A to Z ~ Silmarillion, the

This year my A to Z theme harks back to 2012's theme, in which I listed an A-to-Z of books from my GoodReads "TBR" shelf. This year I want to revisit that list and report on which ones I've read, and what rating I gave them. Where the book hasn't been read, I'll mention other books starting with that letter I have read since 2012. ;)

"S" ... THE SILMARILLION
Status: Not Read

Some of my favourite "S" books read:

Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult. 4 stars.
Shade of Vampire, A (Shade of Vampire, #1) - Bella Forrest. 4 stars.
Sister - Rosamund Lupton. 4 stars.
Spiral - Koji Suzuki. 4 stars.
Starstruck (Starstruck, #1) - Brenda Hiatt. 4 stars.
Survival (Species Imperative, #1) - Julie E. Czerneda. 4 stars.

Wahoo, it's NaNoWriMo time! (nearly)

The most exciting thing about NaNoWriMo 2013 so far is what I just found on their site moments ago - awesome 2013 graphics, which I shall scatter throughout this blog post.

I particularly love the 1980s videogame-style ones. :)

Are you participating in NaNo '13? I am, and my username remains the same as it has always been - yoghurtelf. There's actually no reason at all for me to have that username, since even back in 2002 when I first "enrolled" in NaNo, I wasn't a huge fan of yoghurt. I can say that I'm a fan of elves, but I haven't read any books with elves for well over a decade now (I used to be all about the fantasy, but I've branched out a lot since then). Let's just say that I love Terry Brooks's Shannara series, though I have yet to read any of Lord of the Rings (I did read The Hobbit as both a kid and an adult, and I loved it every time).

Anyway, dairy and me don't mix too well, but I am still overly fond of my NaNo name, and so I plan to keep it forever.

This year for NaNo, I'm writing a YA contemporary with "darkish" themes. I wrote the same sort of book this June for BuNoWriMo, and this was the other idea I was throwing around. It was either that, or this, and since I wrote that back then, I'm writing this now. Well, not now, but in November.

Will I see you guys typing away madly (or scribbling, as some people still prefer to do) during November?

P.S. If you're a long-term participant in NaNo and think this idea is cool, vote for it!! It appears to be leading the charge and the more votes it gets, the more quickly it should be implemented. Yay!

Yup, I'm a NaNo nerd. And proud.

HOBBIT fest! + a page re-jig

Today is the Hobbit Blogfest, hosted by Tyrean Martin and M. Pax, and this is my entry! Yeah, I'm too tired to compose a more proper rousing intro than that today (a kitty woke me up at 3am just so I could help her do a pee, which she didn't need help with at all as it turns out). Anyway, for Hobbit Fest, participants must answer four questions. Below are the questions and my answers!

What is your favourite hobbit characteristic/or the one that you think closely resembles you . . .?
Second breakfast? :)

If you could choose between a scrumptious second breakfast and a perilous unexpected journey – which would you prefer?
Second breakfast! I know, inspired response isn't it? Blame kitty.

Have you ever left behind something on a journey (expected or unexpected) and wished you could have it over and over again? (a pocket handkerchief?)
Yes. I left behind a beautiful Canon Eos camera in the Istanbul flea markets - in a fleeing thief's hands! I'm sure there are other things I've left behind as well, but I can't remember any right now. Kitty's fault.

What is your favourite part or quote from the book that you hope will be in the movie?
"He did not go much further, but sat down on the cold floor and gave himself up to complete miserableness, for a long while. He thought of himself frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home - for he could feel inside that it was high time for some meal or other; but that only made him miserabler." (p.64, 1990 publication)

Thanks ladies for hosting this fun blogfest! I am sure the other entries will be way more energized and entertaining than mine! :P

---

In other news, I re-jigged my "Words & Music" page so that there is way less content, basically just a list of all the books I've written/am writing/may write in future, as it stands currently. I like this a lot better as it's just got the basic info and is much easier to digest. I whittled some of the music section away too, but it's still fairly chunky. I may work at whittling it more in future.

A-Z ... THE SILMARILLION

For this year's A-Z challenge, I'm posting an A-Z of books taken from my to-read shelf at GoodReads. For today's book starting with "S", I've chosen a work by a legend whose most famous other books I haven't yet read either...

---

S

The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien

The tales of The Silmarillion were the underlying inspiration and source of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing; he worked on the book throughout his life but never brought it to a final form. Long preceding in its origins The Lord of the Rings, it is the story of the First Age of Tolkien's world, the ancient drama to which characters in The Lord of the Rings look back and in which some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part. (read more here)

Why do I want to read it? Well, gawwsh...why not? ;) I've read THE HOBBIT, and that's it. This is on my list, as well as The Lord of the Rings (nope, haven't read those either!).