The Sword and Laser discussion
This topic is about
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
2012 Reads
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TH: When was the first time you read it ?
I "read" (audio) it for the first time only 4 months ago, along with the lord of the rings trilogy. My local library had them all unabridged on cd, so I checked them out and listened to them on my commute.
My father read us the Hobbit when we were children. I never read it by myself. I am loving it so much right now. I don't know if its because of nostalgia or its just that wonderful. I think its both. He also admitted to be that he never read the last ten pages so that was shocking and I will be excited to experience those for the first time.
1970. I was 9 years old. I still remember my excitement upon discovering a year later that there was a trilogy sequel. Back then the books were hard to find. I remember scouring all the book stores that I begged my folks to stop at and the joy of actually finding the next book (which sometimes took months).I also remember those old Tolkien calendars by the Brothers Hildebrandt and how they were my most anticipated and prized presents on Christmas morning for years.
My mom read it to me growing up, and I read it myself and did my very first book report on it in first grade, so... 6? 7?On a related note, I was crushed when I didn't end up in the Middle Earth dorms at UCI...
My family had the Rankin Bass cartoon and I grew up with it during the 1980s. Not sure exactly when I read the Hobbit myself. Could have been when my parents read it to me, or when I finally started being able to read. That cartoon has always stuck more in my mind than the book.
My father read it to me, when I was about 10 or so I think. He continued to read me the whole LOTR trilogy. Those evenings tucked into bed listening breathlessly to his rumbling voice, reciting every word in those page long poems is still one om my favorite childhood memories.
I think I first attempted to read it when i was about 9 or 10. I couldn't get past the first chapter, so i returned it to the library, and hadn't gotten around to actually read it until about 7 years later. I remember on finishing it, how many pieces clicked into place, references in other mediums made more sense. I came to appreciate the Riddles in the Dark homage in Hugo's House of Horrors. Evil, evil, evil game, by the way.
Care for a chop, sir?
1998, I was at the beginning of college. It was shortly after we had a brazilian portuguese version. All the previous editions were much older, imported from Portugal and not so easy to find back then, here in Brazil. I remember that after I read it, I recommended it to all my friends, and my book ended up read by a lot of people!Now I'm gonna re-read in the original english :)
I first read it my senior year in high school. It came as a suggestion from my English teacher after I had written an essay on The Sword of Shannara. Little did I know which ever two books we did book reports on earlier in the year would be the subjects of a compare/contrast research paper towards the end of the year. I'd read the Lord of the Rings by then and kept thinking the whole time I researched and wrote this paper that The Lord of the Rings vs. Sword of Shannara would have been a better subject than The Hobbit vs. The Sword of Shannara, but I managed. :P
Probably about 10. My dad read it to me.
At ~8 or 9 I discovered the visually fascinating covers of the LOTR trilogy and asked my parents about the books. They suggested I try reading the Hobbit first as the trilogy might be above my reading level. So of course I read the trilogy first ;)
I just pulled out my copy to start reading, the same copy I read when I was a kid.The pages have yellowed. The pages . . . have yellowed.
Crap, I'm old.
I think some time when I was 10 or 12, so 2000 -2001. I haven't read it in a few years and am very excited to re-read it. I think this will be my third read.
I was very late to this party. 42 years in and I just listened to it last month. Glad for the S&L pick and film to kick me in the arse and get on it.
Katie wrote: "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 ..."Awesome dad! I'll be reading it to my daughter as soon as we're finished with our current read aloud. We were in a B&N the other day and she say their Hobbit display and said, "That guy [Gandolf] looks like Dumbledore." I told her that guy came first and we needed to read it next!
I think it was 1984. Like most, I reread it several times (all in the 80s).
I think I was about 15 when I first read the Hobbit. It was around when the movies were being hinted at and I didn't know much about Tolkien, or the series. But I was a huge fantasy reader and was surprised when I hadn't jumped into Tolkien yet.I finished it over my Christmas break from school, and have reread it every Christmas since then. It's a bit of a tradition! And it's the perfect book for reading this time of year. I was so glad to see that we were reading The Hobbit for December, as it was already on my list.
I checked back through my records and I first read it back in 1977.
I was around six or seven. I read it because my dad owned the 3 volume set of LotR and said I had to read this one before I could read those.
I read it shortly after I saw the Rakin-Bass cartoon, so probably 1980 or so.
I read it for the first time right before the Lord of the Rings movie was coming out. So, I was in 10th grade. Read the Trilogy first and then came across this one. Enjoyed it immensely.
I read "The Hobbit" when I was in seventh grade, because my sister told me to read it. I then read LOTR. However, I have re-read LOTR far more times than The Hobbit. It's nice to read it again, and realize that it has much more substance than I had originally remembered. Tolkien got a lot of mileage out of the "what happens to the treasure once the dragon is dead". Of course, he had the original skaldic poems about Fafnir to draw upon.
I confess that I'm a bit late to the party when it comes to sci-fi and fantasy (but better late then never, right?). I am 39 and just read The Hobbit about two years ago and completely loved it. I then immediately read LOTR, which I also loved.
I have very fond memories of reading The Hobbit to my sons when they were little. Seems like a lifetime ago, or just yesterday... I think it must have been 1984.. maybe..
I was about 12, so it was a long time ago. I've read it many times over the years, but not as often as The Lord of the Rings. I find the story to be a little annoying in that the dwarves are a little comical compared to the takes added later of Balin retaking Moria and the toughness of Gimli.
That annoyance aside, I do love the story and handle my movie tickets for 6:15 pm on 12/14 like they are The Precious.
