Challenge 9- Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Review

Title: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages: 340 without appendices, 490 with appendices

Version: Paperback

Publisher: The Random House Publishing Group

This week I finally finished Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien. All I can say is what an incredible end to such an epic tale. All three of the books in this series are really fantastic (in both senses). It astonishes me how one man can create this entire world with new languages, races, and much more. But anyway, now to the book. This book was written extremely well, just like all of the other books in the series. The story itself is really exciting at certain parts, but can have other parts drag out for a long period of time which is a tad bothersome. Other than that, I really liked the book a lot. I was a bit confused at the end with the Grey Havens because it seemed like such a grand and final departure that I did not really know how to respond to it. Also, the fact that the very last sentence was essentially Sam just sitting down to real life was a bit strange. I did really like that it was showing that in such a unique way though. I liked hearing about the separate journeys of each group of the Fellowship. It seemed to me that Frodo and Sam's journey was short compared to all the other ones. This was perhaps because it seemed like they had much more going on in the land of Mordor than at Minas Tirith. Although, Minas Tirith had quite a bit going on too. Aragorn becoming the king and his transition into his new status was a really interesting aspect of the book as well. I think it was really nice to see his character development as the story went on. Gandalf has been my favorite character in the series from the start so it was also really nice to see him become so great in this book. He had to take on massive responsibility and it was interesting to see him grow so much. He also has the greatest beard and is a wizard so that's pretty cool. As far as the movie goes, I actually think that Peter Jackson did quite a good job with the adaptation of this book. There are obviously some differences because I have no idea how he could have possibly fit every detail of the book over a three(ish) hour movie. There was a part towards the end of Frodo's journey that was quite weird in the movie, but it wasn't a big part of the plot or anything. The movies as well as the books are one of my favorite stories of all time and I think they fit together very well. The story was translated very well in both medias. Essentially, the movie lived up to my expectations after reading the book and I highly recommend both of them. Overall, I really enjoyed the book and I thought it was perfect to end the series. Well done Mr. Tolkien, well done.

Lord of the Rings: Week 4 and Books in School

I'm still reading Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King this week. I am currently on page 242 of the book and should be around 254 after tomorrow. So I have finally started book six which opens on Frodo and Sam where they left off in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Frodo was captured and taken by orcs, leaving Sam with the ring to attempt to rescue him. He goes forth, expected a battle with some orcs, but finds that most of them are dead from a disagreement between the two groups of orcs. He happens upon one that finds him and then goes running up the tower to inform his leader, Shagrat. Sam listens to them for a bit and then follows the messenger as he goes up to where they have hidden Frodo. He gives the ring back to Frodo and then gathers supplies for them to move on in their journey. They dress as orcs so as to blend in if seen. They then go on in their journey by jumping into a valley that will help lead them to Mount Doom by keeping them out of sight. The valley runs along a road and leads up to a middle point between two mountains. They travel to the mountains and then are forced to take the road through the middle. Luck is with them for a while, but soon a massive group of orcs comes swiftly behind them and spots them. However, the orc leader thinks they are deserters and tells them to get into the line and march. Frodo and Sam are weary and tried, almost unable to keep up with the swift pace of the orcs, but they manage it and are not found out. As they reach the destination the orcs were headed to, other groups of orcs come at the same side and since they all want to get in the gate first, a fight breaks out, giving Frodo and Sam an opportunity to slip away unnoticed. They rest for a bit and then continue on their journey, reaching Mount Doom soon after. They begin up the road, but Frodo is too weak to continue and Sam has to carry him. They then have an encounter with Gollum who wants the ring back and so attacks Frodo. The attack invigorates Frodo to fight back to protect the ring which essentially has full control over him now. They drive him off and Frodo has new found energy to walk up to Mount Doom. Right as he is supposed to destroy the ring, he says he has changed his mind and that the ring shall be his. He then puts the ring on and kicks at Sam's legs from behind.

Now for the weekly question: Many students find books assigned for class to be boring or uninteresting, yet others find those same books to be engaging, relevant, and wonderful. Does this response have more to do with the book being "assigned" or is there something else going on? What advice would you give teachers to help students engage with these books?

