Big Honkin' Literary Day

[filkertom]

On this day in 1937, The Hobbit was published. (A couple of other good sites are here and here)

It's also the birthdays of Stephen King and H. G. Wells.

Do you have a favorite line or a favorite scene from The Hobbit? I have an almost impossible time narrowing it down, but I dearly love when Thorin confronts Bilbo and casts him out, just before the Battle of Five Armies.

As to King, my favorite is, without doubt, Eyes of the Dragon, with The Stand and It right behind. Wells? The War of the Worlds.

Comments

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

I love when Gandalf comes back to Bilbo's the morning after the party/meeting with the dwarves and chides Bilbo for not having dusted his mantelpiece. Then Bilbo gets all indignant, Gandalf shows him the letter from the dwarves, and rushes him out of the house without even a pocket handkerchief!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

That is a hoot. "But what about --" "No time for it." "But what about --" "No time for that, either."

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

And in celebration of the day, here's a video about an Arizona man who built a hobbit hole in his back yard: http://www.azfamily.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/showVideo.php?vidId=67246&catId=236

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

HOBBIT: Playing riddle games with Gollum.

KING: 'Salem's Lot.

WELLS: The Time Machine.

That is all.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

It's also the anniversary of the publication of the famous editorial response "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" in 1897.

From The Hobbit: Barrels. Water. Need I say more? :-)

[batyatoon]

Hobbit: The Riddles-in-the-Dark sequence is probably my favorite. With the three trolls coming in a close second.

H.G. Wells: The Invisible Man, I think.

Stephen King: Nnng. Eyes of the Dragon is absolutely gorgeous, but but but Firestarter! And The Talisman and Black House! And Different Seasons! And the entire Dark Tower series -- I don't think I can even pick a favorite out of those seven. (Though if I did it'd probably be either 5 or 7. Or 3. Or ... dammit.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, my favorite parts were Tom Bombadil and the cleansing of the shire. Now I look, back and think, "What drugs were I on?"

Nowadays? Bilbo's fussiness at the coming of the dwarves. That scene still makes me smile.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I will point out that both of those scenes are from The Lord of the Rings, not The Hobbit. ;) Which is just fine; I adore the Scouring of the Shire myself, and was disappointed that Jackson didn't film it (although his ending is a decent alternative).

[neadods.livejournal.com]

And again I ask myself... what drugs was I on? :>

[rook543.livejournal.com]

Hobbit: Bilbo being annoyed at being called 'burglar'

King: The Stand (the original published version...NOT the way too longwinded unabridged-editors-are-wonderful-things version)

Wells: War of the Worlds

I prefer the unabridged version of <i>The Stand</i>

[pickledcritter.livejournal.com]

I tried on *3* seperate occasions to read the original release of The Stand and never made it past about Chapter 10 each time; it just stalled so much I couldn't get past it. When the unabridged version came out, I finished it in two days...it just flowed so much better to me and even though it was long, it was a LOT easier to read. And easier to read is more important to me than whether it is necessarily long-winded.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, and King: The Stand kept me awake for three days straight; I couldn't put it down the first night, and couldn't sleep at all for the next two. And for all the abuse they've taken, I still love Carrie (a musical!) and The Shining.

Wells: The Time Machine by just a hair over War of the Worlds. The future is so creepy bleak -- it caught my imagination as a teenager, and my more realistically afraid adult self again, later.

[sdelmonte]

- The opening scene of The Hobbit is still my favorite. It hooks you immediately, and never lets go. Ever.

- The Green Mile just edges out Eyes of the Dragon and

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- The opening scene of <i>The Hobbit</i> is still my favorite. It hooks you immediately, and never lets go. Ever.

- <i>The Green Mile</i> just edges out <i>Eyes of the Dragon</i> and <Wolves of the Calla</i> as my favorite King novel.

- Wells has never quite done it for me on the page, but I do like <The Invisible Man</i>.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I have two favourite chapters in The Hobbit; and I should perhaps explain that I read The Hobbit after I read The Lord of the Rings, and didn't, at first, like it at all. Even now I grudge it its virtues.

But there are two chapters in it that I love: the one with Gollum ("Riddles in the Dark"), and the one with Smaug, "Inside Information".

Now, in "Riddles in the Dark", the memorable line - which I always carefully misquote anyway - is "What has it got in its pocketses?" But the part I really like is the exchange:

"What have I got in my pocket?" he said aloud...

