vivdunstan: (lord of the rings)
I'm rereading Lord of the Rings, starting with Fellowship. And gobbling it up. Until I got to the Council of Elrond chapter, which was estimated by my Kindle to take 45 minutes of reading. To be fair I was extra sedated at the time, so this was even more of a mountain to climb than usual. But I can also remember young me, e.g. teenage years and earlier, boggling at this lengthy over-wordy section of the book.

I'm now nearly through it, and will press on quickly with the rest. At the same time, I'm looking forward to Oxonmoot in a few weeks, the Tolkien Society annual convention in Oxford. In recent years it has offered online viewing too, watching live as things happen, and later on catchup through Christmas. I sleep through most live talks, so find catchup invaluable. And yes, I have another online viewing ticket, bought very early on, when it was extra low cost, helped by my Tolkien Society member discount.

After Worldcon I have also been picking up a few treat things, as substitutes for not being in the Dealers' Hall in person this time! Today I picked up a low cost ebook version for my Kindle of Luna Press Publishing's Adapting Tolkien collection of essays from a Tolkien Society seminar. Some while ago I picked up a print copy of their Translating and Illustrating Tolkien collection of another Tolkien Society seminar’s essays.

I'd also like to pick up something decorative in my not-at-Worldcon catchup. Must resist a plush dragon, though the call is strong, and not for any dragon in particular! I may wait to see what's on offer from the dealers at Oxonmoot, and possibly pick up something Tolkien-y. Though going to browse the Weta Workshop site just now might not have been my best move! Not just Lord of the Rings and Hobbit stuff, like a balrog, Smaug and even Radagast* (I'm telling my husband, very unsubtly, about that last one, given my birthday soon!). But they also sell other great things, including a scene from the Escher-like castle, and Sir Didymus and Ambrosius, all from The Labyrinth movie. Also Hoggle and Ludo figures ...

* I greatly disliked the Hobbit films of Peter Jackson. But Sylvester McCoy's Radagast was fab.

Pocket

Apr. 16th, 2022 08:56 pm
vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
Just managed to get my count of unread articles saved to Pocket down under 7,000 again. Pocket is one of a number of ways of storing articles you see but can’t read there and then but want to keep to read later. Not long ago my count was almost 8,000 unread. A few years ago it was almost 10,000 and then I had 2 very ill years, when I saved even more and couldn’t read them often. But it’s dropping well now I’m more awake again. Masses yet to read! But next up - or down! - I’m aiming for the 5000s. This is a huge range of saved articles, many newspaper or online. I shake up the reading by searching for articles that mention specific words or subjects and bingeing them. Martin has about 1,250 unread articles at the moment and is slightly alarmed at that. I give him a look 😜 Note my huge count isn’t any bad mark against Pocket or sign that it isn’t effective. I’m just heavily sedated from my neuro illness and end up saving more articles to read later than I can get through promptly. But it does work for me. I use the Pocket app on my iPad and iPod touch, and it’s easiest to save via the iOS share button to read later. Pocket can also integrate well with web browsers on computers. I find it a great way of managing delayed reading. Now if only I was more awake ...

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vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
vivdunstan

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