Alas, not even my 33-year old paperbacks will fall open - apparently they made the spines better back in those days! I tried it with several different ones, and the only one that fell open at all was FotR, which opened to the very first page - not even the title nor anything else by Tolkien, but the quotes of several reviews.
The one my fingers found was Auden's:
Quote:
For any one who likes the genre to which it belongs, the Heroic Quest, I cannot imagine a more wonderful Christmas present.... No fiction I have read in the last five years has given me more joy than The Fellowship of the Ring.
|
Interpreting that is worse than trying to make sense of Malbeth's prophecies! Either I should be looking for Christmas presents already - maybe figuring out if someone should get a copy of LotR - or I should start writing another chapter of that Heroic Quest,
The Revenge of the Entish Bow, before the holiday season begins.
Then again, maybe I have my own Heroic Quest lying ahead of me! Lots of joy before Christmas...