I am off down the road
Where the fairy lanterns glowed
And the little pretty flitter-mice are flying
A slender band of gray
It runs creepily away
And the hedges and the grasses are a-sighing.
The air is full of wings,
And of blundery beetle-things
That warn you with their whirring and their humming.
O! I hear the tiny horns
Of enchanted leprechauns
And the padded feet of many gnomes a-coming!
O! the lights! O! the gleams! O! the little twinkly sounds!
O! the rustle of their noiseless little robes!
O! the echo of their feet – of their happy little feet!
O! the swinging lamps in the starlit globes.
I must follow in their train
Down the crooked fairy lane
Where the coney-rabbits long ago have gone.
And where silvery they sing
In a moving moonlit ring
All a twinkle with the jewels they have on.
They are fading round the turn
Where the glow worms palely burn
And the echo of their padding feet is dying!
O! it’s knocking at my heart-
Let me go! let me start!
For the little magic hours are all a-flying.
O! the warmth! O! the hum! O! the colors in the dark!
O! the gauzy wings of golden honey-flies!
O! the music of their feet – of their dancing goblin feet!
O! the magic! O! the sorrow when it dies.
Tolkien himself said of this poem: “I wish the unhappy little thing, representing all that I came (so soon after) to fervently dislike, could be buried for ever.” However, I beg to differ, and I rather like the sweet, then melancholy, feel to this verse. I suppose Tolkien came to see and wanted to portray elves and goblins and faery-creatures differently, more seriously and nobly, after he wrote this poem and before he wrote The Hobbit and LOTR. But I think there’s room in the world for both visions. And I like the bittersweetness of “magic hours all a-flying” and “the sorrow when it dies.”
Today is Hobbit Day, the birthday of two of my favorite hobbits and one of my favorite actresses. My beautiful and talented Drama Daughter is 23 years old today. Bilbo was born in the year 2890 and Frodo in the year 2968 in the Third Age. I don’t know how old that would make them.
I’m going to choose the century from 1851-1950. And for the purposes of my project, books can either be set in the particular year indicated or published in that year.
1853: READ: Ruth by Mrs.(Elizabeth) Gaskell. Published in 1853. 1854: The Lamplighter by Maria Susanna Cummins. Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Published in 1854. 1855: The Warden by Anthony Trollope. Published in 1855. 1856: John Halifax, Gentleman by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik. Published in 1856. READ: Granny’s Wonderful Chair by Frances Browne. Published in 1856. 1857: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. Published in book form in 1857. 1858: Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady by Kate Summerscale. Setting, 1858. Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope. Published in 1858. The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Published in 1858. 1859: Family Happiness by Leo Tolstoy. Published in 1859. 1860: The Professor at the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Published in 1860.
1861: READ March by Geraldine Brooks. Setting, 1861, published in 2006. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2006). Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear. 1862: Goblin Market and Other Poems by Christina Rossetti. Published in 1862. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev. Published in 1862. 1863: Tales of a Wayside Inn by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1864: Choke Creek by Lauren Small. Setting, 1864, published in 2009. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Published in 1864. 1865: The March by E.L. Doctorow. Setting, 1864-65, published in 2005. Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates by mary Makes Dodge. Published in 1865. 1866: Miss Marjoribanks (The Chronicles of Carlingford #5) by Margaret Oliphant. Jessica’s First Prayer by Hesba Stretton. Published in 1866. 1867: The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (short story collection) by Mark Twain. Published in 1867. 1868: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Published in 1868. 1869: Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore. Published in 1869. 1870: The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl. Setting 1867-1870, published in 2009. The Story of a Bad Boy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Published in 1870.
1871: At the Back of the North Wind by George Macdonald. Published in 1871. 1872: 1873: A Flat Iron for a Farthing by Juliana Horatia Ewing. Published in 1873. 1874: The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. Christie’s Old Organ by Mrs. O.F. Walton. Published in 1874: Christie’s Old Organ by Mrs.O.F. Walton 1875: The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope. READ: The Wise Woman, or The Lost Princess by George MacDonald. Published in 1875. 1876: READ: Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott. Published in 1876. 1877: Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott. Published in 1877. 1878: Daisy Miller by Henry James. Published in 1878. 1879: A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird. Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald. Published in 1879. 1880: Aunt Charlotte’s Evenings at Home With the Poets. A collection of poems for the Young, with conversations, arranged in twenty five evenings, etc. by Charlotte Mary Yonge. Published in 1880. READ: Heidi by Johanna Spyri. Published in English in 1880.
