Judging A Book By Its Cover

You should never judge a book by its cover, right? Maybe this is true. After all, it is what is inside the book that really counts.

Unfortunately, I do not believe this is possible. Anyone who says they have never judged a book by its cover, in my opinion, is lying. I know I have a penchant for gorgeous book covers. That is why I have collector’s editions of all the Lord of the Rings books and The Hobbit. Specifically, I have these ones:

Using a promotional image so you see the covers and the spines.

They are hardcover and clothbound. When you line up the three volumes of the Lord of the Rings, their spines form the Tree of Gondor. These are my absolute favourite book covers I have ever seen…I think they would be quite tempting to someone who had not read these books before. Sadly, however, they are out of print. Thus, the only way you can get them is searching bookstores and the Internet for any remaining copies. When I was trying to complete my set, I had to order a copy all the way from India. That is commitment to gorgeous covers, I tell you. I had to wait weeks for it to arrive.

There is another reason I think the saying about not judging a book by the cover is only partly true. I know when I browse bookstores or the Internet looking for something new to read, I am often attracted by the cover. Sometimes, the cover is all I see. If it is nice enough, I will likely take a second look and may even walk away with it.

We know book covers have power. There is no denying it. Thus, I think it is worth examining the role covers really play in telling a story without words. Let’s begin!

Evoking Emotion

In my opinion, the front cover of a book needs to evoke some sort of emotion in the reader. In the case of horror books, a good cover (to me) would be a little scary. Mystery novels should hold some darkness and intrigue. Check out this one, for example:

I suspect this is why many romance novels try to make the reader feel “fluttery” or something akin to that when they look at the cover. I think the best romance novel covers though, try for “intimacy.” However, it is not the physical intimacy I mean here, but rather emotional intimacy. That, to me, translates a romantic connection (a truer one) better on a book cover than a half-naked man does.

Real Scene

Many book covers choose to show a real scene from the book. This can be a good tool, as it gives readers an accurate glimpse of what is going on. However, it does run the risk of becoming too “busy” and overwhelming the reader. Most often, you will see this with the movie versions of book covers, although others will do this (including a few different covers of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum).

Many designers seem to take influence from elements of a real scene and alter that to fit a dynamic cover design. This often leads to using symbols on the cover, which brings me to my next point.

Symbolism

I have a complicated relationship with symbols in books. In many cases, I stand by my view that, while an author may use symbols in some manner, how can we really determine what these symbols mean without an explanation?

Having said that, I do think symbols can play an important role on the covers of books. They can be, of course, either literal or figurative. Look at this stunning cover redesign of the Harry Potter series (below). Do you see the images on the covers? They do have some significance regarding the story within the pages, do they not?

This particular set of covers does not seem to be available commercially (I so wish they were), but I found an article talking about the artist who created them. It put some words to the pictures on the cover, and having read the books myself, they do make perfect sense.

What do you think about the power of symbolism on book covers? Does it have a place for you?

Simple Attraction

Overall, I think book covers play a major role in simply attracting readers to their stories. Sure, the book blurbs and tease into the content are both important, but if the book does not have a nice cover? Well, I for one may not even pick it up to get to the content tease.

What role do you think book covers play? Do you agree with some of the things I have said? Do you have other ideas I have left out? Let me know! I want to hear what you think.

Language of Kings: The Fall of Arthur Review

“Our language now has become quick-moving (in syllables), and may be very supple and nimble, but is rather thin in sound and in sense too often diffuse and vague. the language of our forefathers, especially in verse, was slow, not very nimble, but very sonorous, and was intensely packed and concentrated – or could be in a good poet.”

The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien, with edits by his son Christopher Tolkien, is a venture into Arthurian legend by way of an unfinished poem, written in Modern English in the Old English metre. First of all, before I dive into what I thought, there is one major thing you need to know about the book.

The pome itself only spans a little under 50 pages. The rest of the book is the foreword, as well as material Christopher Tolkien wrote. There is a lot of analysis of the poem and how it fits into Arthurian tradition, as well as a short “crash course” on Old English alliterative verse.

An Unexpected Adventure

“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.”

From the moment I stepped onto the path leading into Hobbiton, I knew I was in for a treat.

Hobbiton is located on the Alexander farm, just outside of Matamata, New Zealand. This farm is home to around 13,000 sheep and 300 Angus beef cattle on 1250 acres of gorgeous land. Peter Jackson was incredibly lucky to find this location on his aerial search of New Zealand. His scout knocked on the door during half-time of a game with the All-Blacks. Had it not been half-time, Mr. Alexander may never have answered the door…meaning there would not have been Hobbiton as we know it today. Frankly, I cannot imagine it any other way.

My day at Hobbiton began at the Shire’s Rest: the information centre, gift shop, and café. Here, I boarded a bus. Even as we were driving up to Hobbiton, I could not see a thing. We were dropped off at the entrance and still, I had not seen an inch of Hobbiton. We stayed at the entrance for a few minutes where the tour guide (incidentally, her name was also Jess and we were about the same height) introduced Hobbiton to us. She also asked the group a couple of questions about who had seen the movies and who had read the books. Her final question was about who read the Silmarillion. I was the only one to raise a hand, a fact that I am so proud of.

