Reading

[19_crows]

What I'm reading now: Nothing. I just finished J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter. I enjoyed it: a straightforward biography without literary criticism. I'd been curious about Tolkien and how he came to write his books, and it was a good answer.

What I'm going to read next: Not sure yet. I'd thought it would be C. S. Lewis: A Biography by A. N. Wilson, which I bought a while ago, but just now reading reviews, it seems to be universally panned. And, I'm not really that interested in Lewis. I also have Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis which looks more like the kind of lightweight biography I feel like reading now.

Or, I might read Bestial: The Savage Trail of a True American Monster by Harold Schechter, about Earle Leonard Nelson who began a killing spree in 1926 across the U.S. and Canada. He killed at least 22 women and then raped their dead bodies. That's the other book I put in my bag when I went to the sauna today. Escapist reading, you know.

Comments

[19_crows]

Thanks, that sounds interesting. This book mentioned his partipation in the war and how many of his friends were killed, but didn't go into detail.

[ithiliana]

It is--and goes into great detail about the friendships that grew at school, and the losses during the war, and their impact on Tolkien!