From the Bookshelf of J.R.R. Tolkien…

The Hobbit

J.R.R. Tolkien

Start date: October 1, 2014

Finish date: December 31, 2014

Discussion: Group Reads

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* Group Read September 2021-January 2022 (No Spoilers)
By Michael · 21 posts · 118 views

last updated Jan 31, 2022 11:38AM

Group Read January-March 2015: The Silmarillion
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last updated Apr 18, 2023 01:00PM

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Jun 02, 2008 Matt rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, childrens

Some books are almost impossible to review. If a book is bad, how easily can we dwell on its flaws! But if the book is good, how do you give any recommendation that is equal the book? Unless you are an author of equal worth to the one whose work you review, what powers of prose and observation are you likely to have to fitly adorn the work?

'The Hobbit' is at one level simply a charming adventure story, perhaps one of the most charming and most adventurous ever told. There, see how simple that w Some books are almost impossible to review. If a book is bad, how easily can we dwell on its flaws! But if the book is good, how do you give any recommendation that is equal the book? Unless you are an author of equal worth to the one whose work you review, what powers of prose and observation are you likely to have to fitly adorn the work?

'The Hobbit' is at one level simply a charming adventure story, perhaps one of the most charming and most adventurous ever told. There, see how simple that was? If you haven't read it, you should, because it is quite enjoyable. At some level, there is little more to say. Enjoy the story as the simple entertainment it was meant to be. Read it to your children and luxuriate in the excitement and joy that shines from their faces. That's enough.

But if it was only simple entertainment, I do not think that it would be anything more than just a good book. Instead, this simple children's story resonates and fascinates. It teases and hints at something larger and grander, and it instructs and lectures as from one of the most subtle intellects without ever feeling like it is instructing, lecturing or being condescending.

At its heart, the complaint I opened the review with is just a variation on one of the many nuanced observations Tolkien makes in 'The Hobbit' when he complains that a story of a good time is always too quickly told, but a story of evil times often requires a great many words to cover the events thereof. How often has that idea fascinated me.

Consider also how the story opens, with Bilbo's breezy unreflective manners which are polite in form but not in spirit, and Gandalf's continual meditation on the meaning of 'Good morning.’ How much insight is concealed within Gandalf's gentle humor! How often do we find ourselves, like Bilbo, saying something we don't really mean and using words to mean something very unlike their plain meaning! How often do we find ourselves saying, "I don't mean to be rude, but...", when in fact we mean, "I very much mean to be rude, and here it comes!" If we did not mean to be rude, surely we wouldn't say what we say. Instead we mean, "I'm going to be rude but I don't want you to think I'm someone who is normally rude...", or "I'm going to put myself forward, but I don't want you to think of me as someone who is normally so arrogant...", or even, "I'm going to be rude, but I don't want to think of myself as someone who is rude, so I'm going to pretend I'm not being rude..."

I think that is what makes this more than just a good book, but a great one. Tolkien is able to gently skewer us for our all too human failings, and he does so without adopting any of the cynicism or self-loathing so common with those that seek out to skewer humanity for its so evident failings.

We fantasize about heroes which are strong and comely of form, and we have for as long as we've had recorded literature. Our comic books are filled with those neo-pagan mythic heroes whose exaggerated human virtues always amount to, whatever else may be true of them, 'beats people up good'. These modern Ajaxs, Helens and Achilles dominate the box office, and I would imagine dominate our internal most private fantasy lives as well. Oh sure, the superhero of our fantasy might have superhuman ethics to go along with his superhuman ability to kick butt, attract the opposite sex, and enforce their will upon others, but it is always attached to and ultimately secondary to our fantasy of power and virility. How different is Tolkien's protagonist from Heracles, Lancelot, Beowulf, or Batman - short, small, mundane, and weak. Of all the principal characters of the story, he possesses probably the least of that quintessential heroic attribute - martial prowess.

