A brief update...

I am still making my way through the council meeting in Rivendell, but I figured I write a quick update to say that I have entered the "Once Upon a Readathon" through fellow book blogger Candace's blog page. The Readathon lasts from 12:01 a.m. on July 9 to 11:59 p.m. on July 11. As my minimum number of books to read during that time period I will say 3 books, which I will post at a later date.

Sometimes you need "just a bit of nonsense"

In the past few weeks after a tumultuous semester I have been somewhat procrastinating my reading, which is something that will need to be seriously amended if I am going to make it through 103 books before September. I am going to paraphrase Sam Gamgee in saying that sometimes you need "just a bit of nonsense" in your life, as seen in his example of not-so-proper poetry in Book I, Chapter XII. So I guess that justifies my slacker ways in reading...

I've finally set some time aside each day to seriously focus on this masochistic reading project, and I have now finally progressed up to Book II, Chapter II of The Fellowship of the Ring.  

I have finally completed the dangerous, anxiety-filled journey to Rivendell, which if you have read The Fellowship of the Ring you know that it ends with quite a bit of drama. My heart stopped when the nine Black Riders (Ringwraiths) approached our party of hobbits (along with Strider and Glorfindel) on the road. I nearly ceased to breathe as Frodo galloped on the back of Glorfindel's white horse toward the Ford of Rivendell, and joyously exhaled when the Black Riders were swept away in the flood of the River Bruinen. Tolkien's powerful descriptions and whimsical poems have made this book quite enjoyable thus far.

After Frodo wakes up, recovered in Rivendell he has a long awaited feast with the elves and other guests, before getting to catch up with the estranged Bilbo. Of course, there is now a council meeting discussing the fate of the ring, disturbances coming out of Mordor, and what will happen next. I haven't finished reading the chapter quite yet, but I have a feeling that this happy and peaceful little reunion will becoming to a halt very shortly....

Until next time, which I guarantee will be sooner rather than later...

A red velvet cupcake with the best vanilla bean and cream 

cheese frosting known to man, or hobbit, that I devoured while 

blogging at Heaven Sent Desserts on Wednesday May 30, 2012.

And what, pray tell, is a Barrow-wight?

Sorry for my absence from the blogosphere, finals kicked my butt last week and I am just now finding time to relax. So now I am back and ready for action!

I am still making my way through The Fellowship of the Ring, and after having made it past the home of Goldberry and Tom Bombadil, I was very confused by the whole Barrow-wight scenario. Obviously our hobbit friends were confused enough themselves as they woke up next to the ominous stone that they picnicked at in the fog-filled valley of the Barrow-downs, but I seriously had to reread chapter 8 twice and still had to look up what a Barrow-wight was. According to the LOTR "One Wiki to Rule Them All" site, Barrow-wights are shapeshifting, evil phantoms that inhabit the treasure tombs of the Barrow-downs.  

"Cold be hand and heart and bone

and cold be sleep under stone

never more to wake on stony bed

never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead

In the black wind the stars shall die

and still be gold here let them lie

till the Dark Lord lifts his hand over dead sea and withered land."

                            ~Barrow-wight chant.

I don't know how much this clarify things for everyone else, but I am still slightly confused and hope that I never run into one.

As promised, here is my recipe for Mrs. Maggot's mushroom and bacon, served over eggs for breakfast. Though the recipe calls for four eggs to feed two people, if you are feeding two hobbits (especially in their tweens), you might want to double the amount of eggs. Also, it tastes best with organic, farm fresh eggs from the Shire.

Mushrooms and Bacon Breakfast Recipe

Makes 2 Servings

2 large portobello mushrooms, sliced

1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced

4 eggs (8 if cooking for hobbits)

1/2 cup Amish blue cheese

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon truffle oil

Cilantro (if desired)

Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Once hot, saute onions and portobello mushrooms. Set aside.

Crack eggs into a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. In a separate pan, heat the remaining olive oil, then scramble eggs for 4 minutes. Once cooked, plate eggs topped with blue cheese, cilantro and mushrooms, then drizzle with truffle oil.

Enjoy before a long journey, toting a magical ring.

Mushrooms and bacon: The food of the gods...

Ambrosia - (am-bro-sia) n. Greek & Roman Mythology The food of the gods, thought to confer immortality. (Source)

In actuality, ambrosia is not some awkward (read: disgusting) dish of odd fruits and marshmallows in sour cream (Side note: Who thought that this was a delicious thing to make as a pot luck staple???? The inventor must have really hated their friends.), but instead the idea of ambrosia is embodied in one, perfect food group: Bacon.

Yes, in modern society bacon is the food of the gods. I will not debate this issue. 

So what does this discussion of ambrosia and bacon have to do with The Fellowship of the Ring? At the end of chapter 4, the hobbits - who are the only creatures who like eating more than I do - eat a dish of bacon and mushrooms at Farmer Maggot's house. I've decided that I want to make a recipe for my version of "ambrosia," consisting of bacon, mushrooms, truffle oil, minced chives and flat-lead Italians parsley. No fruit. No sour cream. Definitely no marshmallows. I will post a recipe once I have figured it out...

