Fantasy aficionados, rejoice! Because those of you who have felt a void in your hearts after all the Lord of the Rings movies and Harry Potter books were done with, your prayers have been answered. Peter Jackson, the director of all three Lord of the Rings, has just signed on to produce The Hobbit.

In case you don't know (and maybe you shouldn't call yourself a fantasy fan if you don't), The Hobbit is a book by J. R. R. Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings.

So, are you excited about a return to Middle Earth? Do you think this movie is going to be awesome? And if you read The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings books, can you fill me in on what happens? Sadly, I've never read any of them. I did sit through the first Lord of the Rings movie, but I must admit, it was under much duress. I'm not a huge fanasy fan (although I did enjoy the Orlando Bloom aspect of the movie). OK, well then, let's get some comments that we all [read: I] can understand. Who would you cast in this movie?

Well, we asked you before what you would pay to get your hands on J.K. Rowling's new book The Tales of Beedle the Bard. And no, you wouldn't be able to wait for this book to go into the bookstore bargain bins [side note--yay for alliteration!] and you wouldn't be able to get it for free at the library. There were only seven copies of this book that were published. What would you pay? $19.95? A hundred? A million?

How about $4 million?

Yup, that's right. That's how much the book was auctioned off for. Wow, too steep for my blood. (Unless my boss wants to give me a raise. Crickets. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? No? Didn't think so.)

The money raised at the auction goes to The Children's Voice, which is a charity set up by Rowling. I guess that softens the blow, well a bit anyway. It still would have been cool to read The Tales of Beedle the Bard--and to have a spare $4 million lying around. Ah well.

So now that you don't have to worry about saving up for the book, what are you going to spend your hard-earned cash on? (OK, don't tell me you're going to buy Guitar Hero 3, even though that game does sound awesome. What books are you going to spend your hard-earned cash on?)

As I suspect none of you are as into the chick lit genre as I am, how about Artemis Fowl? A bunch of you who have posted comments on WORD reccomended it, and I trust you guys. I've never read the series myself, but a quick Wikipedia search says that it's a fantasy series with a style similar to Rowling's. So there you go.

So, what's on your book wish list? Should I check out Artemis Fowl? And are you still bitter about not being able to read The Tales of Beedle the Bard? I know I am. The only thing that would make me feel better is a brand new book. Or Guitar Hero 3. No, no. A new book is better. Definitely the book.

The following blog entry was written by Sarah Chassé, a copy editor of READ, Writing, and a whole bunch of other Weekly Reader magazines.

Quick--think of the last five movies you've seen. Were any of them based on a book? It seems like every hit novel gets made into a film these days. Need I mention the Harry Potter movies? The Chronicles of Narnia series? Bridge to Terabithia? Charlotte's Web? Even epic poems like Beowulf are getting the Hollywood treatment. Are the people who make movies running out of ideas or what?

But don't get me wrong; I love seeing my favorite books come to life on the big screen. So this past weekend I saw The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman and talented young newcomer Dakota Blue Richards. The fantasy flick is based on the first book of a trilogy by British writer Philip Pullman.

If you've read the Harry Potter books, you'll recognize a few familiar themes in the pages of The Golden Compass. The main character, a young girl named Lyra, is an orphan destined for great things. Like, oh, helping to save the universe. And like Harry, she lives in a world full of adventure, danger, and magic.

In Lyra's reality, every person's soul lives outside his or her body in the form of an animal-shaped daemon (pronounced like demon). I know. You're thinking, "Huh!?" But I swear, it starts to seem normal after you've been reading for a while. Lyra and her shape-shifting daemon, Pan, battle the sinister Mrs. Coulter, who is part of a government plot to kidnap children to the Arctic and conduct terrible experiments on them. Along the way, Lyra is helped by wise witches, warrior polar bears, and a mysterious golden compass given to her by her uncle.

And that little summary is just the half of it. Or maybe just the quarter of it? I can't possibly fit all of the action and intrigue from the book into this blog entry. And you know what? It didn't quite fit into a two-hour movie, either. Important plot points felt rushed and confusing in the film. But then again, two ferocious, talking polar bears fighting to the death was more exciting with swelling music and deafening snarls than it was on the page. The movie was worth my $10, but the first thing I said when the lights came up was something you've probably heard before: "The book was better!"

Why do you think books are often better than movies? What books would you love to see made into a film? What books would you hate to see made into a film? Have you ever liked a movie better than the book it was based on? Am I asking too many questions? OK, just one more: What literary smash do you think will be the next Hollywood blockbuster?

We at WORD love words. (After all, that's what we named ourselves after. It wasn't one of those ironic names, like the bald "Curly" from the Three Stooges.) So we get a little excited when dictionaries pick their "word of the year." Last year, Merriam-Webster picked "truthiness" from The Colbert Report. It's a great word, made even greater because it was made up by one man, and it spread and entered the lexicon; it wasn't from some stodgy, well, dictionary.

Well, it was all a lie! OK, maybe that's a little dramatic. But apparently dictionaries pick their words of the year to garner publicity! Can you believe it? Here I am, thinking that a word has gained enough attention to be officially recognized, and it's all a stunt to sell more dictionaries! I am appalled I tell you, appalled!

Let's do it up right! I know you all love words as much as I do. And since we have no hidden agenda, we should nominate our own words of the year. (I would never try to trick you guys. And I think the words of the year should be, ahem, "weekly" and "reader" because they are great words. Joking, of course.)

So what is your word of the year? Here are some of my favorites:

-chartreuse (because it is a cool color, and hey, it just sounds awesome)
-ostentatious (because who doesn't love showing off, just a little bit)
-Jessica (because I'm a bit of an egomaniac, which is also a cool word)

I know you all have favorite words. Send them in, and let me know why! (Unless you are shilling for the dictionary company!)