Deaf in Italy time to reboot this, and Baggins Day would be a great occasion. Depending on how late we start and how long we take, the weekend after it might be better still, but I suppose I could manage on the 22nd.

That's a friend of mine's birthday, so I probably can't make it that day. I could make it in the later afternoon (MST) that weekend.

It isn't really difficult to use it. You just switch it on and accept the call :)

I guess the point is to organise the time so that as much people as possible can participate. Nothing also prevents us from making more than one reading in case the timetables prove to be difficult to combine. Let's stay flexible. (As for myself, I will most likely have the time anytime during that period. So I can just keep reading 24/7...)

It's the birthday of a friend of each of us, come on ;)

My best friend is moving to England that weekend and whatever she'll ask of me, I'll oblige so my schedule depends pretty much on her. But I agree the weekend is probably better.

It won't include this North American as I will be in South America. But I'd join in later readings after I get Skype.

The 22nd would work splendidly for me, probably better than the weekend.

I'll be there as well. :)

As always, I should be there.

We can haz reading?
 

So, will there be something happening tomorrow or not? And if not, on the weekend? I should be available either way.

If we'd like to revive the original idea of paralleling (parallelling?) the chronology of LotR, we could read something from A Long Expected Party (maybe the Ivy Bush scene?) and/or from early in Frodo's journey (did we ever do Three is Company/Short Cut to Mushrooms? My memory fails me, and I can't be bothered to wade through 10 pages of thread right now).

Or there's Bilbo and the Dwarves arriving in Lake-town from TH. That was on Bilbo's birthday too, wasn't it?

Thoughts, suggestions, random ruminations, mushrooms, wurst?

Yeah!

Ah sorry I was going to post earlier - there's no chance I will make it after all.

I would definitely like to participate, and I don't have anything against the suggested parts. I think the Ivy Bush has like 2+2 minor people plus the narrator or something like that.

The idea about Lake-Town, however, is maybe even better. It indeed was Bilbo's birthday, and the text is suitable especially for large groups of people, since there are quite many characters. So I think that could be used in case there are more people. If not, Ivy Bush or something serves it well.

The Lake-Town scene itself, just for the sake of information: if we start with "As soon as the raft of barrels came in sight..." and finish with, say, the end of the song about the King (or one more paraghraph, unless we want to kill the narrator); we have quite a good job for the narrator in the beginning and in the end, and I think quite equally distributed couple of lines for: Bilbo, Thorin, Fili, captain of the Lake-town guard (ev. there is another role for a random guardsman which otherwise would be played by the captain), Elf (/Elves), Master of the Town, singing people in the city (or that could be done by everyone in the end as a chorus, yay?).

It's maybe not that long, but still quite nice. I will try to take look at something else during the day, too. And I should be available basically anytime, though if we want to get people from both sides of the ocean to participate, perhaps evening Europe-time would be better? I don't know.

I might be able to make it Saturday afternoon, 1-2 p.m. MDT.

I'll be home in about two hours and can participate afterwards.

Shall we see 10PM to accomodate for US members as well? Or 11PM? Looking forward to it! :)

I'm on now for about an hour.

Just got home.

If we do anything today, I'd rather not start too late, as I have to get up at 6am GMT+1 tomorrow.

Okay, I think I could be online more or less anytime from now on, barring any outside disturbances, so...

We (currently: me, Pitch, Eönwë, Gwath) are online now if anybody wants to join...

Legate, Gwath and me are having a session right now, if anyone wants to join...

Report from the night of the 22nd
 

And so it came to be that we've had a really nice reading session yesterday with myself, Pitch and at various intervals Oddwen, Gwathagor and Eönwë. I must say this was probably the best way to celebrate Bilbo's and Frodo's birthday, as we actually managed to read incredible amounts of stuff.

First, me, Pitch and Oddwen had read the Ivy Bush conversation (which takes place before the celebration, and thus is related), as we wanted to read something quick (before Oddwen had to leave) and related to the topic of the celebration. The cast was: Old Noakes and Daddy Twofoot - Oddwen, Sandyman - Pitch, and I was the Gaffer (turned out I had a lot more lines than I thought, but I really enjoyed reading his lines). We did this completely as just a dialogue (or multi-logue, anyway), it was really nice.

After that, Gwathagor came to join us and we did the "second generation", as Pitch had called it, of the inn-talk: the Green Dragon scene with young Gamgee and young Sandyman. I did the narrator part, Gwath and Pitch had each brought a pint of beer to their computers and thus the second famous conversation was replayed.

