A day full of nice things.

A bright sunny workday, warm enough to walk out for lunch without a coat, which closed with a big noisy thunderstorm when I got back home. Fat drops of water drummed on the window, and on the roof of the car as I drove to the gym for pilates. They wet my shoulders and cooled me as I ran from the car to the door and then sat as my t-shirt dried in the minutes before the class.

Now the world is fresh, and the air is free of the tension that has buzzed around us like static electricity.

It was a good class. I worked hard and now I feel all stretchy and relaxed, and I even managed to contain my giggles when the woman behind me relaxed so much she let out a very noisy fart in the middle of a somersault.

And - finally - I finished The Lord of the Rings on the train this morning. One book a year for three years so I could keep ahead of the films. It has been a long and varied job. At times I have loved it. At times I have hated it. More than once I have wished it was over, but now that it is I’m wondering how long it will be until I start work on it again.

I am also trying to answer the question I asked myself when I set out on this epic reading journey back in 2000 - is Tolkein a good writer or not. I’m not talking about his inventiveness. Unquestionably he is the most inventive mind of many a generation. The breadth and scope of the world of Middle Earth is unlikely to be surpassed in any other work of fiction for a very long time indeed. But in terms of words alone, and readability, how should Tolkein’s abilities be judged.

After The Hobbit I was convinced the answer was ‘no’ - he was not an especially good writer - and I found plenty in the three volumes of Lord of the Rings to confirm my feelings. In places, though, it is a masterpiece that would rival my two all-time writing heroes, Truman Capote and (the latter works of) George Orwell.

And so it is an answer that must be given ‘on balance’. On balance he is indeed an excellent writer. There is not a single word I would have changed in any of those books.

But… and there’s always a but… there are many words I would have removed.

1. Rings and things
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2. King Arthur
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3. Gordon’s flat
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