lord of the rings book.how many of you have read it all the way through?

DaRC_L – Member

The 3rd one was painful. I nearly stood up twice at the end as i kept thinking ‘this must be the final scene’.

Were you sat behind us – we were sniggering every time they made a grab for their coats.

Possibly, if you kept hearing assorted muttered comments: “not more”, “my legs have packed in”, “I have DVT”, “Throw it in the bloody lava you tit”, “whats this about”, “can i go home”, “noooo more please”, “boat?”, “excellent, lets get to the car park before it gets to busy…hang on, why are they back at the start of the first film, this wasnt the trailer was it?”

Read it from start to finish twice. Superb book.

Read it twice but not for 20 years. Recently downloaded it to my Kindle.

Never read any of them. Never will.

When I was a kid, we moved and I changed junior schools. When I joined the class they were part way through the teacher reading “The Hobbit” in installments. Put me off for life. Bloody nonsense.

Recently re-read the Hobbit and thoroughly enjoyed it.

LOTR – never managed to lot – just wanders on for too long.

Tim 😆

Dezb ’tis because you are fickle 😉

2retro4u
Marin County, Cali

Twice, 30 years ago and then a few years ago before the films came out.

Have read LotR > 10 times 🙂

1st reading was followed by The Hobbit, then by LotR, The Hobbit, LotR, then The Silmarillion.

What a loser!

Love LotR – Hobbit is twee & shite, Silmarillion is desparate (I’d know; I’ve struggled through it twice).

Funnily enough I rarely finish any fiction books these days, must have been scared for life.

Read it loads. Was quite the tolkien fan years ago.
I’ve recently re read the Silmarillion, The Hobbit and LOTR back to back.

My 8 year old son is quite a reader, so I thought I’d let him have a go with my illustrated copy of The Hobbit.
He handed it back to me after half an hour with the immortal phrase, “this is nonsense.”

Yeah Darc

I guess there was the norse mythology he was into aswell and his academic work in Old English etc.

After going to Iceland and looking at place names there and their similarity to UK place names , you do realise how Germanic the English language actually is.

i.e. Scafell in the Lakes, Scaffafell in Iceland.

Anyone been sad enough to go to the Eagle and Child in Oxford? Um …. I have!!

Think we’re going to do a big walk on the Wrekin soon as that was a huge influence on his writing for LOTR. Heck I’m sad.

By the way, Tom Bombadil does have fans, his book by JRR sells for quite alot of money, first edition though!

I read the Hobbit when I was 11. I started reading the LOTR when I was about 12 and got bored with it. I picked it up as an adult and decided that I really couldn’t be bothered to waste my time reading it.

I’ve seen the LOTR films and found them almost entirely boring too.

Each to their own, though

Many times (we’re talking >15 times) when I was younger. Recently…… i.e. in the last 10 years, about once. I read them to my son from cover to cover as bedtime stories when he was about 10….

Strangely enough I can’t be arsed to pick them up any more. 😉

Read the Hobbit when I was about 8, then sometime later LotR… reread the LotR a couple of years back, and like everyone else skipped the poems and bloody Tom Bombadil.

As that copy was starting to get a bit fragile, I bought the Kindle version last year.

What’s the Kindle version like, mrstoast? (Some books seem to have pisspoor “typesetting” in the eBook version…)

I can’t remember whether it was the Silmarillion or the first book of lost tales that broke me. Whichever it was- it was awful.

The main 3 are bloated, poorly paced, badly characterised, heavy handed and pretty ridiculous… But still worth the read IMO, I’ve gone through them probably 4 or 5 times. But by god could he have done with a proper editor. There’s a difference between a developed background, and drowning in pointless detail.

More skilled authors manage to give you the background without detracting so much from the story- China Mieville’s New Crobuzon is more vivid and real than any location in LOTR for example, because it’s a character in the story and develops along with it, not just a theatre backdrop that has to be painted while we watch.

And yes, Tom Bombadil, what a ****.

holy thread resurrection batman.well today i finally bought another copy of the classic tome 😀 😯 (just seeing again how bladdy big the book actually is 😳
I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO CARRY THE RING MASTER FRODO!!! BUT I CAN CARRY YOU.i can carry you 🙁 (aw bless 😀

Even the films take long enough to get through. good luck.

I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO CARRY THE RING THAT BOOK MASTER FRODO!!! BUT I CAN CARRY YOU.i can carry you

Yup had the three in one book with alsorts of other stuff in it, weighed a ton trying to read at night

Twice, 30 years ago and then a few years ago before the films came out.

