The Sword and Laser discussion
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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
2012 Reads
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TH: When was the first time you read it ?
If memory serves I read it in 1978. I was 9.
I was 15 or 16. Which means it's 10 or 11 years ago.I read the Dutch translation then and currently I'm rereading it in English.
I was actually pretty late to the party for reading it for the first time. I was 21 and was already well enmeshed in my love of Game of Thrones and the Wheel of Time books, having been introduced to the genre via C.S. Lewis's Narnia books and Madeleine L'Engle's time books. I actually "only" read the book because I had found a copy in my aunt's house as we emptied it out after she passed away, and I didn't have any other fantasy book with me to read at the time. That was in 2001, so I'm excited for this re-read 11 years later, when I've read a wider variety of fantasy since.
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It must have been 1999, or 2000. I don't know what schools teach The Hobbit and Lord of the rings, but I didn't read them until I was in college, and then it was recreational.I, also, had read a great deal of fantasy before reading the Hobbit, and LotR. I can still remember how awed I was by The Hobbit. It was so different than anything I had read before. It broke a bunch of pacing rules, the narrator sounded like Uncle Wiggly, and it was perfect.
I devoured everything I could by Tolkien after that, even The Monsters And The Critics: And Other Essays. It's not just Tolkien and Lewis but the Inklins in general. The circumstances of that time and place produced some profound (and profoundly sad) writers.
I was 19. The dorm I was living in sophomore year was full of awesomely nerdy people, and every year they did a book-themed welcome week. The year I lived there, they chose The Hobbit and sent everyone a paperback copy in the mail. I'd never read it because I heard it was more of a kids' book, but I ended up loving it. The dorm did a bunch of activities around it, like showing the movie on a projector in the courtyard and having a linguistics professor come in and talk about all the different languages. A lot of fun. Obviously the dorm I belonged in. :)
I've never ready the Hobit, but I'm really looking foreword to it. Just need to finish what I'm currently reading first.
I read and loved Lord of the Rings - but never The Hobbit. I'm looking forward to listening to the audio version.
I was seven. My dad decided I was too old for the Hardy Boys and gave me a box-set with The Hobbit and LotR.Then one time in fifth grade, I did a book report on Red Storm Rising ...
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I wanted to read anything else by Tolkien.
I "liked" The Hobbit but it was a bit of a let down after reading the greatest book ever written.
I was introduced to The Hobbit when I was five and my Dad gave me the full cast audio book to listen to. Then he read it to me and my younger brother as a bedtime story over a period of several weeks when I was nine. I read it myself about a year and a half or so later because Dad had a tendency to start falling asleep and fading in and out vocally after two chapters, so I figured I might have missed something.
I first read it when I was nine though I couldn't grasp why he was describing the hobbit hole so I stopped but I am now seriously regretting that decision lol.
I want to say I was in 5th grade since I (or my parents actually) purchased my copy from the Scholastic Book flyer at school. 1989 maybe?
Maybe 1996 or so?Never re-read it (the only novel ive re-read in my life so far was the 3 musketeers) so this should be interesting
I first heard of this book in grade 3 when our teacher read it to us back in 1992. Since hen I've read it once a year every year.
I first read The Hobbit when I was 11, just after finishing Lord of the Rings for the first time. I still have my original copy of The Hobbit in working order, unfortunately my original copy of Lord of the Rings died on me (It was one of those combined editions so it was huge, and between re-reading and stuff it sorta fell apart on me). I might actually bang out a couple of pages when I get home from work (It's curently 5:49 am here, so it's December 1st already) just because I loved this book so much and I wanna get started on it.
Must've been 1977 or 1978 because it was seeing the Rankin-Bass cartoon (on TV) that drove me to pick up the books. And things have never been the same since.
Despite never having read it, my mom had an old worn out copy sitting around. I think it was around 7th grade I took it upon myself to take it for a spin. I'm really excited to do a re-read; there's nothing like the comfort of revisiting a favorite story in the winter when you can be all snuggled up in blankets with cocoa!
I first read it at 12 as required reading for my English class. Was my first exposure to fantasy but haven't read it since. Really looking forward to this reread
In the future. :) My first go through. Chapter three so far I think.
My dad read the Hobbit to me when I was 6 or 7 I think.
I read the Hobbit in my teens as a student, but for recreation, not for a class. I think I followed it with the Lord of the Rings.
I started reading it when I was about 10, but I found it a little hard, and didn't really enjoy it, so I gave up and went back to the 'animal' books I was loving at the time, such as Colin Dann's Farthing Wood series. I don't think I tried again until I was maybe 18, and whispers of the lord of the rings films began, and I wanted to read the books first. The Hobbit seemed like the natural place to start. I liked it, but not in any stand out way. I've enjoyed it more upon rereading though, and am really excited for the films, and to reading the discussion on the forum.
I read The Hobbit and The LOTR trilogy when I was 5th grade age- 1960-something- and loved them. I read them all again in my late teens, and loved them again!
Must've been around '74. After reading it and LotR, my cousin and I started writing letters to each other using runes.
I was always more of a sf fan and never much of a fantasy fan but read the Lord of the Rings books before each movie came out and enjoyed the experience (but liked the movies better, sorry). My face-to-face book club picked the Hobbit for this past January and I listened to a great audio version. I actually liked it better than LotR! Bilbo is such a badass compared to Frodo! Can't wait to read everyone's comments on the book.Oh, and yes, since joining the S&L group (with The Magicians) I am very much getting into fantasy. Loved Tigana and Assassin's Apprentice especially.
