Reading THE HOBBIT at the bookstore...

Well, I did it! I read the first two chapters of THE HOBBIT at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Mobile, Alabama!

I wish that I could report to you that there was a throng gathered for the performance and that it was cheered wildly and the listeners begged me to continue to the very end!

I can't.

(Sigh)

Well, it wasn't so bad. I felt good about the reading. I slipped characters once in each chapter and did not stumble more than a handful of times through about 70 minutes of reading, stopping only for a little water between chapters.

15 minutes beforehand, the fair voice of the Community Relations manager spoke over the PA, promising the new feature, SPELLBINDERS & STEMWINDERS, for the next six weeks, featuring THE HOBBIT. She read the very words I had prepared six weeks before for the publicity that went out.

I never had very many listeners at a time. Advance publicity had been slim, but there was lots of interest. Six weekly performances of about 90 minutes each would give every one at least one opportunity to sit in.

A young boy was there half an hour ahead of time, waiting eagerly. He earnestly told me that he had been abused by his alcoholic father, locked away in his room in Georgia for many months with little human contact and nothing to do. He had a number of the Goosebumps! books, but had soon read them through many times.

He found in the closet, a box with a number of old paperback books. A small brown book with crisp crackly brown pages entitled THE HOBBIT became his favorite book in the whole world.

He stayed until about halfway through the second chapter, when he had to leave. I thought he would only be gone a moment for he quietly said, "Excuse me" almost inaudibly and got up and walked away. He did not come back and I did not get to get his address, though before the reading I did talk to him of all the friends he might find on the internet who loved Middle-earth, too. I told him of THE LORD OF THE RINGS and urged him to read it one day. I wish I knew who he was...

A silver haired man came a little late and left a little early and returned to ask for me after I left. He told the store he would be back next week. A young lady came and sat. Two or three young fellows also stopped in briefly.

The frappacino machine in the coffee house on the south side of the store could be heard occassionally. The xylophone in the children's section on the north wall was an irritant that will be covered next week.

It is a large store and I was on the east wall. The entrance is on the west. I was not much distracted and was only dimly aware of the folks coming and going, lingering in the aisles, shushing small children, and otherwise going about their business.

For many folk, I was just ambiance. A more or less pleasant voice, slightly amplified, from the back of the store, reading a work of fantasy.

The booksellers expressed that they wished they could walk away from their posts and not be distracted by their duties. A woman who had to leave told an employee that she was enjoying the reading and the xylophone had gotten on her last nerve! I never saw her...

For the last twenty minutes or so, there was just one person in the chairs nearby, a girl in her tweens, reading along in a book as I read.

I finished the second chapter with Thorin's thanks to Gandalf, stepped off of my stool, took a sip of water and looked at the young lady. She never looked up from her book. It was not THE HOBBIT.

I went to the restroom and then walked out of the store. There were a few eyes upon me, but no one said a word as I made my way out.

I called my friend once I arrived home and had a glass of Beaujolais in hand. She told me that they certainly wanted me to return and filled me in on all that I could not see, focused as I was on the text before me.

I was a little discouraged. I thought that perhaps half a dozen or so would be there pretty much throughout and another half dozen in and out.

A serial reading of an entire novel is an entirely new venture at this store, and we expect things to pick up. It was the weekend after Labor Day, and folks are adjusting to school. We have begun the work and we will finish it. I'm not sure if I will have the heart to do THE LORD OF THE RINGS in January if this is not more successful week to week.

Still, I think of the folks lingering in the nearby ailses, listening intently to the children's story from their concealment, and of that pale young boy, and of what Middle-earth meant to him.

And doesn't it mean a little something like that to us all?

I will finish the job.

Wow.....great description! It was like I was there myself. Too bad more people did not show up, but hopefully more will come next week. The tale of the boy is amazing.....how terribly he was treated, but how wonderful that he found that book. Maybe he will show up next week and you can talk to him more.....find out if his situation has improved any. Maybe you could sorta be a Big Brother to him or something.........

I will be waiting to hear how it goes next week. Man, how far is it from Louisville to Mobile??

He lives in Pensacola, Florida now, and may or may not be able to come back. I hope whoever is now caring for him will bring him around again. I wish they had let him stay!

I guess I could've written a somewhat more victorious report, but that wouldn't have been real. The reality was both more discouraging and more gratifying all at once than what I had expected.

But that's life, isn't it?

Gil. I've said this before, but I'll say it again... If I lived anywhere near enough, I'd be there! Maybe you should find a way to take your gig on the road!

Yeah, take the show up North!

And what a show that would be...

The entire HOBBIT reading will take 6 weeks averaging 90 minutes per section. About 9 hours total reading.

I could conceivably do it in a long day. Or over two days.

Maybe at a convention or something. (Not that I have ever been or have ever intended to go to one.)

THE LORD OF THE RINGS would be impossible to do like that!

Maybe excerpts with synopsis in between for a long performance. It couldn't be more than about 3 hours with an intermission or two. Hmmmm...

Well, at anyrate, before too terribly long, there will be a nice sized collection of excerpts on GILTHALION'S GRAND ADVENTURES and on THE TOLKIEN TRAIL. When I have a few, I may write a synopsis around these excerpts so that they are all hyperlinked in their proper places within the narrative. I think have enough capacity on my Geocities site for about 12 of these in all, and I can find more space as needed. I'll need to go back and hit some highlights before THE BRIDGE OF KHAZAD-DUM.

