It had been a while since I last read The Lord of the Rings—just about four and a half years, to be exact. Same with The Hobbit. And, to be honest, I couldn’t give a timeline on when I last read The Silmarillion; I just know it was sometime in high school. Since I’ve been …
Continue reading Rereading the Tolkien Canon (The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, & The Lord of the Rings)
I love video games, though I’m not a particularly skilled player. My brother and I grew up in the Nintendo DS and Wii era and shared many moments playing together—duking it out in Super Smash Bros. Brawl or Mario Kart.I still feel nostalgic about particular games I played growing up, and during college started to …
This summer, I reread the Harry Potter books for the first time in a decade. I’ve been a fan of Harry Potter since my elementary school days, though my journey through the whole series was slow, as I was too young for the later books when I first started reading them. I still have vivid …
Continue reading Rereading the Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
Unlike my other rereading escapades over the past year or so, Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga wasn’t technically a childhood classic of mine. The Chronicles of Narnia, Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet, The Mysterious Benedict Society--all of those books, I vividly remember reading as a kid. With Wingfeather Saga, it was a little different. I read the …
Continue reading Rereading Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga
Against the odds of graduate school’s rigor and demand, I’ve actually read books for fun this year! Some of the books I’ve read were old favorites of mine I took the time to revisit: The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet, and The Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee …
A couple of years ago, I started a series of “Story Studies” that covered some of the most influential childhood stories that shaped my writing. In the process of writing that series, I came to realize something: I don’t remember a lot of the books I would consider my “all-time favorites” and “major influences.” Because …
Coincidentally, this post was published on the birthday of the greatest father in the galaxy… Darth Vader! Just kidding. It’s my Dad’s birthday. And he loves Star Wars, as I mentioned in Part 1 of my Star Wars story study. Happy birthday, Dad! * I don’t know what’s more controversial these days, the prequels or …
Continue reading Story Study: Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – Part 2
Since The Rise of Skywalker recently brought the 9-episode Star Wars: Skywalker Saga to an end, I decided to rewatch all of the main films as a study in story during my break from school in May. Though I am extremely familiar with Star Wars, as my dad is a huge fan, I hadn’t seen …
Continue reading Story Study: Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – Part 1
I’ve already read over ten books in 2019. For some of you, ten books in four months is nothing, but for me, it’s an achievement—in my adult years, at least! I used to read all the time as a kid and constantly needed to more books to meet the demands of my voracious reader’s appetite. …
My last Story Study is appropriately timed, considering Avengers: Endgame's release this week! The subject of today's post not only introduced me to the MCU, but also is the reason I now enjoy the science fiction genre. ~ My first encounter: As the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies began to release, leading up to The Avengers in 2012, …
Continue reading Story Study: The Thor Trilogy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
By Madelynn Orion 