THE LORD OF THE STORY

 1967. Not too long before Christmas break. I hit the local library. I'm not sure how all this started, Maybe it was the new books shelf. Anyway it all started with The Hobbit. Perhaps the librarian didn't know that this novel was techinically a children's book. It didn't read like any kid's book I'd ever read. The publixher's ten year old son picked up extra pocket money reviewing potential children's books for the company. 

Pretty good prose for a ten year old. He's even using commas where they belong. Decent handwriting too. Love his underlining of  never. Anyway. read The Hobbit. Back to the library. Any more books by Tolkien. Hmm. Three more. Home went the Fellowship. Two days later with Christmans break on the horizon back I went for the other two. I believe I was up until about two in the morning on a Saturday night. with the Two Towers.The whole story blew me away. And since I had no idea how a novel was "supposd" to be written I really didn't care that he grouped characters into "books." Just made me keep reading. 

I caught the beginning of the Lord of the Rings wave that swept through the world like a tornado. Well, not like a tornado.And Tokien wasn't the first fantasy writer, not even the best really. At least when it came to following the rules as they were taught in the creative writing unit. 

Back I went after the new year just brimming over to Mr. Putnam. Senior year English. To be honest I'm not sure he ever brimmed over in his life. Or if he did it was so long ago he forgot how it felt. And as usual I find myself ending up not exactly where I thought I was going when I started. I know how it is to feed the enthusiasm. I slso discovered that day how easy it is for a teacher to shoot down a student's willingness to share a discovery. 

I'd always loved to read but this was like wow to the tenth degree. Fortunately I didn't allow his lack of enthusuasm to put a damper on mine. More later.