How many times have you read ‘The Lord of the Rings’?
0 voters
Greetings,
I’ve searched this forum and though there has been much written about Peter Jackson’s films, I found nothing concerning the writings of JRR Tolkien.
Let’s start with the basics: Who has read his master-work ‘The Lord of the Rings’? ‘The Hobbit’? ‘The Silmarillion’?
namarie,
Palandiliar
I read all of Tolkien books at least twice a year. Every Friday night is wife’s night out and so my two boys and I stay at home and watch either of Jackson’s LOtR films (followed by Steven Segal’s “The Power Beyond Thought” 
). There are no exceptions to our Friday night movie selection!
Oh yes, I am a Tolkien fan in a big way.
FYI and off topic a bit (My mom used to go over to Fritz Leiber’s house and play) She has quite a few pictures of him and his family.
Way cool…I was a big Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser fan…but my all time favorite has to be Our Lady of Darkness.
The Leibers were parish members of my grandpa’s Episcopalian church. They were stage actors (Shakespeare) and Fritz lived at home with them. My mom said he was a strange man. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser rock!
You need to have ‘Never’ for one of your options int he poll.
But I was 4 or 5 timres.
My Dad read them to me when I was about 5, then I read them myself when about 10, then again once in Uni, again in preoparation for the films (but about a year too soon) then again last week.
Reading them last week (by ‘them’ I mean the Hobbit and LOTR - I’ve never read the Silmarillion and am not sure that I want to), I thought that the Two Towers dragged a bit, especially the Frodo and Sam section. I got a bit sick of Frodo suffering under the burden of the ring and Sam worrying about his master. I appreciated even more The Fellowship of the Ring (especially the start) which I still think is best), and The Return of the King grabbed me more than in the past.
I know it’s been mentioned in other threads, but those fans of the book who were a bit dissapointed with the movie, should really check out the special 4-hour edition of Fellowship - it’s really a lot better.
Brian
I need the “never” option, please.
No fault of my own – the 8th grade play in our school was “The Hobbit”, and that was SO gawd-awful that I haven’t dared to open anything with the word “Tolkien” on the cover ever since. Although I suppose I can’t blame them, costuming that horde of weird characters on a middle-school-drama club budget must have been a horrendous undertaking. 
Hello,
Sorry aboutt your childhood experience. If you’ve seen either of the movies, you realize that the saga of Middle-earth is not about costumes - tho the costumes are magnificent. Do yourself a favor and read ‘Fellowship of the Ring’. Be forewarned, this is NOT Tom Clancy. Relax and go with the flow.
Cheers,
Palandiliar
Hi all,
the Peter Jackson movies have swamped the literary works of Tolkien in many forums, but especially through the Internet. This has both good and not so good ramifications. I should say that any book portrayed as a visual media no longer becomes the book. It can’t be done. That’s not to say it shouldn’t be done, but PJ’s movies are his interpretation of the books, no-one elses. Some parts are commendable, but other interpretations to me seem way off. However, this is not a concern for me because it’s Tolkien’s written works that I have come to love and have become the ‘truth’. And ‘by his works’ I don’t just mean LoTR, itself a remarkable tale. The Lost Tales, The Silmarillion and The Lays of Beleriand contain some of the most moving prose. The Silmarillion is an enigma to me. How does a relatively short book running to some 350 pages manage to encompass such a potent amount of material, covering three ages? It’s like the Tardis of books!
How did I avoid reading this for so long? A nice story, but more to the point what a way with words this guy has! Just a random sample:
If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don’t know the recipe; but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely, is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining, being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing exercise. It was made by the Lake-men for long journeys.
Why does that last line crack me up so much? I may not be the most well read person around but I’ve done a bit and I would have to say that this man wields words like a blunt hammer. Looking forward to reading the rest of his.
Ahhh, finally beginning to read the LOR trilogy. First impression, great fun but something of the old fashioned lilt to the language that made the hobbit so delightful seems to have been abandoned.
