This feels like it's saying it's time for me to re-read Earthsea - for the first time since I was a kid. I wonder what going back will be like?
Replies
Here’s my prediction: you’ll appreciate more!
sep 2, 2025, 6:20 am • 1 0 • view
I can imagine!
sep 2, 2025, 6:25 am • 1 0 • view
Did you read the Graphic Novel adaptation, it is so beautiful and faithful
sep 2, 2025, 7:50 am • 2 0 • view
I started but then thought I'd like to read the original first to remind myself then go back to the GN. Then I got distracted by nine other books....
sep 2, 2025, 7:51 am • 4 0 • view
always the curse of books
sep 2, 2025, 7:55 am • 1 0 • view
I went back recently and loved it still
sep 2, 2025, 7:54 am • 1 0 • view
Have you read the Annals of the Western Shore trilogy? As engrossing as Earthsea is, in my opinion the Western Shore trilogy is richer and more haunting.
sep 2, 2025, 7:00 am • 4 0 • view
No I don't think I did!
sep 2, 2025, 7:06 am • 0 0 • view
One of her later works, 2004 - 2007. Try it. Truly beautiful, poetic, moving, challenging.
sep 2, 2025, 7:08 am • 2 0 • view
sep 2, 2025, 7:50 am • 1 0 • view
What would you recommend to read first to someone, a friend of course, who has never read any Ursula K. Le Guin books? They're a bit ashamed at not having read her. Any suggestions welcome. You know ... so I can tell ... this friend.
sep 2, 2025, 6:36 am • 2 0 • view
Well, I just re-read the Lathe of heaven so that one's uppermost in my mind! About someone whose dreams come true (in the worst way). Or the short story "the ones who walk away from omelas". But perhaps The Left Hand of Darkness to start. FAscinating about gender.
sep 2, 2025, 6:38 am • 3 0 • view
I'll make a different suggestion from @louiestowell.bsky.social: start with Earthsea. Why? Because if you don't like that, you would be quite right in thinking that her SF works are very different, and should give her a second chance. Also because two points of view are sometimes useful!
sep 2, 2025, 7:53 am • 3 0 • view
Deleted and reposted because I suddenly realised I've got @louiestowell.bsky.social's name wrong *every time* I've read it until today. Please accept my apologies, Louie!
sep 2, 2025, 7:54 am • 1 0 • view
ooh now I'jm curious what my fake name was? Perhaps I can use it as a pen name...
sep 2, 2025, 7:59 am • 1 0 • view
Oh very boring, I'm sure many others have made the mistake - although perhaps less enduringly: Louise.
sep 2, 2025, 8:03 am • 2 0 • view
It's the combination of Louise being the more common name coupled with Stowell beginning with an S. That's going to catch a lot of people out.
sep 2, 2025, 8:14 am • 2 0 • view
I either get Louise or Louis!
sep 2, 2025, 8:22 am • 0 0 • view
And my tendency to read words by shape rather than letters, at a breakneck (~900wpm) speed (because that's my relaxed speed). Curiously I lurch / stumble quite frequently over transposed letters when they appear, as they damage the pattern I guess.
sep 2, 2025, 8:17 am • 1 0 • view
Jeeeez-usss, 900?😮 That's an average novel in under two hours
sep 2, 2025, 8:34 am • 1 0 • view
Yes, that is about right.
sep 2, 2025, 9:42 am • 1 0 • view
The last time I had a good, uninterrupted bout of reading time, I read the whole of the Elenium (David Eddings) in 1 and a half days. (Not 24 hours per day! Just around other things).
sep 2, 2025, 9:53 am • 1 0 • view
ah yes! Some people I worked with for YEARS thought I was called Louise...
sep 2, 2025, 8:22 am • 1 0 • view
Well at least I didn't work with you for years without noticing! I'm flattered you thought there was a chance I'd made at least an imaginative mistake! I can't picture you opting for a pen name that wasn't interesting.
