It's been a LOTR kind of day

(via Mad Cartoon Network Wiki)

Went to yard sales today and came back with a bit of Tolkien loot. One - which was held inside a stable because why not - yielded Ballantine paperbacks of The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy. I did googling when I got home and apparently they're the editions that Ballantine came out with in response to the famous Ace Books editions from the 60s. Surprisingly good condition all around for their age; although The Hobbit has what looks like some coffee stains on the cover, but nothing major. The covers were painted by an artist named Barbara Remington who, according to this website, only read the books after she had done the covers. Apparently she didn't have time to read them before hand because of a deadline, so he asked friends who had read the books to give her an overview of the series. Talk about winging it! She succeeded too.

Then at a church yard sale, someone was selling a Gandalf action figure from the LOTR movies for a dollar! That sucker will be sitting on top of my stereo.

(via Fantastic Reviews Blog)

One thing that I find interesting/amusing about the Ballantines is the statement from J. R. R. Tolkien himself on the back cover of all three books:

(via Tolkien Collector's Guide)

You can practically feel how ticked off he was about Ace releasing those paperbacks without his consent. Pretty understandable, but fortunately, he did end up getting quite a bit of loot from those sales and it really helped the fantasy genre as a whole by widening the readership.

I bet the government shutdown wouldn't have happened if the Lannisters were in charge

I mean, they are the richest of the great houses, so clearly, they're doing something right. Stannis wouldn't have let it happen either, but he would probably start putting people to death until the solution was solved. With the Starks, it probably wouldn't have happened to begin with because they would be more austere.

Apologies to anyone sick and tired of hearing about the shutdown or who have a distaste for politics. The comparison popped in my head and I couldn't help myself.