1881: Silver Canyon by Louis L’Amour. Set in Utah Territory, 1881, published in 1957. Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris. Published in 1881. 1882: Boy Knight (Winning His Spurs) by G.A. Henty. Published in 1882. 1883: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire by Howard Pyle. Published in 1883: Flatland by Edwin Abbot. Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson. Published in 1885. 1884: With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz. 1885: READ: The Ox-bow Incident by Walter Van Tilberg Clark. Setting 1885, published in 1940. “The Lady or the Tiger?” (short story) by Frank R. Stockton. 1886: Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome. Published in 1886. 1887: The Brownies, Their Book by Palmer Cox. Published in 1887. 1888: The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling. Published in 1888. 1889: The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter’s Tale by Robert Louis Stevenson. 1890: Larkrise to Candleford by Flora Thompson. Set in the last decade of the nineteenth century, published in 1945. The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang. Published in 1890.
1891: The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1892: Across the Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson. Published in 1892. 1893: Beric the Briton: A Story of the Roman Invasion by G.A. Henty. Beautiful Joe by Margaret Saunders. Published in 1893. 1894: Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner. Published in 1894. 1895: Wulf The Saxon: A Story of the Norman Conquest by G.A. Henty. The Amateur Immigrant by Robert Louis Stevenson. Published in 1895. 1896: The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac by Eugene Field. Published in 1896. 1897: Travels in West Africa by Mary Henrietta Kingsley. Published in 1897. 1898: Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim. Published in 1898. 1899: Parables of the Christ-Life by Lilias Trotter. Published in 1899. 1900: Goops, and How To Be Them by Gelett Burgess. Published in 1900. Beautiful Dreamer by Joan Naper. Set in Chicago, 1900, published in 2010. Reviewed by Sarah Johnson at Reading the Past.
1901: The Octopus: A Story of California by Frank Norris. 1902: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James. Published in 1902. 1903: Robert Browning by G.K. Chesterton 1904: By What Authority? by Robert Hugh Benson. Published in 1904. Dandelion Cottage by Carroll Watson Rankin. Published in 1904. 1905: The Club of Queer Trades by G.K. Chesterton. Published in 1905. 1906: Puck of Pook’s Hill by Rudyard Kipling. Published in 1906. The Railway Children by E. Nesbit 1907: Songs of a Sourdough by Robert W. Service. Published in 1907. 1908: The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by W.H. Davies. Published in 1908. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. 1909: Gunnar’s Daughter by Sigrid Undset. The Children’s Own Longfellow, Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Published in 1909. 1910: When a Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Published in 1910.
1911: Flambards by K.M. Peyton. Set during the period 1910-1918, published in 1967. The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton. The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton. Published in 1911. 1912: The Four Men: A Farrago by Hilaire Belloc. Published in 1912. 1913: Trent’s Last Case by E.C. Bentley. Published in 1913. Laddie by Gene Stratton-Porter. Published in 1913. 1914: The Three Sisters by May Sinclair. Published in 1914. 1915: The Star of Gettysburg by Joseph Altsheler. The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Published in 1915. READ: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King. Setting 1915, published in 2007. 1916: Uneasy Money by P.G. Wodehouse. Published in the U.S. in 1916. READ: Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
1917: The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley. Published in 1917. 1918: READ: Risked (The Missing: Book 6) by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Setting 1918, published in 2013. (no review at Semicolon) 1919: Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen, Karen Blixen. Setting 1914-1931, published in 1937. 1920: The Great Impersonation by E. Phillips Oppenheim. Published in 1920.
1921: Penny Plain by Anna Buchan. Published in 1921. 1922: READ: Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim Published in 1922. 1923: My Garden of Memory: An Autobiography by Kate Douglas Wiggin. Published in 1923. 1924: The Dream Coach by Anne Parrish. Published in 1924. Newbery Honor Book in 1925. Theras and His Town by Caroline Snedeker. Published in 1924. 1925: READ: The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham. Published in 1925. 1926: Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James. Newbery Medal in 1927, published in 1926. 1927: The Midnight Folk by John Masefield. Published in 1927. READ: One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson. Published in 2013. 1928: The Footsteps at the Lock by Ronald A. Knox. Published in 1928. The Bishop’s Wife by Robert Nathan. Published in 1928. 1929: 1930: Meggy Macintosh by Elizabeth Janet Gray. Published in 1930. Newbery Honor Book in 1931. READ: Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. Published in 1930.
