Don't, it's unfinished and may never be. There is another book and then nothing. The first book is good at starting things and making you go wow, but the second book is disappointing and I know it's impossible to finish the story in just one book.
B3D Book Club
- Thread starter London Geezer
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Don't, it's unfinished and may never be. There is another book and then nothing. The first book is good at starting things and making you go wow, but the second book is disappointing and I know it's impossible to finish the story in just one book.
Wha... I thought it was just one book.
And all of earths shoe salesmen become billionaires
I see Bilbo as a book prototype of the Lord of the rings. There are many similitudes between both stories. And LoTR is very much an analogy of World War 2. Anyways LoTR is one of my fav book. Anedoctally I spent some time at Bournemouth where Tolkien lived during holiday. I even visited the hotel where he resided ! 
I am currently reading it. I like it for now, very original ideas (even if the characters are very classic).
Nice, I won't ruin anything. The book ended faster than I thought it would. I will definitely need to pick up the sequelI see Bilbo as a book prototype of the Lord of the rings. There are many similitudes between both stories. And LoTR is very much an analogy of World War 2. Anyways LoTR is one of my fav book. Anedoctally I spent some time at Bournemouth where Tolkien lived during holiday. I even visited the hotel where he resided !
I am currently reading it. I like it for now, very original ideas (even if the characters are very classic).
The Lord of the Rings. Finally.
The prologue and the beginning of the first chapter are a bit annoying because there's like 3 new names of places and people each paragraph (I like rich, complex stuff, but come on...), but now that the name throwing seemed to stop and the story is progressing, I'm liking it so much.
The prologue and the beginning of the first chapter are a bit annoying because there's like 3 new names of places and people each paragraph (I like rich, complex stuff, but come on...), but now that the name throwing seemed to stop and the story is progressing, I'm liking it so much.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
I read the LoTR when I was around 12 or 13 and have re-read it since. It's a great story but the actual writing can be hit and miss - dependant on your reading preference. Obviously it was written over a very long period during very trying times so this is be expected but it feel weird when you are reading it all in one go. Much of the convention of modern writing is naturally absent so you have to go with the flow and sometimes that flow is glacial. Some these that get a lot of attention and which think may be important are never mentioned again.
I'd love to hear your thoughts when you have finished. I assume you've seen the movies?
Nope, I haven't.
The thing is that it took so long for me to read it and I haven't watched the movies because I was raised in a very restrictive Protestant way, so I wasn't allowed to read certain books, watch certain movies and play certain videogames (because of magic, witchcraft, etc.). So many "commands" were not difficult for me to obey, because I always was a very well-behaved, obedient kid, but gosh, my mind was always full of fantasy (and still is) so it was a true struggle for me to abstain from such things... plus, I was a kid, mind you. I found TLOTR horribly appealing, but I just couldn't.
After my liberation (= Atheism
, and another long story, as well), I've been very wary towards anything related to any religion. That included a rejection to Tolkien and his work, since he was Catholic and even stated that TLOTR was a Catholic story, so to speak, and I couldn't stand the hypocrisy of it all. I don't care about the Bible and its rules regarding my personal life anymore, but I believe that if you say you believe in something, you have to be consistent with that faith, so I don't think a Christian should be enjoying stuff that their god condemns, to put it shortly. I know this point of view is controversial because there's many many people who say the believe in X but then they want to live a life according to their own interpretations and whatever, and at the end of the day their lives are just the same as any atheist's. I still remember all those Evangelical summer camps where youngsters went crazy about TLOTR and I was the weird one, an extremist...So, in my Christian days I didn't watch the movies but when I came out of my atheist closet I didn't want to watch them either. I'm still an atheist but now I think that there's no harm (neither for me nor for anyone else) in reading those books, even though I do believe that Tolkien wasn't consistent with his own faith. Once I came to this conclusion, I preferred to read the books first, as I usually do in cases where there's book + TV/film stuff, even though I know I will hate so many things in the adaptations (I also read ASOIAF before watching from season 4 on, soooo....... you can imagine how pleasant the show was for me).
I read The Hobbit a few months ago and I've been waiting to begin with TLOTR. The things I find special, I don't like to do them in a rush. I usually save them for later, so that they last longer in time and I enjoy them better. Once I finish these books, I will watch both movie trilogies.
hoom
Veteran
Lol you've only just begun the toil of his florid language.
Takes until at least half way through the first Book to get moving with any pace.
But at least its an easier start than War & Peace: the first 12 pages are mostly in French & its apparently intentionally misspelt, with bad grammar to represent Russian aristocracy speaking as 2nd language. Couple of paragraphs of German in there to boot if I recall correctly.
What the feck and what the fucken.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
I read the LoTR before The Hobbit. It must have been school summer holidays because I remember buying it in a book store and reading all 1187 pages (I still have that same once-new, now yellowing, dog-eared copy on my shelf) in under a week. I was glued to that book, reading it almost non-stop for the best part of a week. It had plenty of more adult themes than I'd had experienced at my age before so it was a genuine pager-turner for many reasons.
Oet us know how you're getting on. I couldn't imagine reading first LoTR having already seen the movies so going in fresh is how a lot of people experienced the story.
I hope you enjoy it.
As hoom said, be prepared for a slow start. And in a few places you get a couple of pages of poetry or song. Unless you're really digging it, you can safely skip it.A little jealous, it's one of the experiences that's only special the first time.
So far and even though I'm just at the beginning, I can already tell it's special. Also, in my case, bearing in mind that it's something I've been wanting to do for decades (not that many decades, haha, I'm not that old, but still, decades).
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Welcome to the club.
I used to make sure to re-read The Hobbit and the LOTR series once a year every year from when I was about 11 until I was about 29. I used to read about 300-500 books a year when I was a teenager.