Not seeing Hobbiton as we approached on the bus turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. When we turned the corner on the path into Hobbiton, we were greeted with an amazing sight. I had gone from the regular world, straight into Middle Earth. Straight into the Shire.

Walking on the paths in Hobbiton was surreal. Everywhere I stepped I was greeted with amazing sights, from simple to complicated. Almost everything in the garden and on display in terms of food was actually edible (although we couldn’t eat it). Our tour guide said that they actually employed full-time gardeners to keep everything in check .

As I progressed through Hobbiton, I could see that where the richer hobbits would have lived, personalities sprung from those hobbit holes. Lumberjacks, bakers…a gardener. Hi Sam Gamgee. Gorgeous, every single one.

There are about 37 hobbit holes in Hobbiton. One very interesting fact about filming that we learned (and saw for ourselves) was about the size of the hobbit doors. There were different sizes and scales. The larger holes (about 90%) were used for actors like Elijah Wood, who were meant to be hobbits and therefore small. But there were also much smaller hobbit doors where they placed actors (specifically, Ian McKellen as Gandalf) so that they would look very tall compared to the others.

Before I went to Hobbiton my friends and I were making jokes about the fact that I am quite small and would fit into the hobbit holes. This is actually true for a few of the hobbit holes, but not for all of them.

One fact that should be clear is that you can only go into one hobbit hole (NOT Bag End) to pictures inside the door. It only extends a few feet back, a brief reprieve to the façades of the other hobbit holes. In the films, they shot all indoor hobbit hole scenes in the studio. Despite this, I was not disappointed at all, and I doubt that any Lord of the Rings fan would be.

 

As I approached Bag End, my attention was drawn from the gated entrance, to the door of the hobbit hole that was slightly ajar, and then to the tree that sits above the infamous hobbit hole. That tree is the most expensive prop that they have in Hobbiton. Yes, it’s a prop. This is mostly because they returned to Hobbiton to film The Hobbit after Lord of the Rings. In Tolkien’s world, The Hobbit is set about 60 years prior to Lord of the Rings, and as such the tree had to be younger. So they reconstructed it. Each branch of the tree was bolted together on top of Bag End, and it weighs about 26 tonne. The crew imported gorgeous and artificial leaves from Taiwan, and wired them individually onto the tree.

Each step that I took through Hobbiton was like walking through the pages of a book. Through scenes in a movie. The feeling that rushed through me was indescribable. At the end of the tour, our guide brought us to the Green Dragon. I tried their Sackville Cider—smooth, crisp, delicious.

Outside the Green Dragon Inn, I looked back. The hills of Hobbiton stared back at me.

I stepped out my door, and I knew where I was going. But I didn’t expect it to bring me here.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

“It’s a dangerous business, going out your door”

Before I start with details, I’d just like to say a few things to keep in mind and just a general thought. I learnt awhile back something I believe is integral with any book to movie adaptation. These are two entirely different forms of media and as such they have to be viewed differently. What I mean is that much of the description and inner dialogue/feelings within a book is lost. You cannot, unless you do voice-overs, translate that in the same way. The description of the scenery must be shown, as well as that inner dialogue (often conflict) and feelings, which need to be seen on the actor’s faces. Furthermore, with any adaptation there will be certain things that must be left out or shortened in order to maintain a respectable run-time. Finally, there may be things that need added or otherwise altered in order to get a point across or to allow for fluidity, among other reasons. So really, book and their movie adaptations must be treated as separate entities—otherwise no one would ever leave a theatre feeling satisfied. The thought that I would like to mention here is that, should anything I write (ahem, my current work-in-progress) be adapted into a movie I would very much like Peter Jackson to direct and whatnot. As far as adaptations go, his work with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit have been the best that I’ve seen and I have walked away more satisfied with these than any others.

But now, for what I thought of the final Hobbit movie.

Overall, I think that the film was well-executed from start to finish. The scene with Bard and Smaug was exceptional, particularly with the addition of Bard’s son and Smaug in the background. Other standout scenes for me were Bilbo’s escape to Bard, Thranduil, and Gandalf with the Arkenstone, as well as the small battle on Ravenhill (I won’t spoil what happens there, but it does tug on your heartstrings).

There are some things that people would consider discrepancies, and in some cases they are partially correct. The first, flowing throughout all of the three Hobbit films, is the part that Legolas plays. He does not physically appear in the books, but it is entirely plausible that he would be there since Thranduil is his father. He does not appear by name, I think, because Lord of the Rings was not only written after the Hobbit, but there was never intended to be a “sequel” of any kind to The Hobbit in the first place.

The second item, specific to the final film, is Alfrid, the “right-hand” to the late Master of Lake-Town. Again, this is a character not specifically named in the book. The character Alfrid is supposed to represent, I believe, is a simple councilor to the Master of Lake-Town as described in the book. The only thing I cannot confirm at the present moment is if he has as big of a role in the book as he does within the film (I would have to read the book again to be sure), although I’m not bothered as it does provide some lightheartedness to the film. What is often forgotten, I feel, is that The Hobbit is intended to be a children’s book, so it stands to reason that the film should have some moments to lift it up amidst the battles and bloodshed.

The last thing I would like to address about the plot that is shown onscreen is the fact that there is additional material that many people will see as “made-up”. In reality, this is not the case. It is true that some scenes are not in The Hobbit itself, but they are still considered canon within the Middle Earth universe. There is a ton of material contained with the Appendices that are found at the end of Lord of the Rings (with Return of the King, for when the three volumes are separated), quite a bit of which has been integrated into The Battle of the Five Armies (and, frankly, the other two films as well, although this is not readily apparent). This includes the scenes with the Necromancer, Galadriel, Elrond, Gandalf, Saruman, as well as some set up to Aragorn, among other things. I do not, unfortunately, have an eidetic memory so it’s hard to pinpoint absolutely everything, but I can recognize quite a bit. For instance, Gandalf isn’t featured as much in The Hobbit—he goes off to do his own thing and it isn’t really shown. In addition, sending Legolas off to the Dúnedain to find Strider is part of a perfect bridge to Lord of the Rings. As the astute will know, Strider is actually Aragorn who eventually becomes the King of Gondor in Lord of the Rings. In addition, that also sets up Legolas knowing about him during Elrond’s council in Rivendell during Fellowship of the Ring. A second piece of the perfect bridge is the scene at Dol-Guldur with the Nine and Galadriel’s banishment of the Necromancer (the giant eye, as it is revealed the Necromancer is Sauron). This sets up Sauron’s intense search for the One Ring in Lord of the Rings really well.

I love this additional footage into the film for a number of reasons. One is because I love Tolkien’s work, and integrating more of it into the film is always nice. Furthermore, the fact that adding in these scenes and information provides a bridge is great. I know that The Hobbit was never meant to have a sequel, but it does exist. I also have a really big plan for when this final Hobbit film is released on DVD (hopefully with an extended version). I really want to watch every single one of the Hobbit films and the Lord of the Rings films in order from start to finish as a movie marathon. Which, by the way, will require me staying awake for at least 24 hours straight. The bridge that Peter Jackson has provided will allow them to flow together instead of it being like I am watching two separate film trilogies.

Another thing that I would like to mention, and I have pointed out before when talking about the previous two films is the beautiful cinematography. While some scenes were filmed in a studio, the majority were shot in New Zealand and it is really unaltered New Zealand that you are seeing when a sweeping landscape or a mountain is shown on the screen. This was only magnified for me while watching The Battle of the Five Armies, particularly when Bilbo returns to The Shire. Why? Simply because I know that in a few months I will be standing in the Shire, in Hobbiton, and seeing the beauty of New Zealand with my own two eyes.

Finally, the credits were absolutely beautiful and probably the best that I’ve seen with the drawings of the characters and the map, et cetera. Not to mention the song performed by Billy Boyd (Peregrin Took, Pippin, in the Lord of the Rings films). I am pretty sure that it brought a tear to my eye.

All in all, however, I think that Peter Jackson did a wonderful job with bringing Middle Earth to life. And with The Hobbit? He brought us there and back again, all tied up in a pretty little bow—just in time for Christmas.

The Last Goodbye

“Many places I have been, many sorrows I have seen. But I don’t regret, nor will I forget, all who took that road with me” -The Last Goodbye, Billy Boyd

JRR Tolkien’s writing is absolutely phenomenal. It’s descriptive, detailing the wonderful world of Middle Earth, gives characters unique back-stories, bringing everything about them, including their flaws, to life. It’s poetic, with countless lyrics. Even the normal writing has a beautiful fluidity to it. But I digress.

Today marks what I believe will be the last foray the film industry will make into Middle Earth, with The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. I’m not sure that I could be any more excited than I am right now. Well, apart from when I am sitting in the theatre and the film is about to start. My excitement now is multiplied by the fact that I am currently in the middle of a mini movie marathon (the previous two Hobbit films, for those curious minds).

Keeping it specific to The Hobbit, I’d like to share one of the moments that exhibits Tolkien’s writing prowess (and, frankly, one of my very favourite moments in Middle Earth).

“Far over the Misty Mountains cold

To dungeons deep and caverns old

We must away ere break of day

To claim our long-forgotten gold”

That is a sliver of the song sung by Thorin and company at Bag-End, near the beginning of The Hobbit. It is also Bilbo’s trigger, so to speak. It is the catalyst that has him decide to join the adventure to take back Erebor.

It gives me shivers every single time.

I’m slowly working my way through all of his books. It’s a tall order, considering the fact that there are many, and the others that I need to read, but its something that I am happy to do. Tolkien was a treasure to the literary world.

One that we’re unlikely to match.