Bag End Book Club

Episode Notes Hey folks, Nora forgot to put this one up before her vacation earlier this month and things around here have been rough, so apologies for the wait. But we're here! Well, some of us are here. Two of us are here. To talk about the Hobbit again! For the third time!

Episode Notes Welcome, traveler...you have come far, but there is more to do. Take a moment and rest, for next episode we delve ever greedier. Ever deep.

Episode Notes Rest in peace, Haldir.

Rest in peace, Boromir

Episode Notes Welcome back! This week, we watched the animated 1980 film The Return of the King, and in so doing close out our time with the animated adaptations of Tolkien's work (for now). There's been highs, there's been lows, but at the end of the day we can all agree on one thing: where there's a whip, there's a way.

Episode Notes We're back again with a bit of a weird adaptation of the Lord of the Rings. It's mostly fun! Though the back half...well. You can imagine, being two books in one movie. Join us in two weeks' time for our final animated adventure: Return of the King!

Episode Notes Welcome, welcome! This is the first episode of Mordor Movie Night, the rightful heir to Bag End Book Club! Every fortnight we will convene here to discus a film; but not just any film. No, this council has only one gal: To watch the movies inspired by the Lord of the Rings! Please, make yourselves comfortable. You're going to be here a while, after all...

Episode Notes We're here! At the end of an era! We may reconvene in future days to watch some films, but for now it's time to say farewell to the written works of Tolkien. We've had some good times here at the Bag End Book Club, and we hope you have too. Keep your eyes on the lookout for new projects big and small!

Episode Notes After week off from sickness we're back! Cruising in right on the heels of the Amazon premiere, it's time to talk about the fall of Gondolin! There's a big dragon briefly. The sons of Feanor are chumps. It's a good time.

Episode Notes We're back with a loooong meandering chapter that does lead to some cool places if you can follow along, focused by a real action-packed short chapter that sets the stage for the coming climax...

Episode Notes We're back this week with an incredible chunk of book! Beren & Luthien makes this book more than worth it, even if you're not into all the elf shenanigans happening all over the place. It's fantastic! This Sauron guy's goin places.

Episode Notes The siege is broken...who will stand before the might of Angband? It's Fingolfin. Fingolfin will do this thing. I'm sure that works out great for him. Also this Sauron guy seems neat.

Episode Notes Kylo Ren eat your heart out

Episode Notes We're back with a pair of chapters that defy summary! We had a good time though. Also what's up with that Gollum game? Or the dwarf thing? Read on!

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. Hey everyone! We're back again with more elves and not very much dwarves but now we have men! It's practically raining them! Elves think they're weird. ALso, sun's here! Moon is also here! It's a swell time!

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. We're back with another sick as hell set of chapters! As we approach the midpoint of our time with the elves, we see some pretty cool stuff. Like killing! And stealing! And betrayal! Also Morgoth calls in a strike team of balrogs so that's pretty fucking cool. NEXT WEEK: MAN!!!

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. We're back! This week in the Silmarillion, we learn about Ungoliant! She's big and nasty and eats light. But also some other stuff happens. Unrest in Valinor, the death of the Trees, and a swarm of darkness that covers the land...the Dark Lord is come at last, and never again will Melkor be fair or seductive. Probably. We definitely know he doesn't change his form from this one.

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. We're back! This week we talk about chapters 5 & 6 of the Silmarillion, in which we meet a whole host of large adult sons! We also see the cost of having a baby too hard and see the machinations of Melkor start to begin again...

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. We've got another rowdy one today, as we're short one Em. But we make it work, even with the briefest reading we've ever had on this podcast. The vibes, however? Immaculate. We're having a wonderful time. How about those video games, too?

