(x-post from Bitches)

Thanks for the thoughts, all. We're most worried about Marie. She's never been without Max before, and she was in the room when he was put to sleep. We thought it'd be less difficult for her than spending forever wondering when he'd come home.

She seems to be handling her grief fairly well, but it's hard to tell with a cat.

Good thoughts to you and yours, Fred.

I'm the wrong kind of geek for LOTR. Sports, too, really.(sorry Keith! But I try to pay attention for you.I could probably fool superficial fans at this point, cause I *do* know if some famous sports guy fucked up his thumb/asked for more bank/etc.) So, in BizzarroWorld, I could totally go Cosmo!Girl and pick up the one sporty guy looking for play that's not on the screen in a sports bar. At least, till he got off the guys I know and I'm all "No problem...USA...I don't understand." I'm way not hot enough for that. I AM the kind of geek that can identify fifty members of Congress and the ones that really put the *member* part in play most vividly.

There was a time when I reread The Trilogy (for, lo, there is only one true trilogy for me) every year, but I find it's better to wait a couple years between readings, because a couple of years of life experiences change it in subtle ways.

Tolkien has a very differently tuned "ear" for language that puts a fair number of readers off. It's consistent, it actually reads aloud very well (if you pronounce everything with the proper received British accent) and owes more to Chaucer and Beowulf than to Shakespeare and King James. It's not clumsy prose.

It's not clumsy prose.

I'd disagree (at least w/r/t the Hobbit) but, you know, different people like different things!

I like the LOTR books, but they do have an antiquated feel, and they aren't something I see myself just sitting down and reading again. I've listened to audiobook versions while commuting and I think they are more enjoyable in that format.

To me, The Hobbit and LOTR are very different levels/styles of writing.

I love the LotR and Hobbit prose in different ways. It can be a bit much, though.

Maybe Buffistas need this dating site.

Pshaw! (I'm still not sure how that's pronounced, btw.) If you want clumsy prose, go see H.P. Lovecraft and give him my regards....

Speaking of clumsy prose, I am reading Twilight for the student book club, and it is KILLING ME. Seriously, I have to read a chapter quick and then take a break because it is sooooo lame and boring and I hate the completely unrealistic people and first-person narration by boring teenage girls is like my least favorite thing ever.