And yet, he is not actually merely an 'average Joe'. Bilbo is just as much an exaggerated idealized hero as Heracles, it's just that those attributes in which Bilbo is almost transcendently inhuman isn't the sort of attributes we normally fantasize about having ourselves. Bilbo is gentle. He is simple. He is humble. Power and wealth have little attraction for him. He is kind. He takes less than his share, and that that he takes he gives away. He is a peacemaker. Though wrongly imprisoned, he bears no grudge and desires no vengeance for the wrongs done to him. Rather he apologizes for stealing food, and offers to repay in recompense far more than he took. Though mistreated, he harbors no enmity. He never puts himself forward, but he never shirks when others do.

How often do we fantasize about being this different sort of hero, and yet how much better we would be if we did? How much better off would we be if we, like Thorin could declare in our hearts, "There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." How often is it that we hunger after all the wrong things? What profit would we really have if we had in great measure the power to 'beat people up good'? What real use could we put it too? How much better off would we be individually and as a people if we most desired to be graced with Bilbo's virtues, rather than Achilles speed, strength, and skill with arms? How much less mature does this mere children's book of a well lit-world cause our darker fantasies to seem?

Now, I admit I am biased in my review. I read this book 36 times before the age of 16. I broke the spines of three copies of it with continual reading. Yet in my defense I will say that I'm considered only a moderate fan of the book by many. I've known several devotees of the book who, like the protagonist of Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451', can recite whole chapters from memory - ensuring that this would be one of the few books that would survive the sudden destruction of all the world's technology if only the world's story tellers survived. If you are inclined to think no book can be that good, and that my review overhypes it, so much the better. Go in with low expectations so as to be certain that they will be met or exceeded. Forget all I have said save that, "If you haven't read it, you should, because it is quite enjoyable."
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Mar 29, 2011 J. Aleksandr Wootton rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: best-of

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" - an immortal beginning, for which we owe thanks to the grueling boredom of grading papers, and without which the past three-quarters of a century would have been remarkably different, and far poorer.

For I cannot imagine that, in the absence of The Hobbit, some other author would have risen in the early twentieth century to write an enduring novel that at once championed the epic spirit of what Lewis and Tolkien called "Northernness" ( "Will shall ...more

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Oct 11, 2009 Gaijinmama rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, favorites, re-read, classics, fantasy

Full disclosure: I am a life-long Tolkien geek. Mock me, and I'll cuss you out in Elvish. And then I'll breathe a bit of fire at you.
This is the prequel to The Lord of the Rings. I actually read LOTR first when I was 9 years old (back when dinosaurs walked the earth...) and it was rough going, so I highly recommend reading The Hobbit first. It explains a lot of things that are important to the trilogy. Also, unlike LOTR, this is a children's book. It's not just for children, by any means, but it ...more

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Dec 22, 2020 Stephanie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It’s just raining on my face

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May 08, 2009 Kevis Hendrickson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The interesting thing about The Hobbit is how close it came to never seeing the light of day. J.R.R. Tolkien's classic children's fantasy book only exists because he was bored while grading his students' papers and accidentally created the mythical creatures known as Hobbits.

But I think The Hobbit in particular came into being because Tolkien loved the old fairy tales and myths and couldn't find any contemporary books like the old ones he enjoyed reading. The Hobbit is such a fun book to read th ...more

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Jan 09, 2021 Keith rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, favorites

The Hobbit and LOTR are my favorite books, and every time I read them I recognize something new that makes me stop and appreciate how wonderful the writing is. For those who haven't read it, don't be put off that Tolkien wrote it for his children so it's considered a children's story. You only notice this in how Tolkien describes things (sometimes directly talking to the reader) and when you compare it to how he describes things in LOTR. The events in the book may fit in with historical children The Hobbit and LOTR are my favorite books, and every time I read them I recognize something new that makes me stop and appreciate how wonderful the writing is. For those who haven't read it, don't be put off that Tolkien wrote it for his children so it's considered a children's story. You only notice this in how Tolkien describes things (sometimes directly talking to the reader) and when you compare it to how he describes things in LOTR. The events in the book may fit in with historical children's stories, which we look upon with horror like when Cinderella's step-sisters were chopping half their feet off to fit in the slipper, but the book isn't infantile like we imagine children's stories today for the most part.

