Welcome to Loafy23's Book pages!

This is my BOOK page. Some of my favorite authors are Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorcock, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Here I want to review some of my favorite books and tell you what makes them special to me. Some of these books will be familiar to just about everyone that has an interest in Fantasy or Science Fiction writing. Others may not be as well known but I think that they will surprise you.

What am I currently reading???

My Favorite Stories
(Collections, Series, Individual Books, and Short Stories)

'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy
'The Hobbit'
(JRR Tolkien)

The Belgariad Series
The Malloreon Series
Belgarath the Sorcerer
Polgara the Sorceress
(David and Leigh Eddings)

'The Elric Saga'
(Michael Moorcock)

The 'Amber' series
(This is actually two five book series*)
(Roger Zelazny)

'The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'
(all of the books minus 'Mostly Harmless'**)
(Douglas Adams)

'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'
(Hunter S. Thompson)

'The Damned' series
(Alan Dean Foster)

'The Meetings Sextet'
(A Dragon Lance series by various authors)
('Wanderlust' is the second in the series and my fave)

'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever'
'The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever'
(Two trilogies by Stephen R. Donaldson)

'Jurassic Park'
'The Lost World'
(Michael Crichton)

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* - The first five books (The Corwin Books) were written over about a fifteen year period and are considered to be some of the best fantasy every written by most fans of the genre. The second five books (The Merlin Books) were written in about five years and although they are a part of the Amber series they just do not shine like the first five. If the second five books are viewed apart from the Corwin books they are excellent fantasy but they still pale in comparison to the Corwin books.

** - I really think that Adams wrote this book to simply get his fans off of his back. That's the feeling that I got from it. It was not of the normal high quality that Adams is known for and it ends in such a way that the series is done. I can't blame him for doing this I just wish it'd been done in a better fashion.

Book and Story Reviews...

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

In my opinion Tolkien defined what fantasy writing is with The Hobbit. Much has been written about this tale of adventure. Many have drawn correlations between events in this classic and actual events that took place in Europe around the time of its writing. My feelings on those correlations comes down to this: I simply don't care. I'm not going to pretend to know what Tolkien was implying with The Hobbit. I enjoy this story for what it is, a wonderful journey filled with adventure and suspense.

This story revolves around a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo is a very unlikely adventurer. First off, he's not the adventuring type. He's a small peaceful man that loves his food and drink and could care less about running off with thirteen Dwarves in search of a treasure. But, that is what he does. Even if it wasn't his idea. Bilbo reminds me of a mild mannered bank teller and not the sword carrying barbarian that usually fills fantasy novels. Here we have an ordinary individual that finds that he's not so ordinary after all. Something that we all could aspire to be. A person that has many fears but is strong enough to over come those fears and do something that so many do not... To go from here to there and back again.

Now, I'm not the one to ruin a story for someone. If you've not read The Hobbit and you like fantasy, read it. I've been over my copy many times. When there's nothing else in the house to read that catches my fancy, I read it again. It's just that kind of a story. If there were only one book for me to read for the rest of my life, The Hobbit would be it.