{"id":4302,"date":"2016-11-21T10:17:17","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T18:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=4302"},"modified":"2016-11-22T23:06:19","modified_gmt":"2016-11-23T07:06:19","slug":"nonfiction-november-week-4-be-the-expert-reading-lord-of-the-rings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/nonfiction-november-week-4-be-the-expert-reading-lord-of-the-rings","title":{"rendered":"Nonfiction November Week 4: Be the Expert – Reading Lord of the Rings"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week’s Nonfiction November discussion prompt is hosted by Julz<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you\u2019d like to read (become the expert).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One type of nonfiction that I love to read are companion books that help me get into fictional worlds more completely. The books I’m recommending this week have all enhanced my reading and rereading of J.R.R. Tolkien’s \u00a0The Lord of the Rings<\/em>. If you want to delve deeper into Middle-earth, then these are the books for you. If you have a Tolkien aficionado in your life, any of them would make great Christmas gifts (Links below are Amazon associate links).<\/p>\n

\"Atlas<\/p>\n

The Atlas of Middle-earth<\/a><\/em> by Karen Wynn Fonstad: An outstanding resource by a professional cartographer. Follow the journeys of Frodo and Sam or Bilbo and the dwarves. In addition to maps, the book also includes diagrams of dwellings and cities from The Silmarillion<\/em>, The Hobbit<\/em>, and The Lord of the Rings<\/em>. I always have this handy when I’m reading anything by Tolkien.<\/p>\n

\"Languages<\/p>\n

The Languages of Tolkien’s Middle-earth: A Complete Guide to All Fourteen of the Languages Tolkien Invented<\/em><\/a> by Ruth Noel: More of a dictionary than a comprehensive treatise on the languages, but very useful. From the publisher:<\/p>\n

“This is the book on all of Tolkien’s invented languages, spoken by hobbits, elves, and men of Middle-earth — a dictionary of fourteen languages, an English-Elvish glossary, all the runes and alphabets, and material on Tolkien the linguist.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Tolkien's<\/p>\n

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth<\/em><\/a> by Bradley J. Birzer: Of all the books I’ve read that attempt to explain the deeper meaning of Tolkien’s works, this one is the best. Birzer understands that Tolkien’s Catholic faith is key for interpreting is works, and he does an excellent job in laying it out for the reader.<\/p>\n

\"Meditations<\/p>\n

Meditations on Middle-earth: New Writing on the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien<\/em><\/a> edited by Karen Haber: An outstanding collection of essays on Tolkien by writers like George R.R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Ursula LeGuin, Terry Pratchett, Robin Hobb, and many more.<\/p>\n

\"J.R.R.<\/p>\n

J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator<\/em><\/a>\u00a0edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull – One of Tolkien’s under appreciated gifts his is artwork. This book displays his considerable artistic talent.<\/p>\n

\"Tolkien<\/p>\n

Bonus: Lord of the Rings<\/em> Box Set<\/a> by the Tolkien Ensemble – This is an absolute gem. I listen to these whenever I reread The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, in the order in which they appear in the books. From the publisher:<\/p>\n

This 4 CD-box contains the world’s first complete musical interpretation of all the poems in the J.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece ‘The Lord of the Rings’ set to music by Caspar Reiff & Peter Hall. 14 soloists, among these the world-famous actor Christopher Lee, and more that 150 professional musicians, have taken part in the ambitious project, which took 10 years to complete.<\/p>\n

The songs help one relive ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in an entirely new way, as they range from happy and funny hobbit folk-songs in the beginning of the book, to evocative and dramatic highlights towards the end.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do you know of any other great Tolkien-related resources? Do you use companion resources when you read? Why or why not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s Nonfiction November discussion prompt is hosted by Julz: Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you\u2019d like to read (become the expert). One type of nonfiction that I...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Nonfiction November Week 4: Be the Expert - Reading Lord of the Rings #nonficnov","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[858,30,856,65,855,833,832,857,854,224],"class_list":["post-4302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-bradley-birzer","tag-tolkien","tag-karen-wynn-fonstad","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-middle-earth","tag-nonfiction","tag-nonfiction-november","tag-ruth-noel","tag-the-hobbit","tag-tolkien-ensemble"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/tolkienartistdetail.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-17o","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4302"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4330,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4302\/revisions\/4330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}