This wasn't enough for Gwath, apparently, and he proposed the daring (and dangerous for him, as you will see) idea that we continue from that point and, his own words, "keep reading on (the conversation between Gandalf and Frodo in the Shadow of the Past) until somebody else comes online to join us". I think neither of us had realised up to then how much most of the chapter consists of Gandalf's monologues. I think Gwathagor (whom me and Pitch had convinced, based on our earlier experiences of him reading Gandalf, that he should do the wizard) must have had a sore throat in the end. Pitch was the narrator and Sam (I think the Gamgees with a slight German accent are really just brilliant) and I did Frodo. This reading was also rather enjoyable and I think, most of all, that we must have set a record by this - we've basically read the whole chapter plus quite a lot of the first chapter, too. I think there can't be any better and more "proper" way to celebrate Bilbo's birthday, except if we'd read about the Party itself.

Then Gwath again left us and in a moment, Eönwë came and we did the last reading of the day - or actually evening - and I think that was the best wrap-up of it all. We decided to read a small part from Three Is a Company, when Frodo, Sam and Pippin leave the house, up to the point when they fall asleep (or, as we phrased it, "up to the fox"). The cast was: Eönwë - narrator AND the fox, myself - Frodo and Pippin, Pitch - Sam and Gaffer Gamgee (who was overheard talking to the Black Rider at the very beginning of the scene - and this time splendidly performed by Pitch). This was a brilliant reading for the evening, rather suggestive especially with Eönwë's narrating, and a great wrap-up of the whole session. I could just lie down and pretend to be in the Shire, with the night slowly setting...

Overall we did a lot more reading than usual, I would say, which I think was really nice, and must once again say that I feel like that was the proper way to celebrate the Hobbits' birthday. Still, the chance to do some more skype-meeting during the weekend especially for those, who haven't managed to find the time to participate in this one, is still present, and I think there are still many of us who wouldn't mind doing some more.

Darn, I missed it! I'll try to keep informed of what may happen on the weekend in hopes of joining in then.

You lot almost make me wish I had skype... :D

Argh! I have to work about four hours longer tomorrow than I thought. :( Grumble grumble sports. Ah well, we shall see what's going on when I get back.

It IS free...

I DO have many weird principles...:D

(To clarify that, over 500 people at my school failed to convince me to get Facebook, forget about Skype. Even my parents say that I could get it if I want to, and I say no.)

Good for you - I used to have principles against the Book of Faces myself, but I must have mislaid them somewhere in Finland:rolleyes:.
Skype, however, is quite another matter - I mean, why pay money to a telephone company unless you absolutely have to?

Anyway, would anybody be up for another round tomorrow?

It is most definitely time for another.

Yessssss. Will anyone have time next Saturday afternoon American Mountain Daylight Time?

I'm here. ;)

I'm going to be away on doggy business for most of tomorrow and will probably not be back until late in the evening Euro time, so I have no idea whether I'll make it in time. But if I'm online by the time you start, give me a ring - and if I'm not, I could still join later.

Generally, the main part of these things happens late because of the Americans, so it probably won't be a problem.
As for me, I'll be free for most of this weekend anyway.

Would anyone want to do some reading this weekend? There has been talk of Phantom&Alien readthroughs, or we could read some Hobbit.

Heck, we could read the back of a shampoo bottle if you like. Dibs on tetrahydrochloridorizone!

I'll have time tomorrow after 12:30 pm, in gmt-7.

I don't have a problem with either. There's a habit of my brother doing an annual reading of a tuna fish can, so I am used to reading all kinds of stuff.

But yes, if we agree for example on the time you mentioned, I think that could work. I'm all for doing some reading.

Come on, folks, we've got to keep this Tolkien-related. I vote we read the index to LotR - or at least the ISBNs of our respective editions.
In other words, count on me.

I can do probably after 11-ish today my time, or the next few hours.

Righty-o then, I'll be on for the next few hours. Join me if you like.

Pitch, Hook and I are talking about THINGS. That are FUN. It is FUN. I say!

WHAT?! I missed one again? What is this world coming to? :(

We're still going! It's not toooo laaaaaate!!!

(Grab some mhghghheeeatttthhh and join us!)

How long is this going for? Maybe I can actually get Skype to work on my computer!


EDIT: I DID IT! :D