The first time I read LOTR...

[Elentarri]

message 15: by Christa -
Aug 25, 2012 10:27AM

Even though it took me five years to get through it a lot of it went over my head and most of the beautiful story's were ruined because I could not keep everyone straight. <<<<<<<<<<

That's when you copy out the family trees and write all the additional names in. It helps keep everything straight. ;)

[Katherine]

I don't know if you've read the silmarillion, but it has that problem a lot more than LotR. Thankfully Tolkien recognized this and put a names index at the back. I was so happy to see it was there as I would have been lost without it.

[Tay]

Early June, 1963. I was almost 11, home from school with bronchitis, a compulsive reader, looking at paperbacks on the rack while waiting for my Da to pick up my medicine in a drugstore. A cover caught my eye- dark blue with weird birds and trees. Can I get a Book? He said yes, and I picked Fellowship of the Ring.

I started it in the car on the way home, took it up to bed, and lost my heart to a pair of grey eyes in the firelight in Bree. wanted to be Aragorn. I read all night and was crushed when I got to the end to find out there were two more books and I didn't have them.

My Da tracked the other two books down for me the next day. I didn't do anything but sleep, eat oatmeal and read straight through TT and RoTK.

Then I slept for an entire day, and when I got up, I started reading them again, more slowly, to really look at them. I read them over and over for about a month. I still read them about once a year.

On the day the Silmarillion was published, my husband took the afternoon off so that he could have it to give me when he picked me up. I love it, but nothing came lose to LoTR. When I read the Books of Lost Tales, I finally fell in love with the first age.

But after all these years, I am still in love with Faramir, still reading LoTR.

[Elentarri]

Tay wrote: "Early June, 1963. I was almost 11, home from school with bronchitis, a compulsive reader, looking at paperbacks on the rack while waiting for my Da to pick up my medicine in a drugstore. "

That's so sweet! I'm envious. My father never (and still doesn't) approved of anything I read, unless it's politics. Even when I was a kid.

[Andrew]

Tay wrote: "Early June, 1963. I was almost 11, home from school with bronchitis, a compulsive reader, looking at paperbacks on the rack while waiting for my Da to pick up my medicine in a drugstore. A cover ca..."

This is a wonderful story. What a great first experience. Your Dad and your husband sound pretty awesome!

[Richard]

The first time I read the Lord of the Rings my first impression was that the story was slow, but then as I read more chapters I got transported into Middle Earth and I was hooked on the book. The second time I read it I fully connected with the setting and the characters from start to finish.

[L]

Richard wrote: "The first time I read the Lord of the Rings my first impression was that the story was slow, but then as I read more chapters I got transported into Middle Earth and I was hooked on the book. The s..."

Yeah, It is so slow at the beginning.. but if you keep persevering with the story, the pace quickens and the endless detailed descriptions become shorter -- with no unnecessary wordage and cutting to the chase, (such as action unfolding, specific dramatic events like epic battles etc.).

[Shellie]

Ok so I read The Hobbit when I was about eight years old and loved it. Perfect age for a kid to be introduced to a world of hobbits and dragons. I was introduced to the LOTR via Peter Jackson in 2003 when the first film was released, I was 14 and a freshman in high school. I was instantly hooked. For me the films and the books have harmoniously existed together. I realized early on that the books and the films were two different but equally respectable works and have spent my life since then trying to prove it to others either in my writing or in casual conversation. I read The Hobbit every year in January (what better way to start the year??), and read the LOTR intermittently every year or so. Most of the time I simply cruise through a few chapters (my favorites), or just one book or one section, but every once in a while I start with book one and work my way through all three. I have the movies memorized (this is not an exaggeration, every word, every action, and every chord of the music is embedded in my mind like second nature), and for several years during my high school career I avidly participated in online roleplaying communities and wrote my own fan fiction of which my own created character was a part and she has stuck with me for years. I am proud to say I am a Tolkien nerd and it all started with "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit."