The thickest fiction book on our shelf doubles as a heavy-paged place to press leaves and flowers. Especially during this time of year, one of my children will pass me an orange and gold colored leaf and I immediately put it to rest in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. There it sits until I remember at a later date to thumb through, and out fall leaves and flowers, flat and smooth.
I marvel at the thousand pages in Tolkien’s well-known classic, and the time, more than seventeen years, he spent writing it. And he wrote with paper, ink, perhaps a typewriter, but no backspace, no spell-check, etc.
I didn't learn about Middle Earth until after I was a mom. And while reading the Hobbit aloud to my son, I thought, Oh, now I see why people love Tolkien. Then came the Lego collectible sets and a map on the wall, and Middle Earth was known as a geographical location. I’m guessing other families can relate.
Wouldn’t it be something to send Tolkien an email and thank him for all the creativity he inspired, such as kids wanting to draw his mythical creatures, and words being read and heard to broaden even the wisest adult’s vocabulary? His inbox would be so full, he may never be able to open them all. But he lived a few generations too long ago…
Writing Prompt: Amazon reviews are one way to thank an author for their time and their talents. Good feedback also provides other readers an opportunity to know if the book is something they want to read. They can be as long as you want to write them, but making it a habit, in this day and age, is a huge compliment to an author. It’s also an opportunity to write a brief re-cap of a story (for Charlotte Mason-type homeschool families) as long as the review doesn’t spoil the book’s surprise-ending for other readers.