Last year. I had read the other Lord of the Rings books in college.
My older brother suggested it to me when I was in 6th grade so around 1995. It's the only book I've ever known him to read and I'm very thankful he did. A family friend saw me reading it and gave me a copy of The Lord of the Rings. I'm glad I read it in that order.
I read it my sophomore year of high school
I was really late to the party. I read all four books just as "The Two Towers" movie was released.
Secondary school, so about 12-14 ish I think. The School bought some nice anniversary editions and they caught my eye as it had been something I'd meant to read but never got around to before that...
I read it during high school while working in my local library. Whenever there was downtime, I'd grab it off the shelf and read some of it.
The first time I ree read it was in 2005. I tried many times before that but it is such a cheesy novel at the start that I would always give up.
I was a late geek bloomer didn't read The Hobbit until I was about 22 and then went on to read Lotr, it was my first taste of fantasy and I loved it, I now predominantly read fantasy with a few sci fi books thrown in when we read them for the picks.
I saw The Fellowship of the Ring during a time in my life where I was very confused and pretending not to be a nerd (an embarrassing time I call "college"). I read. All three of the books in the weeks after twice over, amazed that I had never read them. I immediately moved on to the Hobbit over Christmas break around my junior year. I was really embarrassed that I had never read these books before and I have since read each at least five times.
Think it was in 1980 when I was 8, this was what started me on fantasy, went on to LOTR and never looked back. Can't wait to see what PJ has done with the film
I was late to the Hobbit party and read it maybe 2-3 years ago. Wasn't crazy about it but might try to fly through it after reading Leviathan Wakes.
mid 1980s when o was 10 or 11. read it a second time prior to the lott movie releases. so only my third time through I believe.
my debate now is whetheri should be reading it to my 4 year old or not.
The first time I read it I was 11. It was my initial introduction to the world of science fiction, and I totally fell in love. Being the total nerd that I was, I did a book report on it for school and of course I dressed as a Hobbit. Ya, that didn't go over to well with my peers haha. I also read The fellowship of the ring and the two towers when I was 11. Halfway through the two towers I quit reading, I think the books were starting to be above my reading level. Now as an adult I'm finally picking up the books again. This is only my second time reading the Hobbit, it's been 11 years so it's almost like I'm reading it for the first time!
Not really sure though it was probably somewhere in the 9-11 range. I got a set for either my B-day or Christmas that had the HObbit and the LOTR books in it. I read all of them at least ten times as a kid but only once as an adult. I found this latter time that they really weren't as good as I remembered but I'm still gonna give The Hobbit a go this month soon as I finish the book I'm on which should be tomorrow.I can remember with childlike naivety wishing I could be transported to Middle Earth to adventure with them.
This is my first time! :)
I first read The Hobbit in 1978, following the suggestion of my 5th grade teacher. We created papier-mâché hobbit hole/homes in class. The LotR trilogy immediately followed. I still have those original books - a matched series, though not a set(each purchased separately). My daughter is currently reading The Hobbit in that very same volume.
My first time (::ahem::) came just after graduating from high school, back in the mid-seventies. An acquaintance, part of a church youth group as I recall, loaned me his copy, as well as the LotR triology.Up until then my exposure to fantastic literature had been limited to tales of mythology, Greek/Roman and Norse in particular. I cannot recall encountering either sf or fantasy while in high school. We had a small library, but it's possible it was there and I simply wasn't familiar enough with the genre to know what to look for.
For a young person whose life had been both miserable and limited up to that time, The Hobbit opened a golden door to a path I have followed for getting close to forty years now, and plan to continue upon for endless tomorrows.
(I always go out for popcorn during the mauldlin parts, don't you?)
I actually started on Tolkien with The Similarion at age 9 (my brother was reading it as a junior in high school). From that read, I got a bit of a bad impression, and avoided him for a number of years, burning through other greats of the genre. Finally, by grade 8, I gave him another chance and throughly enjoyed it, and went on to read LOTR that summer. Since then my tastes have grown more discerning, but he is one of the great foundational underpinnings of the genre as it stands today.
I first read it in 4th grade, around 10 or so. I've lost count of the amount of rereads that I've done since then. I read it in 6th grade for a book report, and went to school dressed as Bilbo Baggins, green cloak and all, and riddled my whole class. Cant wait to start it again for S&L!
I read the trilogy first, having discovered it by accident through one of those "scholastic book club" services early in high school. (Same route to reading Dune for the first time.) I acquired Fellowship of the Ring, and over time got my hands on the other two, and the Hobbit, since a read of the cover blurb said it was related. It was a bit of a surprise, compared with the trilogy, but not an unpleasant one, since that same blurb described it as a tale originally written for Tolkien's children. I must admit that, while I regularly reread The Lord of the Rings, I rarely pick up the Hobbit, these days.
The Hobbit is the first book I have clear memories of, my Dad read and re-read it to me at bedtime (with unique voices for all the dwarves) starting I think in '88 or '89 ish when I was 3 or 4. It wasn't until much later that I picked up the "sequel" Lord of the Rings. Tolkien remains one of my all time favorite authors and my Dad remains my main source of book recommendations.
I read it in 1972 when I was twelve in the back of the station wagon driving too L.A. and then back to Clovis NM.
Me ? It was back in 1999 (Softcover, Brazilian Portuguese edition).