Picking, Reading, Researching, and Writing about THE HOBBIT
I’m a little late to the party (a lot late actually), so let’s take care of this all at the same time.
Picking
Picking my work was super duper hard to do. I’m generally a very picky reader (bad habit, can’t drop it...yet). I was one of the last people to actually pick my work, partially because all I could think of was works that were relatively mainstream given their age, which were picked up by others very quickly. I had one book in mind that I could choose and fall back on, if I really, REALLY needed to, but I didn’t like that it was so new compared to the other books of literary merit that everyone else was reading. After looking around I finally had a breakthrough and came across The Hobbit. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it earlier! This is one of the most popular fantasy novels ever written! AND NO ONE PICKED IT!!! I had never read it before, but I was more than willing to. Considering it’s popularity, I guessed I would have little to no issue finding criticisms.
Reading
Reading the work was something that took a few days so that I could really appreciate it. I picked up on little pokes at humour that Tolkien worked in, his addressing the reader, and the certain repetitive traits of their journeys, such as their constant hunger, often finding themselves in a pickle but having enough luck to find a solution and/or savior, and Bilbo’s longing for his hobbit hole. Overall it was an enjoyable read that I think went by all too quickly. I am extremely motivated to the LOTR series now when I find time. One bad thing though, I highlighted certain portions, but found it hard to stop and analyze anything to an annotation level. I later went back and annotated portions that I identified as important and content rich.
Researching
So Viraj and I went to Kresge Library during a weekend, either April 23rd or 24th. That day I found a lot more than I expected. My online search showed many results, but I was skeptical of how many would work for my research. Once I actually got to level 3 and looked at the bookshelf I was RELIEVED! There was so much to work from. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make copies because my OU ID person wasn’t registered for any courses and didn’t have those privileges (*facepalm*). I ended up scanning around 200 pages worth of information using my phone and a wonderful app called CamScanner. I later exported those to PDFs and have been using them.
Writing
I’m currently at that writing stage, and I should have started earlier...yeah, here’s comes the “I TOLD YOU SO!” It is what it is. I don’t think that what I have is too bad to be honest. I definitely have some more to work on but I think I can accomplish my goal. So here I am working out my general intro and making sure I have my sources lined up. God willing this will go well, or my willing this will go well since you might prefer that Kreinbring ;) . But I digress... There is still a lot to be done, but I can assure you or anyone really that I have maintained quality while writing and responding to the project’s requirements, at least to the best of my understanding and ability.
As Bilbo Baggins might say, “ Out of the Frying-Pan, into the Fire.”