Episode Notes We're back! We had a really long and fruitful discussion this time. I think we really explored some interesting material, and came to some particularly thoughtful conclusions. We are very much, in a sense, a new type of scholar, delving deep into things others thought played out and discovering rich new veins of ideas to engage with. Lair is an action-adventure video game developed by Factor 5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 3 in August 2007 in North America. In Lair, the world is filled with deadly volcanoes, which  devastated the world's natural resources and air. It led the native  people to split into two warring nations: the poor Mokai, and the  well-off Asylia. The story revolves around Rohn Partridge, an Asylia Sky  Guard, who eventually turned to support the Mokai. Most of the game's  battles are air-based combat, with some fought on the ground by landing  the dragon and fighting troops and other land-based creatures. A morale  system is also present, in which enemies may retreat if they suffer from  low morale. Lair is the first PlayStation 3 title to have been fully playable via the Remote Play function, allowing it to be accessed through the Internet on a PlayStation Portable.  An English demo was released for Asian countries except for Japan,  prior to the game's release. The game's soundtrack was composed by John Debney. Lair received mixed reviews upon release, with critics praising the game's  visuals and art direction, while criticizing its control scheme. Sony  released a reviewer guide to teach reviewers how to properly review the  game. Analog stick support and DualShock 3 controller support were later introduced to the game.  It was Factor 5's last game developed before its closure in May 2009. Gameplay The player assumes the role of a dragon-riding knight named Rohn  Partridge. Rohn is given the tasks of defending a certain area,  destroying certain objects, eliminating enemies or creatures, and other  mission-based objectives. After each stage, the player can earn either  gold, silver, or bronze medals, depending on performance during the  level. A platinum medal is also available, though unlike the other three  its requirements are hidden. Earning medals assists in unlocking combos  and behind-the-scenes videos. Most of the game's battles are air-based combat, with some fought  on the ground by landing the dragon and fighting troops and other  land-based creatures. In some locations, the game features a morale  system tied to the enemy; the lower an enemy's morale, the less he will  fight, and it is possible that he will retreat from combat. The game relies heavily on the PlayStation 3's Sixaxis motion controls. The player flies the dragon by tilting the controller,  with additional moves also using motion sensing; one such example is  fighting a dragon by tilting the controller to match the enemy dragon's  flying height, and then slamming the controller left or right to knock  the dragon sideways and out of the battle. Plot Lair  takes place in a world threatened by numerous emerging volcanoes,  causing much of the land to be destroyed and the air to be polluted. As  a result, people native to the world divided themselves into two  kingdoms: the Mokai, whose lands are arid and depleted of resources, and the seemingly noble Asylians, who live in one of the last remaining  bountiful, green areas. Desperate to gain the Asylians' land, the Mokai  attack the Asylians from the rear. The spiritual leader of the  Asylians, the Diviner, preaches that the Mokai are pagans and savages,  defying abominations to the will of God, but the Mokai are truly a  misunderstood people, hanging on to survival and only attacked the  Asylians out of desperation for food (their attacks focused on their  granaries). The game mainly revolves around the pursuits of Rohn, one of the  Burners (dragon-riders) Sky Guards (the air force-based military). At  first Rohn adopts the feeling of hatred towards the Mokai the Asylians  have but over the course of the story begins to have more sympathy  towards this misunderstood people. The leader of the Mokai, General Atta-Kai, approaches the  Guardians of Asylia (three individuals with ruling power in Asylia) in  peace to ensure the survival of both people. The Diviner, in an act to  maintain his power over his people, has Loden, one of the Asylia's Sky  Guards assassinate Atta-Kai, one of the guardians and the Sky Guard  Captain, Talan, prolonging the war between the two people and capturing  Atta-Kai's Blood Dragon in the process. After witnessing the  assassinations of both Atta-Kai and Captain Talan, Rohn begins having  second thoughts about Asylia's attitude towards the Mokai and releases  Atta-Kai's dragon from Loden, thus putting Rohn on thin ice with Loden,  the new captain of the Sky Guards. Loden leads a massive air strike on the Mokai City, bombing the  city and attacking what Loden thought to be an armory, but was actually a  temple where the women and children had sheltered themselves from the  attacks. Rohn is devastated when he discovers the victims and defies  Loden, who declares Rohn an enemy of Asylia and delivers near fatal  blows to both Rohn and Rohn's Plains Dragon. Rohn's dragon, in an  attempt to save Rohn's life, carries him into a desert in Mokai  territory but dies in the process from the wound Loden delivered. Rohn soon reunites with Atta-Kai's Blood Dragon, who adopts Rohn  as its new rider. While searching the desert for water, Rohn and the  dragon discover the elder of the Mokai, Ren-Kai, under attack from a  Spider Wasp, which the two slay. Ren reveals that some of the Mokai  managed to survive the bombings and are hiding out in the desert and  Rohn helps protect them from Asylian attacks. Ren, knowing that the  Mokai people need a new leader, asks Rohn to rescue General Atta-Kai's  son, Koba-Kai, who is imprisoned in Asylia. Both Rohn and Koba-Kai  defend the Mokai people from further attacks and acquire a small fleet  of Asylian ships. The Mokai launch an attack on the Asylians and reclaim  Mokai City. After the battle a group of Asylian Burners arrive and  submit themselves to the Mokai. Among them is Jevin, Rohn's best friend,  who informs Rohn that the remaining two Guardians were executed by the  Diviner and that some of the Sky Guard had defected from the Diviner's  rule over Asylia and were imprisoned in the Maelstrom (an Asylian prison  situated within a dimensional vortex). Knowing they would need reinforcements, Rohn and Koba-Kai lead an  attack on the Maelstrom to free the Burners imprisoned there. During  the rescue Rohn battles Loden, who rides a powerful species of  gorilla-like dragon called the Bull Dragon. Loden attempts to kill the  fleeing prisoners by flinging enormous boulders from the Maelstrom's  gravitational pull onto the prison but Rohn intervenes and kills Loden  and succeeds in rescuing the imprisoned burners. The combined forces of  Mokai and defected Burners charges towards Asylia, battle the Diviner's  forces, prevent the volcanoes from erupting and kill the Diviner. During  the battle Koba-Kai is shot down by the Diviner's forces. After the  battle Rohn finds him and Koba-Kai comments on how beautiful the sunsets  in Asylia are, Rohn goes on to say that the new world that the Asylians  and Mokai were to build together would never be the same, to which  Koba-Kai replied "Let us hope not," before dying. Rohn asks Atta-Kai's  Blood Dragon to carry Koba-Kai's body home, afterwards Ren approaches  Rohn and tells him that his people are waiting. Development Lair is the first PlayStation 3 title to have been fully playable via the Remote Play function, allowing it to be accessed through the Internet on a PlayStation Portable. Initially the game was not fully playable, as motion sensor controls  are not available on PSP.  The machine lacks L2 and R2 buttons and a  right analog stick, which are necessary to pass certain levels. With  recent firmware updates, the dragon may be controlled with the analog  nub and buttons can be assigned on the PSP to act as L2 and R2,  rendering Lair fully playable. On April 15, 2008, an update was released on the PlayStation Network,  adding analog stick support, extra playable dragons, and rumble support  for the DualShock 3 controller. The game now uses the directional pad  for actions such as the 180 degree turn and the "dash forward" ability. An English-language demo for Lair was made available to Asian markets only, excluding Japan, in April 2008. Even though the Lair Trial Version includes the gameplay patch, it is not compatible with the Remote Play function. The developers would later admit to a troubled development process many years later. Soundtrack John Debney was hired to write the soundtrack for Lair with Kevin Kaska composing the additional music. Debney has had experience writing music for epics, but Lair is his first video game soundtrack. The score was performed with a 90-piece orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London. Lair's soundtrack received critical acclaim, with some calling it "one of the strongest of video game scores." A review on Tracksounds gave the soundtrack a score of 10/10, the highest possible score. ScoreNotes.com also reviewed the soundtrack and gave it a full score. Several critics also compared the tracks to some of the works in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace by John Williams. Debney stated that he was interested in writing music for a video game after seeing the work in Medal of Honor by Michael Giacchino. The score was released as a limited edition 2 CD-set on April 8, 2014 by La-La Land Records.  Reception During development, Lair gained attention due to its graphical  presentation and developer Factor 5's reputation. However, upon  release, it was seen as a critical and commercial failure. It received  "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. The only reviewer that gave it a high score was Japan's Famitsu, which gave it a score of 9, 7, 8, 9 for a total of 33 out of 40. Although the game was praised for its graphics, artwork, storytelling,  soundtrack, and sound quality, it was also heavily criticized for its  control scheme. In 2010, GameTrailers placed the game 7th in their list of the "Top 10 Most Disappointing Games of the Decade". Sony (the game's publisher) attracted criticism from video game blogs by mailing review websites a "Lair Reviewer's Guide" following negative reviews of the game. It is common practice to post a fact sheet with review copies of a  game, but this guide was mailed separately, and after negative reviews  of the game had been published by the website. As well as providing a  21-page booklet containing artwork, background story, and six pages of  instructions regarding the game's control system, the booklet invited  reviewers to "Open your mind and hands for something very different."

