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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
The title of this book on Goodreads is a little misleading - it's actually two stories, "Smith of Wooton Major" and "Farmer Giles of Ham." If you're interesting in reading some of Tolkien's non-Middle Earth fiction, these are two fantastic stories to start with. The tone of both is in the same vein as "The Hobbit", fairly lighthearted and whimsical, but with all the other elements you would expect from Tolkien. "Smith" is the story of a boy who unknowingly eats a star from the fairy world, which gives him the ability to travel to this world whenever he wants. "Farmer Giles of Ham" is about a farmer who is told to slay a dragon named Chrysophylax. These stories are easy to read quite fun; highly recommend for fans of fantasy regardless of whether you like Lord of the Rings.
Note, this book was read before I got a Goodreads account as part of a challenge to read 50 new books by the end of 2019. I wrote a review for it right after I read it and copy pasted it here.
Technically, this wasn't really a novel; it was two long-ish short stories put together to make a shortish book that I got for 50 cents at a garage sale two summers ago. I'm counting it anyway since it means finally delving into my rather large book backlog.
They were both pleasant stories and well worth more than 50 cents. They're the kind of stories that you actually like reading before bed. They're whimsical, funny (not so much that I fell out of bed laughing, but enough to occasionally draw out goofy smiles from me), but not exactly capable of bringing out extreme emotions in the reader. I don't really count that against them, though, because sometimes you just want stories about wandering into fairyland or shaking down a dragon for his hoard without getting so emotionally worked up you can't fall asleep. You can really tell that Farmer Giles is written by the same person who did The Hobbit, though, to the point of self plagiarism. A quick check on Wikipedia says that Farmer Giles was written the same year The Hobbit was published, but Farmer Giles wasn't published for another 12 years. Tolkien was probably thinking about The Hobbit at least subconsciously when he wrote it.
Technically, this wasn't really a novel; it was two long-ish short stories put together to make a shortish book that I got for 50 cents at a garage sale two summers ago. I'm counting it anyway since it means finally delving into my rather large book backlog.
They were both pleasant stories and well worth more than 50 cents. They're the kind of stories that you actually like reading before bed. They're whimsical, funny (not so much that I fell out of bed laughing, but enough to occasionally draw out goofy smiles from me), but not exactly capable of bringing out extreme emotions in the reader. I don't really count that against them, though, because sometimes you just want stories about wandering into fairyland or shaking down a dragon for his hoard without getting so emotionally worked up you can't fall asleep. You can really tell that Farmer Giles is written by the same person who did The Hobbit, though, to the point of self plagiarism. A quick check on Wikipedia says that Farmer Giles was written the same year The Hobbit was published, but Farmer Giles wasn't published for another 12 years. Tolkien was probably thinking about The Hobbit at least subconsciously when he wrote it.
Brilliantly adorable! I absolutely loved the audiobook production for this and will be getting a physical copy for my bookshelf.