It’s a day late for Tolkien’s birthday, but is it ever too late for Tolkien or Wolfe? Thanks to John Barach for sharing this tribute to Tolkien by Wolfe.

You are not likely to believe me when I say that I still remember vividly, almost 50 years later, how strictly I disciplined myself with that book, forcing myself to read no more than a single chapter each evening. The catch, my out, the stratagem by which I escaped the bonds of my own law, was that I could read that chapter as many times as I wished; and that I could also return to the chapter I had read the night before, if I chose. There were evenings on which I reread the entire book up the point—The Council of Elrond, let us say—at which I had forced myself to stop.

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