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. What's up everyone! We're finally here: uncharted territory for most of us, the Silmarillion is sort of the elephant in the room for this podcast. Despite our preconceived notions it goes pretty smoothly! Tolkien really can just turn it on and write the coolest line you've ever seen at the end of a Wikipedia page.

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. We're finally here. Thank you for being here with us, at the end of all things the lord of the rings. We end our time with the Third Age and turn our sights back, to the earlier Age...but first, we answer some emails and chat about the Appendices! There's SO much stuff in there. Pretty cool! Next time we begin our new adventure with the opening materials of the Silmarillion!

WE DID IT!!!! I WEPT THROUGH THE ENTIRE LAST CHAPTER!!! WE FINISHED LORD OF THE RINGS!!! But the road goes ever ever on, so join us next time as we discuss the appendices to The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King.

Good morning! We are approaching the end of The Lord of the Rings and boy howdy do we have three really good chapters this week. Hope you enjoy! Next week! We will finish the main content of Return of the King, discussing the final chapters of the book. After that we will return with an episode on the appendices.

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. This week, it's time to go hobbit mode. We got sneaking, we got scouting, and we got more sneaking. Sam infiltrates a fortress, Frodo faces the end of all things, and a certain someone is back in the spotlight...it's Gollum. I meant Gollum.

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. We close out Book Five with some great gags, some great guys, and some great cliffhangers! I love that herb guy.

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. This week's episode covers some really sick stuff. We've got battles, we've got guys, we've got loads of poor decisions. Hobbits are pretty cool guys, actually. In case you didn't know.

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. Today's episode is just king things, baby! What does wisdom look like? How might a king treat his subjects? What is the place of women in fantasy worlds? All these questions and more will be answered...These chapters were so good, y'all. That took forever to type because I forgot Autumn has their keyboard set to some other country so the apostrophe key does other stuff...

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. Sorry about the audio quality...our mic has been having issues. In this episode we come to the thrilling conclusion of the Two Towers! Life and death, choices and champions, it's all here! Join us in two weeks when we begin the RETURN OF THE KING!! It's gonna be great. These hobbit chapters really flew by, huh? Aragorn time!

Hi it's Autumn! I wasn't on this episode but I am editing it! I dont have very good show notes, sorry! There's some game of thrones talk at the start and then we dig in to Faramir in some chapters that were FUCKING SICK. I'm so bummed I wasn't on this one because Faramir rocks dude. Next episode! We are finishing up The Two Towers! I'm excited, I hope you are too!

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we continue our time journey through Two Towers! We finally got the Fellowship back together just in time to go HOBBIT MODE! We return at last to Frodo and Sam and a new face: Gollum! We also see some weirdo stuff, some racist stuff, and a new guy! We'll learn about him next time. Check out that elephant tho

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we continue our time journey through Two Towers! We didn't have Jackson or Autumn, so Em & I held down the fort and finished off the first book of the Two Towers with a bang! By which I mean we talked about wizards. I love wizards.

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we continue our time journey through Two Towers! This another episode all about guys telling other guys about things that happened. But before that, Helm's Deep! Wow that was shorter than the movie! Anyway while we were doing that it seems that Saruman has been completely owned. What will he do now? Read on!

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we continue our time journey through Two Towers! The hobbits find a new type of guy who might, in fact, be a very old type of guy, Aragorn Squad meet a new type of guy who is DEFINITELY an old type of guy, and together with that old type of guy they meet another old type of guy who's actually NOT an old type of guy! Wonderful chapters this episode.

Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we begin our time with the Two Towers! The Fellowship is broken, and its members scattered to the winds. Where is Frodo? I much desire to speak with him. Just how cool and badass was Boromir really? Where are they taking the hobbits? Read on!

Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we cover the second half of the second book of Fellowship of the Ring. We start off by(you guessed it) meeting some new guys! Then we set out again on our Quest before being given a choice: Turn away toward Gondor, or continue on to Mordor? Dare we simply walk into Mordor? Read on!

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we cover the first half of the second book of Fellowship of the Ring. We meet a ton of new guys, a handful of old guys, and hear about all sorts of other mysterious guys. Then we have some wilderness adventures, fight off some ghostly wolves and tentacled beasts, and finally face the shadows of Mordor. What will the Fellowship do without their trusty wizard? Read on!

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we discuss the hobbits' adventures in Bree, are introduced to the Ranger called Strider, and face off against the Black Riders! Also Glorfindel is here! He's cool. This brings us to the end of Book One of Fellowship of the Ring! Next episode: Chapters 1-5 of Book Two of Fellowship of the Ring!

Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we discuss the hobbits' adventures in the Old Forest, Tom Bombadil and his hot wife, and some spooky ghosts! Em says this is the "boring one" comparatively but who cares! Next episode: Chapters 9-12 of Fellowship of the Ring!

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we discuss the first four chapters of the Fellowship of the Ring! What begins with a simple outpouring of affection leads to a conversation about the writing styles of fantasy authors, depictions of evil, and more! Next episode: Chapters 5-8 of Fellowship of the Ring! Remember: patrons of Export Audio get episodes a week early! Just a dollar at exportaud.io gets you that and all sorts of other shows, AND helps us keep the lights on!

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we discuss the last 10 chapters of the Hobbit! Man, what an fuckin good book. Starting to think this Tolkien guy knows what he's doing. Join us again in two weeks for the first 4 chapters of Fellowship of the Ring!

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter the Bag End Book Club, a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. In this episode we discuss the first 9 chapters of the Hobbit! It's a great time, though we await the more meaty chapters of the Lord of the Rings proper. Our music comes from the album Double Vibes: Hobbit, by John Sangster!

Episode Notes Good morning and welcome! Speak, friend, and enter a world of magic, might, and myth. Bag End Book Club is a celebration of Tolkien's most famous and influential works. Every two weeks we will come together after having read a handful of chapters and discuss the stories of Middle-Earth, from the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings and further on to the Silmarillion. Stop a moment and enjoy some good company and better books. Our first episode will go up for patrons at Export Audio on August 29th, and this feed a week later on the 5th of September. We will be discussing the first nine chapters of the Hobbit.