I'd also like to take a moment to comment on the hobbit meal plan. I would love to eat six, regular meals each day. Let's see, I could wake up to have breakfast, go for a long bike ride, come home and eat second breakfast, take a nap, wake up for elevenses, work on some writing, go to the grocery store, grab afternoon tea (well, let's be honest, coffee) at Lestat's (my neighborhood cafe), come back for a second nap, wake up for supper, and then drink a couple of bottles of wine before drifting back to sleep and waking up the next day to do it all again. I'd be fat and insane from an overconsumption of wine within a month, but I'd probably be wicked jolly.

My insane challenge....

So....I just updated my book list, and it appears that I had drastically underestimated how many books that I own (especially the unread ones). The actual number of unread books is....103. 

ONE HUNDRED AND THREE!!!!!

Did someone sneak books into my apartment while I was sleeping???? Also, I am unsure of why I have so many books about Chinese politics.

Well, here goes nothing. I'll either know a whole lot about Chinese communism, Middle Earth, the inner workings of Poe's twisted mind, and multiple world religions by the end of this challenge, or I will go mentally insane. Please visit me with flowers and chocolate at the local nut house when I am dragged in, kicking and screaming, wondering why they won't haul my book collection along with me.....

By the way, some people (mainly my good friend Kelley B.) have asked me in what order I plan on reading my books. In case anyone wants to read along, or finds any of them interesting and would like to engage in an electronic conversation about them on my blog, I have selected the first ten books of the challenge. On the "Book List" link you will see that some of them now have a bold, red number next to them listed 1-10 (I tried to mix up the genres a little bit to keep it interesting).

At any rate, back to your regularly scheduled program. I am now in chapter 4 of The Fellowship of the Ring and to be perfectly honest, it is giving me anxiety. The Black Riders are giving me the heebie-jeebies  so badly that while walking home late at night I half expect them to jump out from behind a dumpster.

One of my favorite quotes so far is the following poem (first recited by Bilbo in chapter 1, later by Frodo in chapter 3):

The road goes ever on and on

     Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

     And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with weary feet,

     Until it joins some larger way,

Where many paths and errands meet.

     And whither then? I cannot say.

This is sort of how I feel about the path of my life thus far. I moved to San Diego, only knowing the few friends that I moved here with and without a definite plan for the future. All along the way my path has grown wider as I am connecting the trails of my past. At times, I felt so exhausted in trying to find myself that I thought I never would. I do now know what trail I will follow for the immediate future, but what lies for me long term is likely to change at a moment's notice.

Maybe I am reading into this too much.

My first victim: The Fellowship of the Ring

Book #1: The Fellowship of the Ring
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Upon reading the first 50 pages of The Fellowship of the Ring, I can only ask myself one question: how have I gone so long without ever having read a sentence by Tolkien?

I guess I thought that J.K. Rowling had fulfilled the magical genre for me, but I was wrong. My first fond impression came from a simple line:

"There might have been some grumbling about dealing locally."

As a huge proponent of local business, this was enough to interest me to read further.

Now, three chapters in, 50-year-old hobbit Frodo Baggins is leaving the Shire, and I am already nervous about the journey to come. I watched the movies when they first came out, and though I don't remember any details or the ending, or much of anything about them (to be honest), I know that this isn't going to be a happy little journey to visit some elves.

Summer Reading Challenge

I have an addiction.

Luckily, my obsession isn't with drugs or alcohol or sex ala Tiger Woods, but it is instead with books. I know you're probably thinking that it isn't that big of a deal, but it is very serious issue. My tiny, 400 sq. ft. apartment, which lacks sufficient storage space, is filled to the brim with books. Even worse, many of these have never been read. 

It all started with a little used bookstore on Adams Ave. in San Diego. I would walk to the bus stop en route to school and back, stopping to check out what books they had. Well, I slowly started to build a collection, and though I knew that I had little free time due to a heavy class schedule and honors coursework, I always thought "Well, I'll read this over summer break."

Eventually summer break wasn't long enough to read the mountain of books that had mysteriously accumulated in my bedroom. Where had they all come from???

"I don't remember buying that."

"Is that mine, or did I borrow it?"

"Why do I have three copies of The Jungle?"

When I did have free time, I often reread my favorites (The Bell Jar, The Catcher in the Rye, A Clockwork Orange, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, American Psycho, Breakfast at Tiffany's, to name a few). The pile of unread books grew larger, sometimes on a weekly basis, even though I read during every dull moment.

Many people have asked me why I don't own an e-Reader of some sort, and it's because I enjoy holding a physical book. I love scouring used bookstores for old editions of classics, reading the dedications that loved ones had thoughtfully written for gift recipients, sitting in cobweb-infested corners as I choose what the next addition to my collection will be, returning home with three or four books at a time that I neatly scrawl my name into before placing them on the shelf. E-readers are impersonal and distracting, and anyone who knows me well knows that I am anything but impersonal and that I need no further distractions from my busy life.

So instead of reading The Catcher in the Rye for the 12th time this summer, I have decided to challenge myself to read all of the unread books on my shelf, regardless of length or genre. For my extensive cookbook collection, I will make a recipe from each book. 

My book collection takes up one full-sized bookshelf in my living room, one small bookshelf in the kitchen (for most of the cookbooks), a shelf on the hutch of my desk in my bedroom, and another small stack on my living room floor. These neglected, unread books account for about 70 of the 100 books in my library - yes, I realize that this is pretty sickening ratio.

So, I invite you join me in my travels, reading my blog posts as I read through my library. Feel free to comment as you see fit, enter into friendly debates with me where our views differ, and read along with me if you feel so inclined.