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A Shadow from A Wizard of Earthsea

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.