sep 2, 2025, 8:25 am • 1 0 • view
PS in my former colleague's defence we only ever "met" over email really.
sep 2, 2025, 8:27 am • 1 0 • view
Sounds like a dream job.
sep 2, 2025, 8:28 am • 1 0 • view
HA! I don't know what I was thinking actually but maybe some complete letterjumble? Yours makes more sense,
sep 2, 2025, 8:27 am • 1 0 • view
The Earthsea books are absolutely worth re-reading, especially as there are more of them now and the later ones really add a lot to it all (including a whole lot more about women in that world).
sep 2, 2025, 7:10 am • 4 0 • view
went back for the first time in decades last summer. still astounding.
sep 2, 2025, 6:29 am • 2 0 • view
For me, it was almost like reading an entirely different series. Except for Tombs, which I had remembered pretty well. (I am now tempted to post the summary I wrote at the time but don’t want to influence your experience)
sep 2, 2025, 6:32 am • 3 0 • view
I don't remember much really! So I think it WILL be like reading it for the first time.
sep 2, 2025, 6:32 am • 2 0 • view
I've been re-reading them with my 12yo and they're still wonderful. Just finished Tombs, a book that as a child I found so gripping that I sat in a bath until it went cold because I couldn't stop reading.
sep 2, 2025, 6:44 am • 10 1 • view
Ooh, let's have a re-read group, I've been thinking about it for a while.
sep 2, 2025, 7:11 am • 2 0 • view
It'll prob take me a month or so to get to realistically so maybe a nov re -read? Shall we have a hashtag to find posts about it?
sep 2, 2025, 7:15 am • 2 0 • view
November sounds ideal for me too. #EarthseaReadalong or is that too long?
sep 2, 2025, 7:16 am • 2 0 • view
Bit long....#EarthseaAgain ? Or #LeGuinAgain? Trying to think of the shortest version that won't be a faff.. #GedAgain ?
sep 2, 2025, 7:18 am • 2 0 • view
#GedAgain is lovely
sep 2, 2025, 7:21 am • 3 0 • view
Great! I've put a note in my diary near the start of nov as a reminder :)
sep 2, 2025, 7:22 am • 2 0 • view
The Tombs of Atuan was important for me - the first time I thought of applying critical thinking to religion. I don't remember events from the story, but I remember how it redirected my life.
sep 2, 2025, 12:46 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm doing that right now and it's joyous.
sep 2, 2025, 6:19 am • 3 0 • view
IT IS TIME!
sep 2, 2025, 6:25 am • 2 0 • view
Please live-blog them. I have re-read them every five years or so since they have put (and the later volumes, which add depth) and remain glorious.
sep 2, 2025, 6:52 am • 2 0 • view
I will do my best! Might take me a while to get there cos I'm currently reading a few other things but when I do, I will share.
sep 2, 2025, 7:02 am • 1 0 • view
I have the big chunky illustrated Books of Earthsea that came out a few years ago with all the books plus related stories, you're welcome to borrow (once I've finished the last book-and-a-bit)!
sep 2, 2025, 7:06 am • 2 0 • view
Thank you!
sep 2, 2025, 7:07 am • 0 0 • view
Oh I only came to them as an adult and *LOVED* Tombs. On the other hand, I didn't feel like reading any more of them after that (I hated Ged), so 🤷🏻♀️
sep 2, 2025, 6:25 am • 2 0 • view
Worth giving the last couple a go: old Ged is rather interesting and there is much more of a real sense of depth in the link between him and Tenar.
sep 2, 2025, 7:05 am • 4 0 • view
I didn't find them when I was younger, but only maybe a decade ago — after an article (in a Quaker journal) on the later books, when le Guin revisits the male world she created and flips in on its head the first three I find dry, but the ones after still blow me away — reread a page just yesterday
sep 2, 2025, 9:06 am • 1 0 • view