From the Bookshelf of Overdue Podcast…

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

J.R.R. Tolkien

Start date: August 31, 2015

Finish date: August 31, 2015

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Mar 13, 2013 Gina rated it liked it

I finished!
It really charmed me at the beginning but then I lost steam but I've also taken far too long to read it. Now I'm perplexed by all the embellishments in the latest movies and I want to see them again and also the animated version I haven't seen since I was a kid. Also I should start over from the beginning. Gollum and Hobbitisms were my favorite parts. And the charming language. Hobbits are so relatable.

Good last words, Thorin Oakenshield:
"If more of us valued food and cheer and song a ...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Jeni rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reread

Reading this right after Lord of the Rings is a bit strange since the tone is so much different and lighter. (There's even a first person narrator at times.) It's also been over ten years since I read this and I hadn't realized how much I'd forgotten. But it's still an excellent book.

Audiobook: I must admit for a second I forgot who was reading it and thought "Wow, this guy does an amazing Gollum." Anyway, my foolishness aside. Still excellent. ...more

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Jun 23, 2013 tysephine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, classics

I first read this book in the 6th grade and I didn't like it much. I didn't like any books I was made to read in middle school purely on principle. Now 25 years later, I've reread it and had a wonderful time of it. It's much more witty and fairytale-like than I remember. It has a very different tone than any of Tolkien's other Middle Earth books, and I appreciated it a lot more on this reread. I hope LOTR holds up to a reread just as well. ...more

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