Hobbit-Hole HOA Fees, Sci-Fi Nerds, and 20-Year-Old Books You Can't Shut Up About
A Roundup of Literature News You Care About
Thanks for spending your day with us, dear reader. Bless your heart!
HOA Fees for Hobbit-Holes are at the center of the current turmoil in The Shire.
We’re also covering annoying sci-fi nerds who know more about the genre than you do and your friend who can’t shut up about “Atonement.”
The owners of "Smials" (aka Hobbit-holes) that were destroyed years ago are still paying HOA fees for those homes. Dratted!
Although the insurance company has paid the Shire Homeowners Association $1.9 million castars, hobbits claim they haven't received any of the insurance money but are still paying heavy fees.
Angry hobbits who are tired of the fees say they long for the days before The Battle of Bywater, where the previous manager Saruman The White, was deposed.
"Sure, Saruman turned the place into an industrialized wasteland," said one hobbit. "But at least it seemed like our money was going somewhere."
Ever been confused about the differences between speculative fiction and science fiction? If so, then you should do what we did, which is find some smug nerd at ComicCon and promise him your nonexistent press pass to the 'Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan' panel after he explains it to you.
“Well, technically…” he chortles.
Fueled by concession stand fountain drinks and a "pizza for one," the nerd of course had to dive in by explaining that "science fiction is technically speculative fiction" along with the fantasy and horror genres.
Of course, the nerd used the phrase "umbrella term" and might have creamed his pants when listing other subgenres while visualizing his mental diagram.
"Science fiction is about what could happen with imagined technologies..." the nerd rambled on. But we weren't listening because some Blade Runner cosplay girls walked by.
That friend (you know the one) who just finished a book everyone else read over 20 years ago won't shut up about it.
She thinks she “discovered” Ian McEwan’s Atonement or something.
Yes, we all know that Briony is an unreliable narrator and yes, the rape the novel centers around never even happened.
You try to remind her that the book sold over 2 million copies and won several prestigious awards, ending up on just about every must read list. You remind her that the both of you even watched the Kiera Knightly film together a few years back, but she doesn't even connect the two.
Now she's recommending it to people? What a bitch.
It’s nice knowing you, reader. We’ll see you down the road apiece.