Kevin's Watch

How many of you have read the full LOtR book? Is is one of my favorite book.

Only about 7 times!

I try to read it about every five years or so. I squeezed in a few more than that when I was a teenager. Yeah, it's one of my favorites, too.

Not only have I read all 3 volumes of LoTR many times, I've also read The Hobbit, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales just as many times. I'm a bit of a Tolkein fan you see...!

To many times to count like the 1st and 2nd Chrons. I love the films too!

u.

I think I won't be able to remember for sure, I think I've read The Hobbit before school, perhaps more than once) And I particularly like The Silmarillion)) Also I've read some amount of fanfiction of varying quality, including even the Black Book Of Arda (The Black Silmarillion)

I have a confession...

I've only read the trilogy once and it was when I was in high school, just after the movies came out. (15 years ago!)

I've long preferred the movies to the books since I find the language of the books to be a little dated and hard to get through. The adaptations captured the books excellently imo. But I'm currently re-reading Fellowship for my senior thesis so, I'll have a renewed opinion when I'm done!

bruce3371 wrote:Not only have I read all 3 volumes of LoTR many times, I've also read The Hobbit, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales just as many times. I'm a bit of a Tolkein fan you see...!

This describes me, and I've read all these books twice. Once through, I've also read: The Father Christmas Letters, Smith of Wooton Major, The Tolkien Reader (an American compilation containing Tolkien's play "The Homecoming of Beortnoth Beorthelm's Son", "On Fairy Stories", "Leaf By Niggle", Farmer Giles of Ham, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil); and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight/Pearl/Sir Orfeo. So I guess you can say I'm a bit of a Tolkien fan.

I much prefer reading Stephen R. Donaldson and Anne McCaffrey, though. I first started reading Tolkien with The Hobbit in 1979, first started reading Donaldson with Lord Foul's Bane in 1981, and first started reading McCaffrey with Dragonsong in 1989. I guess that's about all I have to say about this...for now, anyway.

Started reading that stuff in late 70s. and was hooked. I even wrote my final exam thesis at university on "Worldview and Philosophy in J.R.R. Tolkien's Fantasy Literature", so I should have read almost everything a couple of times.

I've read all the main ones several times (Hobbit, LotR, Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales).

The Hobbit was probably my first experience of Fantasy...my parents read it to me when I was a child, and by the time I was 12 or so, I'd read it around 10 or 11 times. (Even then I was a serial re-reader. )

--A

I read LotR when I was 18, in the Christmas/New Year break after I finished school, and became a Tolkien tragic. I borrowed The Silmarillion and The Hobbit from my university's library as soon as I had borrowing rights and read them, and read Unfinished Tales as soon as it was published. I have read all four works several times.

A note on terminology. The term "tragic" is a slang expression that denotes a deeply devoted fan of some activity, sport, literary work, etc. A former Australian Prime Minister described himself as a "cricket tragic" because of his intense interest in that sport. One consequence of his passion for cricket is that migrants and refugees seeking to become Australian citizens have to pass a citizenship test that includes questions that test their knowledge about Australian cricket players.

Sheesh, I'd be right out then.

--A

My fifth grade teacher read The Hobbit to my class and I was hooked.

My older brother had a 4 book paperback set and I finished LotR before the summer began.... probably understood very little but I remember liking the first half of the Fellowship the best which makes sense because of the way Tolkien wrote it.
I also skipped the Appendix because I had no idea what an appendix was.

I asked my mother to buy me the Silmarillion that summer (she never said no to a book request). I remember my 5th grade teacher saying that it would be difficult to understand but I tried it anyway.
I remember liking the battle scenes and that I literally could not pronounce Silmarillion until I was like....25

Eventually I read the Appendixes and they became my favorite parts for a long time.
It never occurred to me that Balrogs might not have wings until I got on the Tolkien Usenet groups in the late 90s.

I reread all 5 books every summer usually, it's very relaxing.
As the years go by I usually find something interesting that I didn't notice or care about in the past during every reread.

And after all these years I still don't like his poems.

His other works I've not found interesting and although I've read most of the History I seldom reread any of it.

High Lord Tolkien wrote:My older brother had a 4 book paperback set

This one?



That's the one I had. I still remember how it smelled - of musty pulp ... and adventure.

High Lord Tolkien wrote:but I remember liking the first half of the Fellowship the best

Black riders chasing Hobbits across the Shire! It seemed like the whole book at the time. Now it seems like it's about three pages.

wayfriend wrote:

High Lord Tolkien wrote:My older brother had a 4 book paperback set

This one?



That's the one I had. I still remember how it smelled - of musty pulp ... and adventure.

Bingo!
Didn't take too long before all 4 wouldn't fit into the case anymore.

wayfriend wrote:

High Lord Tolkien wrote:but I remember liking the first half of the Fellowship the best

Black riders chasing Hobbits across the Shire! It seemed like the whole book at the time. Now it seems like it's about three pages.

It also made me try to eat mushrooms for the first time. Never really liked them too much though.