Category: Sketch

I’ve been pretty terrible at updating this blog about my progress in reading this year.

I haven’t completely kept the pace I had hoped for and a few books I put down without finishing (Pilgrim’s Progress and The End of the Affair.) ¬†I’ve added a few to the list (The Leftovers and The Abstinence Teacher) and pretty much enjoyed all of what I’ve read with the exception of The Abstinence Teacher and Brideshead Revisied.¬†As the year winds down, I have enjoyed Go Tell It on the Moutain, Ragtime, and A Wizard of Earthsea.

I am not sure why I never read A Wizard of Earthsea when I was younger. ¬†I read all the Prydain books, most of the Naria stuff, A Wrinkle in Time, and A Wind in the Door. ¬†Perhaps, I just got tired of YA Fantasy before I got to this one. ¬†At any rate, I’m glad to be reading it now and I might even enjoy it more now that I would have when I was young. ¬†I can identify with a man who is arrogant in youth and then a little gun-shy later on because of earlier missteps.

I have never read any Harry Potter novels, but I’ve read plenty reviews of them and seen a couple of the movies. ¬†I have yet to hear anyone compare Harry Potter and A Wizard of Earthsea, but the similarities are striking.

I tried to visualize the shadow that hunts Ged in the novel.  At one point it describes it as like a bear with no head.  I wish I had gotten the face closer into the body, but revising it will have to be for another day.