1931: Endurance by Frank Arthur Worsley. Setting, 1914-1916, published in 1931. Waterless Mountain by Laura Armer. !932 Newbery Medalist, published in 1931. 1932: Cold Comfort Farm by StellaGibbons. Published in 1932. 1933: The House of Exile by Nora Waln. Published in 1933. 1934: READ: Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson. (no review at Semicolon) Dobry by Monica Shannon. 1935 Newbery Medalist, published in 1934. 1935: READ: The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940 by William Manchester. Published in 1988. 1936: READ:The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown. Setting, 1936, published in 2013. 1937: Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos. READ: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. Published in 1937. 1938: Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh. Excellent Intentions by Richard Hull. Published in 1938. 1939: Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther. The Priory by Dorothy Whipple. Published in 1939. 1940: Growing Pains: Diaries And Drawings From The Years 1908-17 by Wanda Gag. My Name Is Aram by William Saroyan. Published in 1940.
1941: Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal by Ben MacIntyre. Setting, 1941-1945, published in 2007. Mrs. Tim Carries On (Leaves from the Diary of an Officer’s Wife in the Year 1940) by D. E. (Dorothy Emily) Stevenson. Setting, 1940, published in 1941. 1942: READ: Pied Piper by Nevil Shute. Setting, 1940, published in 1942. Tragedy at Law (Francis Pettigrew #1) by Cyril Hare. Published in 1942. 1943: READ: The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. 1944: Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre. Setting, 1944, published in 2012. Fair Stood the Wind for France by H.E. Bates. Published in 1944. 1945: Captain from Castile by Samuel Shellabarger. Published in 1945. Mr. Wilmer by Robert Lawson. Published in 1945. 1946: The Moving Toyshop (Gervase Fen #3) by Edmund Crispin. Setting, 1938, published in 1946. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. Published in 1946, winner of the Carnegie Medal. The Four Graces by D.E. Stevenson. Published in 1946.
Of course, the big news this week is the new Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire. One of my urchins wants to go to the midnight premiere on Thursday. However, there are other movies coming down the pike for November/December release:
From IMDB: “Based on the beloved bestselling book, The Book Thief tells the story of a spirited and courageous young girl who transforms the lives of everyone around her when she is sent to live with a foster family in World War II Germany.” I didn’t really care for the book, but I actually think the movie may be better.
The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug opens December 13th. I can hardly wait.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a remake of the 1947 movie with Danny Kaye, this time starring Ben Stiller, It’s about a man who lives in his imagination, and it’s based on the short story “The Secret World of Walter Mitty” by cartoonist James Thurber.
Peggy Noonan on government surveillance and data gathering“There is no way a government in the age of metadata, with the growing capacity to listen, trace, tap, track and read, will not eventually, and even in time systematically, use that power wrongly, maliciously, illegally and in areas for which the intelligence gathering was never intended. People are right to fear that the government’s surveillance power will be abused. It will be.”
All I can say is have they read Orwell’s 1984? No, I mean really, have they read it, or have they read these booksby Cory Doctorow? Or any of the dozens, nay, hundreds of dystopian novels that have been all the rage in YA fiction for the past several years? Don’t they know that the systematic invasion of everyone’s privacy by the government will come back to bite them in the you-know-what?
How to Discourage Artists in the Church by Phillip Ryken. The church needs artists and needs to affirm artists. If some of the items in Mr. Ryken’s list of “ways to discourage artistic giftedness” make you think of something that your church is doing wrong, maybe you can help to create change in this very important area.
Butterflies: Insects of Beauty by Heather E. Langston. Kindergarten or early elementary.
Bats and Spiders. Incorporates a study of Stellaluna by Jannell Cannon and of Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White into a scientific study of bats and spiders as creatures that God created. For kindergarten or early elementary.
Advanced Reading Survey. High school. Students could keep a notebook and discuss their reading each week.
Civil War. Study the Civil War through interactive simulation and discussion. Role-play Union or Confederate life in camp or on the homefront through such things as hearing telegraph dispatches, dramatizing soldier interview, reenacting Pickett’s charge, etc.
Modern American History Mini Simulations Through role-playing, students re-create key points in early 20th century U.S. history including a doughboy boot camp, depression era soup kitchen, Ford assembly line, and early radio shows.
Stock Market Simulation. Learn the fundamentals of the stock market, key terms, and how to read stock market data. Work in teams to decide criteria for selecting a company (or companies) to invest in, and then track and analyze the performance through the semester. See which team makes the “best†selections.
