Not all those who wander are lost

Right! So the "real" August post then :). Life has taken its usual twists and turns and I find myself in a rather happy state of mind :). A notable contributor I'd say has been the cycling! Yes, the summer keeps on giving when it comes to nice enough weather for cycling and enough opportunities to explore. And not just close to home!

For the last couple of weeks we've been in the UK and it has been amazing! Mostly seeing family and spending more than just a short weekend together. Being able to relax and just enjoy hanging out. I've definitely missed this. I feel like it's probably been as far back as February and the trip to India since I last had this feeling of being at peace.

Which is not to say the intervening months have not had their highlights, but there you have it. I just needed to get away and do not too much :).

Bath is a lovely city, I find. From the natural surroundings, with the rolling lush green hills on all sides, to the lovely Avon flowing languidly though, the old stone buildings and general ebb and flow of life. Since my very first visit here back in 2015, there's something about this city that has captivated me :).

As a first, this time we managed to get some cycling in here too! Trips to Bristol, Wells and Lacock in the last two weekends meant I'm now quite a lot more familiar with narrow roads, lovely green cycleways and some stretches of rather busy roads :). The weather has been amazing too! Meaning that it's either been beautifully sunny, or has rained just after we've managed to find appropriate shelter ;).

Another highlight has been the tour of Bath Abbey! With its rich layered history and spectacular architecture and detail both inside and outside, it was well worth the time spent. To be fair Wells Cathedral was also pretty cool, as was Lacock Abbey (the birthplace of photography, no less).

In between the trips and walks and amazing food at home and beyond, I've also spent some time submerged in the phenomenon that is The Lord of the Rings. Genuinely, in the two decades since I first read it, I've read so much other fantasy, and of such variety, that I think I'd rather forgotten the proper epic nature of Tolkien's masterpiece!

I managed to find a proper classic volume from the library with beautiful illustrations, but also the voluminous extras (forewords, appendices, index, the works). And having prepared myself appropriately by reading The Unfinished Tales, The Silmarillion and The Hobbit recently, I am enjoying myself immensely!

The level of depth hinted at is probably lost otherwise! There are so many references to the larger backstory! Such a deep tapestry of myth and legend that forms a constant backdrop. I recall the feeling from my first time reading LoTR that this was a heavy read. There was almost too much detail in each page. Now I see more clearly just how much there really is :).

I'm closing in on the end of The Fellowship of the Ring and have also enjoyed the slow and almost imperceptible evolution of tone from the beginning of the story, which almost picks up where The Hobbit left off with its lightheartedness, to the altogether more somber timbre now, as the Fellowship leaves Lorien, reminiscent of The Unfinished Tales.

Occasionally I also lose myself in the Appendices and am glad that I more or less remember much of what is shared in The Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion. The many discreet (and not so discreet) clues implying that this whole story is structured as an account set down by hobbits is a source of constant delight :).

There's a long way to go with the book still. There's also still a few days to go before we head home, so I'm definitely going to enjoy this holiday for all that it's worth :).

There's also the matter of the round number :). A part of me is quite content that it's just another number. But other parts are not convinced. I'm sure some or other shall be variously let down, relieved, happy, a bit morose... Who knows? But yes, life moves ever onwards and it's best to enjoy what one can of each day. In the mean time, there's (probably) cake :D.

PS. SunGod. Most highly recommended!!

Angus, like the cattle

So! Demon Copperhead, what can one say about it? First of all, for the first time in ages I've decided to deviate from my usual end of month wrap up to roll in my feelings about any books I might have read in the mean time. And mainly that's because of the sort of whirlpool of emotions this book has left me with.

As a suggestion from the book club, I'm more or less used to not knowing what to expect from books these days. Gone are the days of just three or four of us and knowing each others' reading preferences more or less inside out. With membership pushing double digits, surprises are more likely.

The first surprise, when I went looking for the book, was that author Barbara Kingsolver has quite the back catalogue. Yet I'd never even heard of her. I suppose her general choice of material is pretty far out of my usual comfort zone. But what writing! Powerful would be an understatement.

The whole thing with the opioid crisis in the US is obviously something one hears about, in bits and pieces, but this was eye opening! And not just that, but so much that seems to be such a deep undercurrent of life and definitely politics in small town America is presented in a way I'd never really experienced before. With such compassion.

The magic of the book for me, was that the whole things is narrated through such a lovable voice! Demon is incredibly believable, even for someone like me that's never gone through more or less anything that he's put through in the story. It's a hard trick that, making such an imperfect protagonist feel so worthy of sympathy.

I have to say, one of the reasons I felt I had to write this down right away was how much of a struggle the book felt for the last 150 odd pages before the final few chapters. Not just because bad things were happening, but how hard it was to take because of how invested I was in Demon. And the total contrast of that ending!

What can I say? I'm a sucker for happy endings. The proverbial ride off into the sunset. The sense of catharsis, the feeling that there is indeed such a things as redemption... That, and the superheroes :).