All Tolkien Post - quel surprise, no?

I finished the biography. So, so good. Here was one bit that surprised me, but now makes perfect sense:

Garth quotes Tolkien
"As far as any character is 'like me' it is Faramir - except that I lack what all my characters possess let the psychoanalysts take note) - Courage" Garth goes on to write "Faramir is an officer, but also a scholar, with a reverence for the old histories and sacred values that helps him through a bitter war."

I thought this was really interesting, and given that Tolkien fought in the first push of the battle of the Somme, it puts Faramir's actions in trying to retake Osgiliath into perspective (in the book, not the movie ;)

Speaking of the book, I started rereading it and I noticed a really funny thing happen. At first I heard the actor's voices as I started reading, but later the voices fell into the old ones I always heard when I read the character's dialogue. Curiously, Gandalf's does indeed sound pretty darn close to Ian McKellan, but Frodo? Not even close. Sam is pretty similar, but not quite. Merry and Pippin totally different. I found it amusing how the old voices came back so clearly.