Spank Me Hard! … Please?

This week’s prompt from Wicked Wednesday is, “Favorite Books”.

I read a lot and have since very young. It started as an escape mechanism from family drama, and remains my favorite hobby. I don’t know how many books I’ve read in my life, but I’m sure it’s at least 25,000.

At the top of the heap, is The Lord of The Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Quite frankly, nothing has ever really come close to supplanting this novel. Yes, novel. Tolkien himself considered it to be one single novel, written as six books in three volumes: The Fellowship Of The Ring, The Two Towers and The Return Of The King.

There are four groups of people: Those who have both read the novel and seen the movies. Those who have read but not seen. Those who have seen but not read, and those who have neither read the novel nor seen the movies.

For those who don’t know, when working on the screen play, Peter Jackson realized that Tolkien’s work was actually exactly what needed to be utilized. For those who have never seen the movies, almost all of the dialogue is verbatim to the novel. That also includes the songs, poems and languages that Tolkien created. What is different in the movies, is that many scenes from the novel were not included in the final cinematic release, and one ‘minor’ character was switched and changed gender.

My second favorite books are the All Souls Trilogy +one more, by Deborah Harkness. The novels are: A Discovery Of Witches, Shadow Of Night and The Book Of Life. The add-on is, Time’s Convert. I have never seen the television adaptation, nor plan to. The books stand alone.

What I enjoy the most about these books, is the historical detail and alternative representation of what defines humanity. It raises many ethical and philosophical questions wrapped in science and history with constant magic. Well worth a read.

The most successful alternative history books of all-time, started as a one-off novel called 1632, by Eric Flint. The author writes military/sci-fi and wrote 1632 on the premise: “What would happen if an American small town was sent back in time right in the middle of The Thirty Years War?” He choose a town in present-day West Virginia, changed the name, added a few must-have details, and launched a franchise that is getting more popular with every passing year. Check Baen Books and The Ring Of Fire Press. In print, there are now close to 100 books and more than that as ezines and ereaders.

It is unapologetic American in tone, but deals harshly with discrimination of all kinds. 1632 in the Germanies was a brutal year in our history. History repeats for those that refuse to learn from the past.

There are many, many more books I love. Authors that I read every story. Too many to mention.

Oh, one more mention. Georgette Heyer. Credited by many with creating the modern Regency romance. The Grand Sophy. One of her best.