It is hard to write an unbiased review of the Hobbit because I get so much enjoyment from having read the Hobbit, LOTR, and the Silmarillion multiple times and everything has significance to me. I don't think they would make the Hobbit as a single book today, which is a shame. The amazing thing about this book to me is that you feel that you are getting to know most of the main characters, you are learning about the world, and none of it is at the expense of the plot. So many things happen and Tolkien never gives you a break. (view spoiler)

This book would be a masterpiece in my opinion even if it had to stand alone, but the fact that it is woven into an even better epic story in the LOTR takes it to another level.

The line from this story that really stood out to me this reading was (view spoiler).

Regarding other reviews I've seen about this book:
-I've seen complaints that it is slow. I have no idea what they would be talking about because I think this is one of the fastest paced books around. The amount of action in a 300 page book is very impressive. (view spoiler) If that isn't enough in a 300 page novel, then you should probably quit reading books.
- I've seen complaints about the poems and the songs. I didn't get much out of them either, but you can skip all of them without losing anything from the story. I don't understand why that is such a big deal to some people.
- Most people complaints are essentially that this isn't modern high fantasy, which nobody says it is. Shockingly, many of these people complain that it was boring. Like I previously detailed, a ton of stuff happens in this short book. You're going to have a hard time convincing me that modern high fantasy that usually has about 8 books, each about 900 pages, has fewer boring parts? And I like high fantasy FYI. I think GoT is the second best series after LOTR. I guess these people are just really upset that Tolkien didn't have extremely rigid and detailed magical rules...because that doesn't get boring. Maybe if Tolkien threw in repeated explicit sex scenes he could've kept their attention.

So I highly recommend this book to those who don't expect a 300 page book to fit their demand for a 9000 page high fantasy epic with hundreds to thousands of pages on the rules of magic and the magical hierarchy/political machinations. This book, and LOTR, aren't about magic. If that's a deal-breaker, you should skip it.

I bought this edition because I wanted a beautiful illustrated copy that would stand the test of time and dozens of reads over my lifetime. The pages are sewn, so it should last long in that respect. The illustrations are good. Some of them I would say rank among the top LOTR illustrations I've seen, while others weren't my favorite. There are a lot of little touches in this edition, such as the chapter titles and the writing on the tops of each page are green, that make it feel like they put a lot of effort into making this a quality printing. ...more

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Jul 07, 2008 Theresia rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

(Reread) My rereading was motivated by

a. The last part of PJ's movie adaptation. In which man-child Richard Armitage broke my heart.
b. My reading Nicholson Baker's "The Way the World Works." In which he, like I did, could not believe that the King under the Mountain could not recover from his wound. Basically, Thorin broke our hearts.
c. The finding of a formerly unknown JRR Tolkien's recording. Also, after knowing that he *hates* industrialization. Also, knowing that the professor is first and f ...more

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Dec 08, 2013 Rossrn Nunamaker rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, middle-earth

This is a quest story with the unlikeliest of heroes, a Hobbit, named Bilbo. He is recommended to serve the role of burglar to a band of dwarves set on recovering their ancestors' gold from the dragon Smaug, by the wizard, Gandalf.

I've read this book multiple times throughout my life, as a child, in HS, college, to my daughter as a bed time story, and most recently last week. Each read has been at a different phase of my life and thereby has been viewed from a different perspective.

This time, I ...more

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May 26, 2008 Linda Horn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

When I read this in 8th Grade, it opened up a whole new world to me...I had never read anything like it before. I have read it to my children and have read it several times since. Love it! :)

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