I was planning to do THE FIELD OF PELLANOR next, but instead I may do THE BREAKING OF THE FELLOWSHIP. The Mrs and I just finished that and she is very concerned about the whole company now!

If you get around to doing requests, I think you'd do a really great job with Bilbo's farewell speech!

A LONG EXPECTED PARTY would probably have to be the first (numerically) in the series! (I actually hadn't thought of that. Doh!)

i really hope that little boy finds some peace. and that he reads LotR. at least he's found solace in literature, but sometimes that's not enough.

PS - Gil, if you need webspace i might have a few megs on my Geocities site that you can use - my page is mostly writing.

aryne *

Thank you! That is very kind, but we are a long ways (weeks at least) from that! (But don't be surprised if I come knocking at your email...)

Well, I'm going to be gone Friday and most of Saturday. Testing a RPG a friend and I made and some other stuff so I just want you to break a leg on your next reading and I can't wait to hear how the second installment goes.

Oops, I should have realized what I did considering some of my close friends are in theater. Thx Anduin.

Gil just wanted to say I think its great you reading it at book stores. Im like pshyced for all the people who get to listen to you. I dont know you but I can just picture you sitting there reading this book to people. AWESOME MAN AWESOME!!!! I wish somebody read it to me when i was younger. Great stuff and congrats on being part of something so cool.

One of my talkshow listeners told me today that he had stopped by the store during my reading, and came back by after I left.

He confirmed that adults generally did not want to sit and listen to a children's story...

...at least, not where folks could see them! He malingered, skulking about the aisles, not taking a chair.

Hah!

The silver haired man did not return. Nor did the little boy.

This week, a friend of mine, a geneticist at St. Jude's, was in town, so he stopped in and sat through the entire reading. We started with Chapter III, A SHORT REST, read Chapter IV, OVER HILL AND UNDER HILL, and finished with Chapter V, RIDDLES IN THE DARK.

There were two mothers, who sat with their children, six in all, I think, through the entire reading. Many folk, including the store staff, would drop in and sit for a brief moment or two. Sometimes there were not seats enough.

The children were young, from 5 to 9. The boy fidgeted around a lot, but was listening intently all the same. The girls read along at times. The littlest just sat staring, transfixed by the story.

I had to catch them all up, since none were there for the first reading. All promised to be there for the next. Afterwards, the store's Community Relations manager told me that several folks stopped her and asked if this would be a regular feature. A mother promised to bring her children next week.

My friend especially enjoyed Gollum, as did the children. They laughed aloud at the interplay between Bilbo and the dwarves and between Bilbo and Gollum.

The oldest girl promised that she would go back now and read the whole thing right up to where we stopped! The mother told them that I was in radio (the boy asked if I had ever read in the store before, and I said that this was my first book). The little girl afterwards wanted to listen to my talk show and persisted until she found a pencil in her mother's purse so that I could write the radio station down on one of my cards. (I had come without pen.)

I was quite happy with the reading. It lasted from 3:30 to 5:00 with only two short breaks for me to have a sip of water. I bobbled just a couple of times and did not slip characters even once this time. It was much more fun with children gathered round with their mothers.

The xylophone was also hidden away.

All went well, and we talked with growing confidence about reading the entire LORD OF THE RINGS beginning in January!

Congrats on the much better response this time.

I'm glad for you it went better this time... Try to have more chairs next time!

Gil, I love reading how things went at the bookstore! The way you describe it is wonderful......I wish I could be there to see it all unfold, watch the little ones get all in to it. Can you imagine the influence it is having on these kids? It is just great! Hehe, maybe you should mention the little girl that asked for the pencil on your show...she would probably get a big kick out of that. Can't wait until next Sunday's update.

Thanks, all!

I would rather have the staff hopping to get more chairs than to have lots of empties before me!

I am wondering how children will take to THE LORD OF THE RINGS? Some of it could be tedious to young ears. THE COUNCIL OF ELROND is a two hour read. It is like sitting in a war council, something quite engrossing, but perhaps too difficult for young ones.

I don't want to sell them all short, however. Some are oh-so-bright!

Hopefully, by then, we will have a little more of a reputation on Saturday's and be able to draw from a large enough pool of interest that there will be plenty of older kids (and adults!) who will want to be there more or less regularly.

Wow, that's great, Gilthalion! You know, I read the Hobbit to my family on a car trip about 4 years ago, and they loved it. I had a heyday making up strange voices and accents for Smaug, the dwarves, elves, goblins, Beorn, etc... One of my dreams (I have too many) is to read stories out loud to people who would appreciate and enjoy it. What do you think the chances are of an inexperienced college sophomore getting to do something like that? I've been thinking of reading to people in a hospital or rest home, but I wouldn't want them to have to listen to me involuntarily...

Anyway, keep up the good work and help some people get to know Middle-Earth!

That was a long car trip! It takes me about 9 hours to read the thing continuously, (which I've never done).

I just called the bookstore and asked! (Of course, they knew me from radio and from plays, so I had an edge. But I'll bet it's not all that hard. Many of them have reading programs and would love to have some talent come in and help! It might not be all that difficult.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

You might try the library as well.

The public schools are always looking for this sort of thing.





And tell the truth...

...you don't really care if the audience is captive or not,