[Request] LOTR and The Hobbit for July - August

[Ashley]

I have heard in the past that the Lord of the Rings trilogy can be a tough read. So for that reason and simply for the fun of having someone to discuss with while reading I would like to request a Book Support Group for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit.

(I prefer to read the books in publishing order as opposed to chronological order if that's okay with you guys.)

Dates:

The Fellowship of the Ring July 1 - July 15

The Two Towers July 16 - July 31

The Return of the King August 1 - August 15

The Hobbit August 16 - August 31

As you can see we'll be reading two books a month since they're rather short. Who's with me!?

[House03]

I will if I can get the books!

[Sasha]

FYI, the hobbit was published before the LOTR. It was published 17 years before and wasn't even originally intended to fit into or connect with any other Tolkien books. It was written simply as a young adult fantasy novel in the 30s, that he made fit as a prequel to LOTR when he started work on the, in the 40s.

I would possibly be interested in this, but I wouldn't want to do the Hobbit. I'd also be much more likely to participate in this if the responses were really good.

[Ashley]

Alex wrote: "FYI, the hobbit was published before the LOTR. It was published 17 years before and wasn't even originally intended to fit into or connect with any other Tolkien books. It was written simply as a y..."

Well I feel like a silly now! I googled the order and I thought it said that The Hobbit was published after the trilogy but I must have misread. Thanks for the info! And if you do decide to join in you are of course free to choose what you want to participate in.

[Alex]

I've read all of them - I actually prefer the Hobbit as it has less scenes of walking and more action, it was written for children though so I don't really know what that says about me :P

It'd be cool to comment on some of the discussions though (Is Frodo really a hero?) and perhaps afterward you will want to tackle The Silmarillion although I listened to the first chapter of that as an audiobook and it is like The Bible or something...

My friend read it and it took her ages :/

Also isn't there that new unfinished work they published recently?

[Megan, Mod]

Definitely count me in for reading them, don't know though if I could keep up but I will do my best! Liking Lies so far even though I am only 60 pages into it...first thought was Oliver Twist.....

[Ashley]

Glad for the responses! Since there's not a lot of support for The Hobbit since most of you have read it semi-recently what do we think about just reading the trilogy? We could try to do it in a month instead of two, do you all think ten days enough to get through each book in the trilogy?

It would be:

The Fellowship of the Ring July 1 - July 10

The Two Towers July 11 - July 20

The Return of the King July 21 - July 31

[Sasha]

I would totally be up for that, looks great.

[Ashley]

Hey guys, Elijah Wood, the actor who plays Frodo is doing an AMA on reddit today!

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments...

[Jennifer]

I'm with Emma. Maybe returning at this age will be easier, but I remember it being a slow read.

[Jennifer]

Also, stumbled upon this in r/books today. Timeline for LOTR universe... Could be helpful!
http://lotrproject.com/timeline/

[Ashley]

@Jen thanks for the link! And it looks like some of us are okay with three in a month and some would prefer a little more time to each book.

Maybe for July we could just read the first novel in the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, and really get to know the book--and if the discussions go well and we get a lot of participation we'll read The Two Towers and The Return of the King in August.

How does that sound to everyone?

[Megan, Mod]

I might be able to do one a month but with so many other things on my agenda - even that is sometimes a stretch. Three is def to much. Just my thoughts!