Probably the only thing I have in common with Charlie Kelly.

many many times, including all the appendicies and additional compendiums because I’m great big saddo who loves the works of JRRT. 😳

Read it when I was about 15. As soon as I saw the maps I was hooked. Then read the Hobbit. Years later read the Hobbit to my daughter as a bedtime story.

As Terry Pratchett said “When you’re twelve if you don’t think LOTR is the best book you’ve read there’s something wrong with you. If its still the best book you’ve read when you’re 52 there’s something wrong with you.”

two thirds of the way through book 3 and the film came out, I think I was fed up with the endless walking and bliddy poems. enough.

now reading magician, which is kind of similar.

Read the whole lot a couple of times.

If you are of an impatient mindset then it’s no good at all. I can enjoy something slower moving from time to time so it suits well.

While it isn’t the best thing ever written there is (to my mind) a point about it being so long. If it was 250 pages long you wouldn’t really get the same concept of time passing for Frodo and Sam and the length and arduousness of their quest. It’s not supposed to be a day’s forced march it is months and months of slow frightened slog and a short book wouldn’t have done it.

Whether you care or not or that appeals to you is quite another matter.

read it 5 or 6 times, last was just before the films came out
+ silmarilion, lays of belerian etc
tend to skip the songs though

tried it when I was young, didn’t get it. no big deal, fantastic language.

I’ve read it and a lot more as well, goodkind, gemmell, feist, has george rr martin finished a dance with dragons or what ever it was called?

I’ve Read all of them twice, and am planning on going again. They’re the best books ever written in my opinion. Little bit nerdy but I don’t care 8)

yes, twice, but no one reads the songs /poems

yes, twice, but no one reads the songs /poems

😆

Walk a bit. Tea break. Walk a bit. Tea break. Walk a bit. Tea break. I am knackered. Walk a bit. Knackered. And so it goes. Only 936 pages to go.
I do admit though that I am not much of a reader.

Wading through LOTR proved to be good training for wading through Gormenghast (loved it, eventually…) and Shogun (loved it, DVDs were disappointing, and I’ve not found the time for Taipan, yet…).

Holy Thread Resurrection, Batman!

He handed it back to me after half an hour with the immortal phrase, “this is nonsense.”

Out of the mouths of babes…
What an intelligent and astute child you’ve brought into the world, he should go far, preferably into publishing.
Joe Abercrombie takes Tolkien’s hat and wee’s copiously into it, then pulls it down over JRR’s ears, as far as I’m concerned. Even the most reprehensible characters have you feeling a degree of sympathy after a while. First class fantasy writing.
Alan Garner’s books cover similar ground, and in a far more concise fashion; The Owl Service, The Moon Of Gomrath, the Wierdstone Of Brisingamen, and Elidor are superb books, involving similar characters, dwarves and elves, Mara, etc, but they are better defined as characters, and the stories are more involving as well.
His description of the passages through the dwarf mines of Fundindelve leave me utterly claustraphobic; I find those bits almost impossible to read.

I’ve Read all of them twice, and am planning on going again. They’re the best books ever written in my opinion. Little bit nerdy but I don’t care

I’d kindly suggest you really haven’t read many books in a similar genre, otherwise you wouldn’t say that. There’s much better and more exciting and involving writing out there.

The depth that Tolkien goes into in the books and the world he creates is so vast and complex it’s almost incomprehensible. Also, the fact that the story is open to people of all ages, the fact that almost everywhere you go in the countryside you can see the inspiration that drove his mind. It’s truly unbeatable

I’d read The Hobbit and LOTR by my early teens. I then re-read LOTR every few years until I was about 20. Haven’t read it for about 15 years or so.

Looking at it now it’s the scale of the work that’s most impressive. The fact that he devised individual languages for the races. Proper languages with grammar and structure.

Poor Tom, nobody likes him…

I don’t hate him I just don’t understand how he fits into the book/world.

14 times.

failedengineer – Member
Try the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson if you fancy an adult version ……

This.

Read LOTR all the way through when I was about 16 (ROTK was hard going though). Had already read The Hobbit. then tackled the Silmarillion and it broke me so tried the Covenant trilogies and they absolutely blew me away. Always considered them kind of an anti-LOTR.

Don’t really read novels any more, but this thread resurrection might just have inspired me to find and read Covenant again.

slainte 😀 rob