Stevenson, Robert Louis:  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

After seeing the musical a couple of years ago I wanted to read the original. Yesterday (Memorial Day holiday) I finally did it.  This is another one to forget any dramatized versions you’ve seen-this is classic good vs. evil.  I only wish I could have read it before I knew the secret.  That’s pretty hard to do now but the story still holds your interest especially as a psychological thriller of the 19^th century-pre-Freud.  I wonder if Freud got some of his ideas from Stevenson!  It is short-more of a novella-but a great story.

Tolkien, J.R.R.:  The Silmarillion

This was interesting because it gives the background myths that Tolkien spent years working on and from these ideas came the germination of the idea of the Lord of the Rings.  This is not easy to read because there are many stories loosely linked as a mythology with so many names to keep track of you need a reference to keep them straight.  (Tucker says he couldn’t get into War and Peace because he couldn’t keep track of the names, yet this is one of his favorite works.  Go Figure.  W&P is a piece of cake compared to this.)   However it is interesting and enriches the legend of Middle Earth.  I will probably read it again so that more of the stories “sink in.”  It was definitely worth the effort although most of the stories are tragic.  For me, the geography, which Tolkien always emphasizes, was even more difficult than the names.  I could picture individual places as they were described (loved this part!) but had trouble visualizing the routes to get from one place too another.