"Handses!" said Gollum.

"Wrong!" said Bilbo, who had luckily just taken his hand out again. "Guess again!"

In "Inside Information" I like Bilbo's grandiose self-descriptions: "I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly.... I am Ringwinner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrel-rider" - and then Smaug's beautiful reply: "Don't let your imagination run away with you!"

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

I think Bilbo's entire exchange with Smaug is my favorite part of the book. I like how Bilbo is finally getting into his role in the party (as evidenced by your quote), and the way Smaug is humoring him because he can't really do much of anything else, being unable to see him.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes: I think Smaug is absolutely brilliant. Quite the best thing about "The Hobbit".

The War of the Worlds

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

...cool and unsympathetic... is my favorite line, I think.

The Hobbit

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite oine is the trolls ...calling each other all sorts of perfectly true and applicable names.

[izzyryu.livejournal.com]

The Hobbit: Definitely the riddle scene.

King: The Dark Half. The automatic writing scene just gives me shudders. The Stand comes in at a close second. Great, great book, but I hated the ending so much. :P

Wells: The Time Machine. Probably because I loved the movie as a kid.

[blueeyedtigress.livejournal.com]

I think my favourite part of the Hobbit is that first feeling of magic and grand adventure that Bilbo (and I!) feels when the Dwarves settle in the firelit darkness and take out their instruments to sing of seeking the pale, enchanted gold ...

Over the Misty Mountains cold, to dungeons deep and caverns old, we must away, ere break of day .....

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

Hobbit: Dwarves complaining about the smell of apples in the barrels. "I could eat anything in the wide world now, for hours on end - but not an apple!"

King: On Writing

Wells: The Invisible Man

[allisona.livejournal.com]

My favorite quotes from "The Hobbit":

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat:
it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

"We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them."

"There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

"You are a very fine person, Mr Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!"
"Thank goodness!"

[griffen.livejournal.com]

My favorite King changes from year to year. This year it's Firestarter, followed by Carrie.

[brianh]

Not much of a fan of Stephen King, but I did like Eyes of the Dragon. As for Wells and the Hobbit-- I'd have to say "all", since I started reading both before kindergarten and they've stayed through. All of Thorin's speeches, especially his last one to Bilbo, have stuck out especially, as does any scene involving Beorn, who is Awesome.

Speaking of fantasies, have you listened to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6113357 yet? If the man was still president... *sighs*

[sarahtoalaska.livejournal.com]

I just have to say it's wonderful to 'hear' there are other people who actually LIKED 'Eyes of the Dragon'. Almost everyone I have ever talked to about it, hates it.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I love the song the dwarves sing when they're cleaning up. My dad always used to sing it when we tidied up dishes. That's what Bilbo Baggins hates! So carefully, carefully with the plates!

[mangledfairy.livejournal.com]

Eyes of the Dragon is my favorite. I'm in the middle of the Dark Tower series right now so that may change.

I haven't gotten around to the Hobbit yet! *hides*

Wells- War of the Worlds as well.

[james-rayner.livejournal.com]

Erf, Tough one - but IF I HAD TO...

Hobbit - The discussion with Smaug. Has to be the best. You dont see enough of the "Dragon" concept in Middle Earth, and that makes me kinda sad.

King - Impossible to choose between the 7 Dark Tower books, and it's minor addendum Hearts in Atlantis. All of them are so good, and so pull-you-into-this-world-and-never-let-you-go. Eddie Dean and Susannah, and Jake, and Oy (Of course! OY!) And the unforgettable Roland Deschain, It takes all my favorite epic fantasy elements and makes it so great. If I had to pick ONE BOOK out of them - it would be The Dark Tower - The Seventh simply because of the pure excitement and emotions that grab you from the getgo and never let go. All the wonderful imagry and tragedy, Victory and defeat, and Even the thing at the end makes it just so...perfect.

H.G Wells - HAS To be The Time Machine. And for the record, I loved the movie too, damnit. Both of them. I Just love the whole concept. War of the Worlds was good too, but it was better as a scary Radio Broadcast.

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite Hobbit moments isn't actually in the book. In Unfinished Tales, Gandalf tells Frodo that Bilbo was much like Frodo in his younger days. That's who he was expecting to find when he came back, not the stodgy middle-aged hobbit living in Bag End.