Lord of the Rings. Students read (or listen to audio) two books a semester (starting with The Hobbit), discuss them using primarily Progeny Press materials as a guide, complete light-hearted group activities, and hold a fun “movie watching event†at the conclusion of each book. For those desiring writing opportunities, one optional writing assignment is completed each semester (literary analysis – fall, literary research paper – spring). Brief “mini†lessons on building skills for these papers are covered each week, with periodic due dates towards completing the paper – including peer review opportunities.
Discover Houston. Learn about how Houston works and explore some of its less obvious locations. Students study and discuss the history, major sites, city government, city layout, major industries, transportation systems, etc. of Houston. Approximately monthly optional “meaningful†field trips are offered such as Metro/light rail trip to down town, tunnel exploration, medical center overview tour, Convention Center “behind the scenes†visit , short jury trial observation, historical district walking tour, etc. Field trips help students develop “life skills†as well as learn about various careers.
Travel Through Australia. Learn about the fascinating island continent of Australia and develop travel planning skills at the same time! Students work together to plan a dream trip to Australia by using travel guides and websites to plan and research all aspects of a special vacation: budget, flights, car rental, hotel selection, sites to see, food, passports, etc. Also consider careers in the travel industry and hopefully have a few guest speakers such as a travel agent, pilot, etc.
Boy Scout Merit Badge books are great sources and always have group and hands-on learning as well as technical “meaty†info. A teacher could just work their way straight down the requirements in the merit badge book. Here are good ideas of guide books available that could interest boys and girls:
– Architecture
– Chess
– Drafting
– Electronics
– Geocaching
– Insect Study
– Orienteering
– Radio
– Reptile & Amphibian Study
– Space Exploration
Children: “you must never ever light a fire yourself, unless under the close supervision of a responsible adult pig with advanced circus training.” Nanny Piggins and the Wicked Plan by R.A. Spratt.
“[P]eople run deep and complicated like rivers, hold their shape and are carved upon like stone.” Crossed by Ally Condie.
“Listen to your second thought, or the third might be too late.†Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale.
“Truth is when your gut and your mind agree.” Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale.
“Words can fall hard like a boulder loosed from a cliff. Words can drift unnoticed like a weed seed on a breeze. Words can sing.†Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale.
“An idea is like fire under ice. You can try to put out the fire, but the melting has already begun.” Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale.
“Once someone is picking a lock, there’s not a lot you can do except stand in front of them to block them from view and whistle. . . Whistling is probably optional.” ~Project Jackalope by Emily Ecton.
“If one does not know how one will cross a bridge, one best figure that out before one reaches it. Otherwise, it is just poor planning.” ~Beauty and the Beast by Wendy Mass.
“[N]ot everyone who lives on a pretty street is a good person, and . . . even in the rottenest places you might find someone you can trust with your life.” ~Deadweather and Sunrise by Geoff Rodkey.
“Youth is overrated. Anyone can be a genius at twenty-five. The trick is to be one at fifty.” Degas in Mira’s Diary: Lost in Paris by Marissa Moss.
“All mirrors are magic, or can be. They show you yourself, after all. Really seeing yourself, though–that’s the hard part.” ~In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz.
“There are other ways to be brave without demonstrating it with the sword. Most battles are won by changing minds and turning hearts. Sometimes that’s all the bravery you need.” Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill.
“A real princess engages with the world in a state of grace. It is with grace that she listens and with grace that she speaks. A princess loves her people , no matter what their birth or station. Even ugly jailers.” Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill.
“Love [is] sharp and hot and dangerous. . . Love transforms our fragile, cowardly hearts into hearts of stone, hearts of blade, hearts of hardest iron. Because love makes heroes of us all.” Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill.
“It is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.” ~Gandalf in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
“You get the face you build your whole life, with work and loving and grieving and laughing and frowning.” ~The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherine Valente.
“Sometimes the best decision is a painful one, but it is never one made out of anger.” ~Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin.
“It is better to light a lantern than to bemoan the darkness.” ~Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin.
“The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves–say rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
As for methods of prayer, all are good, as long as they are sincere. ~Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
“I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.†~E.M. Forster
Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.
Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.
After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.
SATURDAY December 29th, will be a special edition of the Saturday Review of Books especially for booklists. You can link to a list of your favorite books read in 2012, a list of all the books you read in 2012, a list of the books you plan to read in 2013, or any other end of the year or beginning of the year list of books. Whatever your list, it’s time for book lists. So come back on Saturday the 29th to link to yours.
“Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man cannot read, and a timid one would not be entertained by, which even make us dangerous to existing institutions—such call I good books.†~Henry David Thoreau
Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.
Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.
After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.
“Books, to the reading child, are so much more than books — they are dreams and knowledge, they are a future, and a past.†~Esther Meynell
Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.
Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.
After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.
