News Archive from 1997
Holiday Gift Ideas
Posted on December 1, 1997
by Eleanor M. Farrell
Information on books is easy to find on-line! Try BookWire for resources and links on titles, authors, awards, bookstores, and just about anything else you can imagine. And don't forget our own growing Books, Books, Books list for other sites recommended by Mythopoeic Society members.
Going to a live performance -- a play, a concert, or a ballet -- is a rare treat for most of us. The holidays are a good excuse. Even many small communities host holiday productions of The Nutcracker ballet or A Christmas Carol, and check local papers for play versions of The Hobbit, The Wizard of Oz or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, other popular offerings particularly for children's theater groups. If you live in or near a city, the possibilities are even more promising. The San Francisco Bay Area continues its annual presentation of the wonderfully mythopoeic Noh Christmas Carol, and a local troupe is (still) performing the entire collection of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, with a new play every few weeks. Lots of information on local theater and musical events can be found on-line. Try a little seasonal surfing!
A search site that can be used to check book prices, availability, and shipping information for over 25 online stores. Great for comparison shopping!
Alexandria Digital Literature
A free book-recommendation service, where the reader, after rating a selection of books and/or authors (fantasy and science fiction featured prominently!), can get a list of suggestions for future reading. The site also has over 200 stories (science fiction, fantasy, horror) on-line and available for purchase.
Amazon.com Books
One of the largest Internet bookstores, with a searchable catalog of over a million titles offering on-line ordering, plus information on best sellers, reviews and awards. Customers can recommend and review their favorite books, too!
Blackwell's Online Bookshop
Academic Booksellers to the World -- One of the world's greatest bookstores, Blackwell's specialises in academic, research, scholarly, business and technical books.
BookWire
An outstanding Web page for any and all information about books: conferences, publishers, libraries, booksellers, you name it. Of particular interest to Society members is their listing of Book Awards (including the Mythopoeic Awards).
Daerons Books
Daerons Books are specialist bookdealers and enthusiasts in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams and the other Inklings. Run by several members of the Tolkien and Mythopoeic Societies.
Dreamhaven Books
A Minneapolis establishment specializing in small press and hard-to-find titles, which also carries new and used science fiction, horror, fantasy and related weird stuff. They will send free monthly mail catalogs, and have an 800 number for phone orders. Service is always prompt and pleasant.
Internet Book Information Center
Includes a guide to book-related sources on the Internet, reviews of current and classic books, and more....
Internet Public Library
Contains collections of reference, magazines, newspapers, online texts, and more useful data for librarians and general readers. One of the site's highlights is a collection of links to over 950 critical and biographical websites (including many on the Inklings) which can be browsed by author, title or literary period .
Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase
A continuous, ongoing effort to catalog works of Speculative Fiction, linking various types of bibliographic data and searchable by author, title, series, or year. Includes information on genre awards, including the Mythopoeic Awards.
Powell's Books
Powell's is the Mecca for booklovers: the main store alone covers an entire Portland, Oregon, city block, and helpfully provides maps to prevent browsers from getting completely lost. Now shoppers far from the Pacific Northwest can take advantage of the store's vast stocks of new and used titles, search service, and sales.
Thornton's of Oxford
This venerable Oxford establishment ("Booksellers and Publishers since 1835") gets an intriguing selection of Tolkien- and Inkling-related material through auction, and carries all of the publications in print as well.They have an electronic mailing list for book-lovers interested in obtaining that rare first edition....
by Eleanor M. Farrell
Books
The Mythopoeic Award winners and finalists are always a good choice for any reader of mythopoeic fiction or scholarship. Check out our complete list of winners (and fiction finalists) for 1997 and earlier years.Information on books is easy to find on-line! Try BookWire for resources and links on titles, authors, awards, bookstores, and just about anything else you can imagine. And don't forget our own growing Books, Books, Books list for other sites recommended by Mythopoeic Society members.
Calendars
Most of us live in places with walls, so we need calendars, right? The 1998 J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar features monthly selections by a variety of artists. To give you an overview of the calendar's successes (and failings), read the Tolkien calendar review by Society artist and critic Paula DiSante. Many other decorative options are available in the usual enormous selection of art- and media-related calendar offerings, including a lovely Arthurian calendar for 1998.Music
Three recent albums of Tolkien's music are now available:- The Starlit Jewel from Avalon Rising features songs from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, set to music by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Avalon Rising members Margaret Davis and Kristoph Klover; check out The Starlit Jewel review by Paula DiSante. Avalon Rising performed many pieces from their recording at Mythcon XXVII in Boulder, Colorado.
