Fellowship

In honor of the President giving us the day off and the need for some hands-free entertainment while baking, I'm listening to an audio production of "The Fellowship of the Ring." 

A tip o' the hat to Cle for inspiring me to pick this up at Magers and Quinn, our awesome general used book store (Uncle Hugo's rules used and new SFF). 

I have trouble reading fantasy, and especially epic/high fantasy, but it turns out audiobooks cut through the attention deficit quite nicely.  So far, it's very enjoyable.  I thought background music would be annoying, but it works well.

We went to see "The Hobbit" on opening weekend.  The others in the group were not as taken, but I found it funny and tense, in the correct parts.  I guess I'm a sucker for dwarves.  One looked suspiciously like Young Hercules.  I might actually have to see it again...

I also really enjoyed "Night Train to Munich," which is now almost 75 years old.  It soft-pedaled WWII and the Nazis a bit, with lilting British accents, but it was made in 1940.  Despite this, it actually managed to imply that much more horrible things lay beneath the surface of the Reich, and made it clear collaboration was inexcusable. 

And somehow it moved very fast and remained intensely suspenseful.  Very.unusual for such an old, mannered film.

Rex Harrison, Margaret Lockwood, directed by Carol Reed (a dude), and lots of double-crossing spy drama.  James Bond lifted the ending scene 35 years later, with Jaws on the ski trams.