Archives for December 2013

Journey back in time with me and author Ethan Gilsdorf (Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks) as we enter the strange world of the early eighties. We wax on about Dungeons & Dragons, Dune, DYMO label makers and more! (And yes, that is a picture of me smoking a pipe when I was twelve years old.)

Are you obsessed with pictures tagged “Legolas” on Tumblr? Do you feel that Orlando is Bloomalicious? Well, you’re not alone in thinking that this archer from Mirkwood Forest puts the “sin” in Sindarin Elf. Peter Jackson couldn’t get enough of him either. Even though Legolas did not appear in Tolkien’s book The Hobbit, he is featured prominently in the filmThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. But what do we really know about this legend from Middle-earth besides his intense Elf-on-Dwarf relationship with Gimli? Click here to read my latest piece on The Huffington Post.

I have a new piece on the Huffington Post. It’s a handy little guide for purchasing Tolkien-themed books for your loved ones this Christmas. Now I couldn’t put every book on this list. I left out the obvious ones (like The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion), but I did recommend the new version of The Hobbit (illustrated by Jemima Catlin). Some of the books are classics that I’ve had since I was a kid (like The Father Christmas Letters, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Atlas of Middle-earth). And a couple have been published in the last couple of years (Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks). Whatever the case, they’re all excellent books…but I could have easily added another dozen great Middle-earth tomes to this list. Check it out.

The Tolkienlibrary.com and I have teamed up for a cool give-away! Here is your chance to win one of the following copies of my book The Wisdom of the Shire: A Short Guide to a Long and Happy Life: paperback (x2), audiobook (x1), the UK hardcover (x1) and the French version (x1). Click here to enter.

This competition is open to all EU, US and Canadian residents.