I can't remember when I read The Hobbit. Seems like it's always been a part of my mythic landscape. My paperback version was printed in 1968. But I'm pretty sure I read it before then.
5th grade reading class 1975-76
My Dad read it to me when I was four I think. I can't remember if The Hobbit or David and the Phoenix was the first book he read to me.
This will be my first time reading The Hobbit, although I have read The Lord of the rings books.
I was in 3rd grade the first time I read The Hobbit, so around 1977 at age 8 or 9. I subsequently spent the summer after 3rd grade reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy when I was 9. I remember needing to keep a dictionary on hand, because they were the first books I had read that weren't very simple/contemporary vocabulary to digest.
1966, I was ten, my grandmother bought it for my birthday. Like so many others here, I have long since lost track of how many times I've read this book. As a kid I was so devoted to Bilbo that I refused to read The Lord of the Rings because the main character wasn't him!
I'm reading it now for the first time. Can't believe it took me so long to get to reading it...
Maybe about 1st or 2nd grade. I don't remember the exact time offhand.
1979, sick in bed with tonsillitis for the week of my 14th birthday, my brother bought me the first two LotR books. Finished them in a couple days and asked for more. So I got the Two Towers and The Hobbit.
I was 8 or 9 when I first read it, so that was 15 or 16 years ago. My mom handed me a copy to read on a long road trip. I devoured it and have been a huge Tolkien fan ever since.
John wrote: "I read "The Hobbit" when I was in seventh grade...Tolkien got a lot of mileage out of the "what happens to the treasure once the dragon is dead". Of course, he had the original skaldic poems about Fafnir to draw upon. Also, Tolkien has the magnificent plot twist of "what happens if our heroes do not themselves kill the dragon?" He deftly shifted the cause of strife from the personage of Smaug to the greedy hunt for the Arkenstone, and then further into the struggle for pre-eminence among the shifting alliances of the Five Armies. Very few writers would dare this sort of feat anymore, and even fewer could make it work.
I read the book on December 26th 1982, and I was 13. I had gotten the book for Christmas, but I hadn't had a chance to start it on Christmas Day. I stayed in bed all day and read the book cover to cover. I read the same book for this reread.
I first read the book when I was 12, in 1998. my mom read it aloud to me and I was instantly hooked. As soon as she finished, I picked it up and read it again on my own and have ever since them I have read it many many times.
I read The Hobbit for 9th grade English class, which was around 2002, if my math is correct. :) The teacher was able to show us some clips from the Fellowship movie, and then I was hooked.
1984 at the age of 13. I kept the book at my cottage so every weekend it would be there waiting for me, it was the perfect lakeside story.
1983 I bought my first copy and I read that same copy to each of my children in 1994 and 1997. They were newborns and didn't rate the story but the narrator made sure they slept through the scary parts.
I first read it in the early 90's, just before my teens. First I had the Mind's Eye production, and then I promptly read through the entire paperback from the library. One of the first books to conquer my ADD; I never got bored with it, and adored the voice, as well as all the adventure. Smaug's still one of my all-time favorite characters.
It was in 1965 or 66, been awhile. I don't think I ever went back for a second round. Though I loved it I felt it was a fairy tale and went on to hardcore sci-fi. Though it did come back to bite me in the ass with the Lord of the Rings college craze. I've read Lotr many time since. Now, because of Sword and Laser, I just downloaded it for my kindleHD, along with the sync-along audiobook. The movie comes out next week and I intend to go to the midnight opening. BTW I was 15 or 16 when I first read it. I am almost 63 now.
Rodrigo wrote: "Working under the assumption that a significant part of the S&L members already read this book, when was the first time you read it ?Me ? It was back in 1999 (Softcover, Brazilian Portuguese edit..."
Probably around 1979. A softcover copy that my uncle lent me. I've still have it. ;)
1978 or 79, so would have been about 19/20 when I was first lent a copy and then also borrowed the Rings trilogy. It proved, along with The Lord of the Rings, to be a wonderful escape from the dreary office life of a thousand slow and painful brain deaths.
Even though I subsequently bought a book club edition with the LoTR and Silmarillion all in faux leather and pretend gold embossing I found it impossible to read The Hobbit as second time.
Couldn't get into Silmarillion and the attempt to re read LoTR also bombed, before they had even got to the Prancing Pony.
Picked up said ed of The Hobbit for the book of the month reading and it seemed like I should be able to read it this time for S&L! :D
I read this in 2005, which would have been my first semester as a senior in high school. It was a reading for our english class. I read it then and loved it, but my brain went to other places at that point and I never picked it back up again until a couple years ago in college. Now I read it at least once a year, and this year was the first time I listened to the audiobook as read by Rob Inglis. Suffice to say, this is going to continue to be an annual tradition for me.
My dad actually read this us kids when I was about eleven(1999). One of the last books we all read together as a family before we became "too cool" for that kind of thing.
When the Lord of the Rings movies came out, I first read that trilogy. Then I saw the movies. Then I read the Hobbit. Given that all three movies were on DVD by the time I got to watch them, I would say it was around 2004 when I read the Hobbit for the first time.
I first read The Hobbit when I was 9(1976), and The Lord of the Rings followed immediately. Strangely enough, as a child I actually found LOTR much more gripping, while I was barely able to even finish The Hobbit.In my late 20's, I picked up The Atlas of Middle Earth, which inspired me to re-read The Hobbit, LOTR, The Silmarillion, and even Unfinished Tales and most of the other "histories". Following along with the very detailed maps in The Atlas was deeply engrossing. I read them all at a snail's pace, because I was enjoying being immersed in the minutiae of Tolkien's creation so much.
Reasonably sure I'd already read Lord of the Rings then (having been hooked by the animated film).