- The Dutch Tolkien Society has released a CD titled Songs from Middle-earth from The Hobbitons, which can be ordered through various mail order sources.
- Finally, a new CD from the Tolkien Ensemble of Denmark, titled An Evening in Rivendell features folk- and classical-inspired arrangements and a cover illustration by Queen Margrethe 2 of Denmark (from her illustrations of the Danish version of The Lord of the Rings). This is released by Classico Records and likely available through the many European-based book and ephemera mail order companies.
Videos
You can't go wrong (that is, if you choose carefully!) with a video version of Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol. I personally like the recent Muppets' adaptation, with Michael Caine obviously enjoying his performance as Scrooge. Or, for a change, try A Christmas Story, based on humorist Jean Shepherd's remembrances of growing up in Indiana in the 1940s. My friends and I watch this every year on Christmas Eve.... Fantasy fans might enjoy a number of new films: Fairytale: A True Story, in which Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini investigate fairies in a Victorian garden, or The Wind in the Willows produced by members of the Monty Python troupe.Events
Celebrate the holiday atmosphere and take someone out to a movie, play, or musical performance. Films are a universally popular and easy entertainment. OK, so a live-action version of The Lord of the Rings isn't one of the season's new offerings (and probably just as well!); but literature fans can enjoy new movies based on the works of Henry James (The Wings of the Dove), Peter Carey (Oscar & Lucinda) or Joseph Conrad (Swept from the Sea). The most comprehensive listing of web sites for individual films and production companies is that on the Yahoo! directory. New listings are always being added!Going to a live performance -- a play, a concert, or a ballet -- is a rare treat for most of us. The holidays are a good excuse. Even many small communities host holiday productions of The Nutcracker ballet or A Christmas Carol, and check local papers for play versions of The Hobbit, The Wizard of Oz or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, other popular offerings particularly for children's theater groups. If you live in or near a city, the possibilities are even more promising. The San Francisco Bay Area continues its annual presentation of the wonderfully mythopoeic Noh Christmas Carol, and a local troupe is (still) performing the entire collection of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, with a new play every few weeks. Lots of information on local theater and musical events can be found on-line. Try a little seasonal surfing!
Books, Books, Books
Acses, Universum's Smartest BookfinderA search site that can be used to check book prices, availability, and shipping information for over 25 online stores. Great for comparison shopping!
Alexandria Digital Literature
A free book-recommendation service, where the reader, after rating a selection of books and/or authors (fantasy and science fiction featured prominently!), can get a list of suggestions for future reading. The site also has over 200 stories (science fiction, fantasy, horror) on-line and available for purchase.
Amazon.com Books
One of the largest Internet bookstores, with a searchable catalog of over a million titles offering on-line ordering, plus information on best sellers, reviews and awards. Customers can recommend and review their favorite books, too!
Blackwell's Online Bookshop
Academic Booksellers to the World -- One of the world's greatest bookstores, Blackwell's specialises in academic, research, scholarly, business and technical books.
BookWire
An outstanding Web page for any and all information about books: conferences, publishers, libraries, booksellers, you name it. Of particular interest to Society members is their listing of Book Awards (including the Mythopoeic Awards).
Daerons Books
Daerons Books are specialist bookdealers and enthusiasts in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams and the other Inklings. Run by several members of the Tolkien and Mythopoeic Societies.
Dreamhaven Books
A Minneapolis establishment specializing in small press and hard-to-find titles, which also carries new and used science fiction, horror, fantasy and related weird stuff. They will send free monthly mail catalogs, and have an 800 number for phone orders. Service is always prompt and pleasant.
Internet Book Information Center
Includes a guide to book-related sources on the Internet, reviews of current and classic books, and more....
Internet Public Library
Contains collections of reference, magazines, newspapers, online texts, and more useful data for librarians and general readers. One of the site's highlights is a collection of links to over 950 critical and biographical websites (including many on the Inklings) which can be browsed by author, title or literary period .
Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase
A continuous, ongoing effort to catalog works of Speculative Fiction, linking various types of bibliographic data and searchable by author, title, series, or year. Includes information on genre awards, including the Mythopoeic Awards.
Powell's Books
Powell's is the Mecca for booklovers: the main store alone covers an entire Portland, Oregon, city block, and helpfully provides maps to prevent browsers from getting completely lost. Now shoppers far from the Pacific Northwest can take advantage of the store's vast stocks of new and used titles, search service, and sales.
Thornton's of Oxford
This venerable Oxford establishment ("Booksellers and Publishers since 1835") gets an intriguing selection of Tolkien- and Inkling-related material through auction, and carries all of the publications in print as well.They have an electronic mailing list for book-lovers interested in obtaining that rare first edition....