Last Post of 2023 (or 12/31/23, a Palindrome date)

 

As you may remember from one of my last postings, I was taking a bit of a break from blogging over the holidays. I was, unfortunately, aided in my resolve with a bout of what we used to call ‘the epizootie’, which may have been anything from the flu to Covid, for all I know. I could not have mustered enough resolve or coherence to put a new post together while I was wandering ‘lost in a Roman wilderness of pain,’ babbling of green fields and looping around on endless paths of thought. I seem to be on the other side of that now, though still occasionally wracked by coughs that dredge up the bottom of the birdcage of my lungs.

Well, ‘fast away the old year passes,’ and what a year it was. My great-grand-nephew Oliver was born, the first member of the next generation.

I got a new air conditioner/heater installed (believe me, this was big doings for me). I was taken off insulin and put on Ozempic, with already noticeable effects including weight loss. Of course, in the wide world, things have been going ever more and more to s—t quicker and quicker, with big military conflicts, runaway inflation, societal tension, and ‘towering infernos everywhere.’

To summarize my position at the moment: I have about $7 in the bank, and my next Medicare payment is not due until January 3rd, I think. That day I have a doctor’s appointment to assess how well I am doing on my new medication.  Next year I mean to take up my LOTR summation again (which I began on Jan. 5^th of 2023), and I have Thrand to bring to some satisfying conclusion.

Much of what happened during the year already seems like an almost legendary past; it is only by looking at my diary that I can tell that something happened this year and not several years ago. But I have another way to realize the passage of time. Here is a list of all the books I got in 2023, from most recent on back:

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (Revised and Expanded Version), Edited and Selected by Humphrey Carpenter with the Assistance of Christopher Tolkien (William Morrow, an Imprint of Harper Collins; 2023; 708 pages).

The Oz Scrapbook, by David L. Greene and Dick Martin (1977, Random House)

The White People and Other Weird Stories by Arthur Machen

A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories, by Terry Pratchett

(Harper Collins, 220 Pages)

Don Rodriguez: The Chronicles of Shadow Valley, (1922; this edition May 1971); The Charwoman’s Shadow, by Lord Dunsany

Pennies from Heaven, by James P. Blaylock

Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography, by Holly Ordway (2023, Word on Fire Academic, 480 pp.)

Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories, by M. R. James

My Brother’s Keeper, by Tim Powers (Sept. 5, 2023) 

After Many a Summer, by Tim Powers

The Reavers (2007) by George MacDonald Fraser

The Haunted Dolls’ House and Other Ghost Stories, by M. R. James

Ballantine Books edition of The Fellowship of the Ring; The Tolkien Reader ($1.99), The Two Towers (99 cents) and The Return of the King ($1.49)

The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church (Paperback – November 30, 2010. 452 pages.) Jimmy Akin

The Bible is a Catholic Book (2009, 181 pages) and A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist (2006, 384 pages), by Jimmy Akin. 

Apologetics and the Christian Imagination: An Integrated Approach to Defending the Faith, by Holly Ordway – May 31, 2017 (206 pages) Hardcover

Mystery Comics Digest: Ripley's Believe It or Not #4 (June 1972)

Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, Translated and With an Introduction by Robert Van Gulik

Cautionary Tales and Bad Child's Book of Beasts, by Hilaire Belloc

The Forgotten Door, by Alexander Key (1963; this is the 48^th reprint by Scholastic). Cover by Rafal Olbinski.

Merlin (Copyright 1978; First American Edition 1979 Putnam), by Robert Nye.

The Way Home, by Peter S. Beagle

The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology, edited by Faubion Bowers

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Edited by Humphrey Carpenter (Assisted by Christopher Tolkien)

The Ultimate Discworld Companion, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs (Illustrations by Paul Kidby) 

Letters to a Diminished Church, by Dorothy L. Sayers

Wise Blood, by Flannery O'Connor

Nordic Gods and Heroes, by Padraic Colum

Gravity Falls: Lost Legends, written by Alex Hirsch

The Dark Eidolon and other Fantasies by Clark Ashton Smith

The Origins of Tolkien’s Middle-earth for Dummies by Greg Harvey (2003)

Morlock Night, by K. W. Jeters

Infernal Devices, Fiendish Schemes, Grim Expectations, by K. W. Jeter

Lin Carter Presents The Year's Best Fantasy Stories 6

Black and White Ogre Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien. Edited by Angela Gardner, Illustrated by Jef Murray

Revenge of the Valkyrie (1989) by Thorarinn Gunnarsson

The Little Book Room, by Eleanor Farjeon

The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie, by George Macdonald. (1872 & 1883)

Song of the Dwarves (1988) by Thorarinn Gunnarsson

Everybody’s Pepys: The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1660-1669 Abridged from The Complete Copyright Text and Edited by O. F. Marshead with 60 Illustrations by Ernest H. Shephard (Second Printing 1926)

Book of the Three Dragons, by Kenneth Morris (1930; this edition 2004). Cold Spring Press. Foreword by Douglas A. Anderson

That’s 48 books in total, 10 of which are different copies of books I already have or once had. Nine of the books are by Tolkien or are Tolkien related. I am reminded of my jaunt with K. W. Jeters, my renewed obsession with Ballantine classical fantasies, of the rich works of Jimmy Akin on Catholic theology. The books bob up like little islands in the stream of time.

Well, that’s it for 2023 (dreadful, tinny sounding year). Grateful as I am for much that it has brought, here’s wishing for a better 2024 (I shudder to think if it were worse). And so, I’ll see you on the other side.