 I think that books assigned for class can have mixed responses mostly because of the different personal preferences for books that people have. Sure, the fact that students are being forced to read a book might have some sort of impact on their opinions on it, but I do not really think it influences opinions too much. For example, many students have to read The Great Gatsby for class. Many students enjoy that book for a reason that I, personally cannot understand. I found it dry and dull because of the amount of nothing that happened in the book. What it comes down to is different personal preference for a type of book. Where as I prefer very exciting, fantastic books, some people prefer realistic books. This happens in class all the time because it is unlikely that someone will like every genre of book that is presented to him or her. To attempt to engage students with books, it might be a good idea to provide interesting projects with the books or perhaps have a choice of a small variety of books that students can read. This way, the books will be more interesting for each student as an individual.

Lord of the Rings: Week 3 and My Reading Story

This week, I got to page 172 in Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I didn't get too much further due to being sick for two days. In this time, Merry arrives in the city, greatly wounded. He meets up with Pippin and together, they travel to the House of Healing to get Merry help. The shadow has come for Merry, Faramir, and Éowyn. Aragorn hears of this and goes to help them. He ends up sending away the shadow and helps to guide all three of them back to health. People all over the city speak of the return of the great king. Later, the leaders meet and try to decide what to do in the war. They end up deciding to take a group of troops into Mordor. They then set off on this perilous journey, Merry being the only one of the company left behind because of his injury. As they descend into Mordor, fear grows as a heavy weight upon their shoulders until they finally arrive at the great doors of the Black Gate. Once there, the evil Mouth of Sauron (A terrible dark rider, servant of Sauron) rides out to confront the company. That is where I have left off for now. Next week, I will be reading about Frodo and Sam's journey with the ring as it jumps over to that after the switch to Book 6.

Now for the weekly question: What is your reading "story"? Was there a particular book that got you interested in reading? Did you family read a lot together? Did siblings read to you or did you watch them read? Was there a specific person who influenced you to read? How did you become a "reader"?

Reading is not really something that was encouraged by one source. I got interested in reading from my parents and at school when I was very young. There really is not one book that comes to mind when I think about why I started reading. My parents read to me when I was young as well. I got more in to reading in 4th grade when my teacher read us books in class that I was very interested in. After that, I started reading some really fantastic books in Middle School that still remain to be my favorites today. I think I really found some genres of books that I liked mainly during that period and just continued on after that. I also started doing the summer reading program and read much more over the summer. I even volunteered at the library for the summer reading program every summer since the one before 8th grade. Reading has been such a major part of my life and has told me stories that I will never forget.

Lord of the Rings: Week 2, Here in Harlem, and Literacy Rates in America

This is my second week reading Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien. I am about 130 pages in at this point. From where I left off last week, Faramir goes off into battle, driven away by his father. Faramir then returns, but is gravely injured and his father, the king, essentiallly has a massive breakdown. He orders himself and his son to be burned alive together so that they may die together before the war takes them. Gandalf is the only one that can stop this insane order from being carried out. Since Pippin has heard all of this and is determined to stop it, he goes and finds Gandalf, who is about to go out into battle, and brings him back to the king to talk sense into him. The war is in full gear and the leader of the Nazgûl (or Ringwraiths) comes to the battlefield to try and strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. At this point, the Riders of Rohan arrive to the battlefield and are presented with the challenge of dealing with the Nazgûl leader. Théoden and Éowyn attempt to defeat him and manage to in the end, but only at the cost of Théoden's life and major injury to Éowyn. Aragorn also arrives to battle within this time period. 

This week, I also read part of the book of poetry Here in Harlem by Walter Dean Myers. I read about 55 pages of it. It was really quite an interesting book because the collection of poetry was extremely well rounded. There was poetry from people of many ages with many different professions. It showed the culture and lifestyle of people in Harlem at the time extremely well. I particularly enjoyed a poem that was multiple haikus by an artist that described the many colors of Harlem and how they shift over time.

Now to address the question of the week once again: Should America be concerned with decreasing literacy? What, if anything, can or should be done to battle this problem? 

I definitely think that America should be concerned with the literacy rate considering how much worse it is getting and even how bad it already is. Literacy is extremely important to be able to clearly articulate ideas to others and to understand separate ideas as well. Besides speech, reading and writing is the main form of communication in society and is essential to learn. Something that can be done to help improve the situation would be to make sure national standards in schools are higher perhaps and to at least begin teaching literacy to everyone at a young age. I suppose it would also help for people to be able to learn from experience through common communication. Reaching out and trying to teach people is probably one of the only ways that will help the situation get any better.