I have always intended to read the SW novelization. I have made several attempted and made it to various points before getting sidetracked and having to restart years later. It is actually really good (as far as I have read) it really feels like part of the "Big Galaxy" too. I really like when Luke asks Obi-Wan what a duck is, and Obi-Wan tells him. Most people point that line out as something funny with inserting a real world animal into this alien universe, but that line has a lot of relevance. Luke grew up on a desert planet where most of the indigenous wild life are reptilian (basing this on the Kryat (sp?) dragon and the Dewbacks and where there is no surface water to speak of (which would be a must for a duck). So it is makes perfect sense for him to wonder what it is. It also makes perfect sense they would have ducks in the SW universe, after all they have humans, why not ducks? Not everything has to be bizzare and alien.

Anchorhead, you probably would like those Han Solo books, they are 100% pre-ESB. I have them all (in their pre-ESB publication, lacking the name SW and all), I bet they are as easy to find as SOTME. Now I am wanting to dig out all my BU books and start reading.

Now pulling away from the topic again, corellian, if you do a search online for original Lord of the Rings artwork there is some really fantastic stuff. Alan Lee is my favorite. Anyway, maybe some of that artwork will help purge the movie imagery from you mind and help you to develop your own personal image of everything. I am at the moment eagerly awaiting Children of Hurin (a newly published work of Tolkien's) to come in the mail, I can't wait to read it. Don't worry about having seen the LOTR movies before reading the book. It does spoil a lot, but there are still plenty of surprises waiting for you. My absolute favorite bit of narrative from the whole work is the second to last chapter of the six book. I pick up my leather bound copy and read just that chapter alone sometimes. If you really thought the Appendices to LOTR were amazing, I bet you would really enjoy the Silmarillion or perhaps even some of the collections of fragmented bigs of manuscripts that have been published as The History of Middle Earth in 12 volumes.

Uh, now back to our regularly scheduled topic...