brother, Hilary Tolkien, had a farm in Evesham, England, in the Cotswolds,…
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF MIDDLE EARTH: TOLKIEN’S SWISS INSPIRATION n the summer of 1911, J.R.R. Tolkien hiked the peaks and valleys of the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland when he was 19 years old. These Alps and their valleys had a profound impact on Tolkien’s imagination, as he wrote when he was 74 to his son Michael in…
Reading Time: 12 minutesHISTORY OF J.R.R. TOLKIEN: A CENTURY-LONG LOVE AFFAIR Podcast version January 3 is the birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien. He was born in 1892, the same year as my grandfather. f I were stranded on a desert island and could have only two works with me, it would be The Bible and Tolkien’s The Lord…
Reading Time: 6 minutesHISTORY OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL Podcast version harles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol was published in London on December 19, 1843. The first edition sold out by Christmas Eve. No other book or story by Dickens or anyone else (except the Bible) has been more enjoyed, referred to, criticized, or more frequently adapted to other…
Reading Time: 5 minutesHistory of A Christmas Carol and the impact of Charles Dickens’ classic
Reading Time: 2 minutesBook Review: The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien Perhaps the saddest book I’ve ever read, the first “new” J.R.R. Tolkien book in 30 years, is “…long and sad in the telling, as are all tales of Middle Earth.” While it is beautiful in its composition and profound in its scope, it contains at all…