Still needs the “Never” option implanted. I tried reading The Hobbit and found it about as much fun as trying to vomit a whole watermelon.
Confound and bebother these trolls!
Some relative gave me a copy of The Hobbit for Christmas when I was in junior high school. To my surprise, I liked it. I kept reading–Rings, then odds and ends like Tom Bombadil and Farmer Giles of Ham (one of my favorites).
I’m afraid I’m one of these people who finds the Silmarilion unreadable, however, and I could never get into all that posthumous material Christopher Tolkien has put out.
At 13 I was overwhelmed by it all. As an adult I now find the style a bit leaden and the treatment of the female characters 2 dimensional. Still get a bit teary at the end whem Sam goes into the west.
If I’d seen the films as a 13-year-old I think I would have wet my pants with joy. Feel a bit sorry for the people who dress as elves and dance around Tolkien’s grave, as Captain Kirk said “Get a life!”
(off topic - i love the music for the films by howard shore)
Tolkien’s writings is a bit of Heaven here on earth.
Just read any of Omni’s posts.
When I was 11 years old my father began reading the Hobbit to my brothers and I. It was like opening a door into a magical world in which only we were apart of. My father would read it to us for a few hours every other night or so, and we would always beg him to read some more before we had to go to bed. It is one of the fondest memories I have from childhood.
I loved the book so much that for 5 months I forgo spending my weekly allowance on hockey cards just so that I could buy a golden hardcover copy which I still have today. Although it is a little worse for wear.
Ever since then I have been enthralled by Tolkiens works. The Hobbit, my personal favourite, I have read dozens of times. While I have read the trilogy intermittently 3 times.
[quote=“Canucklehead”]When I was 11 years old my father began reading the Hobbit to my brothers and I. It was like opening a door into a magical world in which only we were apart of. My father would read it to us for a few hours every other night or so, and we would always beg him to read some more before we had to go to bed. It is one of the fondest memories I have from childhood.
[/quote]
I did the same with my sons when the oldest was 8 the youngest 5. They loved it. 
i’ve read them a few times as well, just finished going through the hobbit 2 weeks ago again, as i saw it in the university library.
there was something else there i found interesting too - a “for dummies” book on tolkien and LOtR. took it out, and found out a lot of background stuff that is not in the appendices of the LOtR books. i haven’t gotten through the silmarillion yet, thought i’ve started more than once … after going through this book, which makes things a lot clearer, (esp, the historical) it might make for less of a slog. maybe next trip home, where it sits waiting for me
even stuff on the languages in there, like differences btw high/low elvish, and scripts for dwarvish and elvish etc. i lent it to a student who wanted to try write on LOtR, so i haven’t had a chance to finish it yet.
i’ve loved reading hte books since the first time some 20 years ago, and i think the next time i pick them up, the extra information will give me even more things to look for/at while reading.
btw, in tolkein’s own words, the hobbit was more written for children, and he didn’t really like that aspect of it later on. he declared he wouldn’t do the same with the trilogy (another thing he didn’t want, but relented to). so if the hobbit ain’t your cup of tea, it’s possible the other three might appeal on a different level.
anyways, enjoy them …
[quote=“xtrain_01”]
btw, in tolkein’s own words, the hobbit was more written for children, and he didn’t really like that aspect of it later on. he declared he wouldn’t do the same with the trilogy (another thing he didn’t want, but relented to). so if the hobbit ain’t your cup of tea, it’s possible the other three might appeal on a different level.
anyways, enjoy them …[/quote]
Interesting!
One of my professors studies Tolkien languages (like the elvish language spoken in the movies). There’s even a group of them who have long scholarly discussions about the linguistics of it all–more than a hundred professors into this, believe it or not.
Before you ask, no–that wasn’t his main academic specialty. He studied medieval history, including Asia. He grew up in Taiwan, by the way.
Somebody once said that in order to qualify as a true eccentric (as opposed to a mere weirdo), you have to get paid for it!