Every wall of my room was lined with books. My dresser drawers had books in them instead of clothes. Stacks of books were in my closet. Anyway, I absolutely love the series.And ignore those heathens that think the start is too slow.
For me, it's beauty personified in literature. All of that brings to life the world that Tolkien was trying to create. As I read the books, from the first chapter in The Fellowship of the Rings, I could see and smell the Shire and it only got better from there.As for the movies, they are both good and a great disappointment (for me). So many things were missing from the first release. These shouldn't be spoilers since there is no context given to them, but just in case...
Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Downs not being in the first release of the movie? ARGH!!!!!!!!! And so many other things that I loved in the series are missing.
I think someone told me that they put in some more stuff in a later extended version, but I was so disappointed in the movies that I haven't been able to force myself to go back and watch them again. Like I mentioned, while I enjoyed them in the theater, I was also greatly disappointed by them.
Granted, to do the books true justice, they would have needed at least 40-100 hours of footage. /sigh. I'd be so amped if a Japanese anime house took up the series and gave it a proper treatment with a 200+ episode series. I'd be in love.
So many other authors tried to replicate a similar story to LOTR with greater or lesser success, but none could match the pure grandeur of the LOTR series.
Regards,
SB
Thanks!Welcome to the club.
I used to make sure to re-read The Hobbit and the LOTR series once a year every year from when I was about 11 until I was about 29. I used to read about 300-500 books a year when I was a teenager.
And ignore those heathens that think the start is too slow.
As for the movies, they are both good and a great disappointment (for me). So many things were missing from the first release. These shouldn't be spoilers since there is no context given to them, but just in case...
Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Downs not being in the first release of the movie? ARGH!!!!!!!!! And so many other things that I loved in the series are missing.
I think someone told me that they put in some more stuff in a later extended version, but I was so disappointed in the movies that I haven't been able to force myself to go back and watch them again. Like I mentioned, while I enjoyed them in the theater, I was also greatly disappointed by them.
Granted, to do the books true justice, they would have needed at least 40-100 hours of footage. /sigh. I'd be so amped if a Japanese anime house took up the series and gave it a proper treatment with a 200+ episode series. I'd be in love.
So many other authors tried to replicate a similar story to LOTR with greater or lesser success, but none could match the pure grandeur of the LOTR series.
Regards,
SB
Oh, and have you watched the animated movies from the 70s/80s? I haven't but I intend to do it before I watch the live action movies.
Also, there's a series coming out soon, but it won't be based on the books.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Thanks!
Oh, and have you watched the animated movies from the 70s/80s? I haven't but I intend to do it before I watch the live action movies.
Also, there's a series coming out soon, but it won't be based on the books.
Yup. Imagine, if you would, someone has read the series and liked them. Then they take a lot of acid, maybe a bit too much. Then they decide to make a movie about what they can remember while they are high on acid.
That's the movies in a nutshell.
Regards,
SB
Yup. Imagine, if you would, someone has read the series and liked them. Then they take a lot of acid, maybe a bit too much. Then they decide to make a movie about what they can remember while they are high on acid.
That's the movies in a nutshell.
Regards,
SB
I finished book I in The Fellowship of the Ring. I'm liking it very much! I actually enjoy the travelling and the pace. However, sometimes I feel that the wording is a bit confusing in some places. Did that happen to you, as well?
Oh, and I don't think the part where Frodo puts the ring on for the first time is very coherent, in a literary way (sorry if some of you are hardcore Tolkien fans who can't stand any form of criticism!). I mean, many times before the narrator explained in detail how Frodo felt when he was tempted to use the ring, the effect that it had in him, the remorse for feeling that way, etc. And then he uses it as if nothing really important happened. Nobody reacted highly surprised, not a word on how he felt, the consequences, etc. Tom Bombadil says "hey, come back here" and that's it.
Oh, and I don't think the part where Frodo puts the ring on for the first time is very coherent, in a literary way (sorry if some of you are hardcore Tolkien fans who can't stand any form of criticism!
). I mean, many times before the narrator explained in detail how Frodo felt when he was tempted to use the ring, the effect that it had in him, the remorse for feeling that way, etc. And then he uses it as if nothing really important happened. Nobody reacted highly surprised, not a word on how he felt, the consequences, etc. Tom Bombadil says "hey, come back here" and that's it.Tkumpathenurple
Veteran
I'd recommend reading the Silmarillion too. Of all of the Tolkien that I've read, the Silmarillion is the most guilty of page after page of "and then they walked through the mountain range of Flibbidöth Dibipigöth. And then they strolled through the fields of Shewaddwaugh Kibbobdōb, which were flanked by the mountain range of Kêrphoughlîtt Phlëgmatic. Beyond which lay an expansive grasslands known as the Kättûhlfûd Děkantühr," but it's still a great, truly epic mythology. There are moments where the scale of it really hits you: battles of Elves, Balrogs, Dragons, and other badass motherfuckers.
Beautiful, poetic language abound, and a moral core that I think is quite coherent, quite loving, and quite Christian (well, quite Church of England,) in spite of mechanically being based upon the European mythologies of yore.
The shorter stories - like the Song of the Ainur (sp?) and the story in which Sauron seduces the Numenorians - were the ones I most enjoyed, because they expanded the mythology without making you feel like you were experiencing a 17 month quest in real-time.
And on the topic of Church of England:
Beautiful, poetic language abound, and a moral core that I think is quite coherent, quite loving, and quite Christian (well, quite Church of England,) in spite of mechanically being based upon the European mythologies of yore.
The shorter stories - like the Song of the Ainur (sp?) and the story in which Sauron seduces the Numenorians - were the ones I most enjoyed, because they expanded the mythology without making you feel like you were experiencing a 17 month quest in real-time.
And on the topic of Church of England:
