The Hobbit, or There and Back Again - Pre-Read

[Cheryl]

I read it when I was in Junior High, at least twice, back in the early 70s. I've never saw it filmed and do not want to. I did finally read LotR last year but felt no need to continue that big trilogy.

I have read at least a couple of short stories... ah... Farmer Giles of Ham for sure and Smith of Wootton Major I think (I'll have to read soon, even if a reread). Believe it or not, he can do short well, too!

[Kylie]

Never read any of the Lord of the Rings books, but have seen all the movies. Looking forward to finally starting to tackle these

[Georgie’s]

I reread this quite recently otherwise I’d have joined in on this one!!

[Dirk]

I read the LotR when I was in the Realschule in 10th class. All through I was impressed about the imagination a writer must have to design or create such a immense world. Much later I read the Hobbit. As the Hobbit was original written as a child book the differences between the writing is fascinating. My 11 year old son read the Hobbit last year.

[Em]

Fell asleep in the first LoTR film so saw none of the rest and also avoided the Hobbit. Haven't read any of the books either.

Have decided to tackle it now because fantasy is a genre I avoid and I would like to at least give it a go with something fairly approachable before I say no to it entirely.

(My other, less good, reason for not reading so far is that I don't trust the late Victorian/Edwardian upper class white British, Oxford types. I don't trust C. S. Lewis, I don't trust Lewis Carroll and I don't trust J. R. R. Tolkein. But I should probably have a more concrete reason for not reading than that!)

Interestingly, I know the area around where he grew up and lived relatively well, so I'm wondering if some of that will transmit into the story somehow.

[Cassie]

I read this book the summer before 9th grade, it was one of the required reading for Honors that year. I remember not being a huge fan of the book then and never went on to read the LOTR series. I'm hoping I'll appreciate it more this time around!

[Thomas]

This will be my first time reading along with this group and I'm so excited to finally pull this off the book shelf and dive it!

[Sarah]

I did a LotR reread a couple years ago with another GR group, but I haven't read The Hobbit in probably ten years so I'm hoping to squeeze a reread in.

[Renee]

I enjoyed the book as a child. I am interested to see how I feel as an adult. So I am in

[Betsy]

I love this book so much. Don't think I'll be rereading it but will definitely join in on the SPOILERS discussion.

[Mike]

I'm rereading The Hobbit for the first time in many, many years. Why did I wait so long? There's only one answer, I'm an idiot! This is a truly wonderful story told by a master story-teller. I haven't seen the movies, but I did watch (and enjoyed) The Lord of the Rings trilogy and can't wait to reread those books as well.

[Cheryl]

:smiles:

[Brandi]

This is my first time reading The Hobbit. I’ve had it on my shelf for years and now I have no excuse not to read it!

[Nancy]

This is my first time reading The Hobbit. My daughter is reading it in her English class so I thought I’d read it too!!

[Cheryl]

Nancy wrote: "This is my first time reading The Hobbit. My daughter is reading it in her English class so I thought I’d read it too!!"

That's interesting. I never thought of it as 'canon' but rather as light, escapist reading. I hope you get a chance to share what the school thinks is 'valuable' about it.

[Shelley]

The Hobbit is one of my favorite books, which is odd as I'm not usually a fan of fantasy. I read it as a teen and reread it a couple of years ago to see if it stood the test of time. I enjoyed it just as much as an adult.

For anyone who may be on the fence because they found The Lord of the Rings to be too slow/long/whatever, you may want to give The Hobbit a chance. There are similarities, but you may find it to be a better paced story. (At least I did.)

Unfortunately, I won't be rereading The Hobbit this time around. I have read and enjoyed all three of this month's books, and Little Women is the only one I have not reread as an adult. So, I'm going to read it instead.

[Arin]

The Hobbit is a wonderful book, I reread it a couple years ago. I never really got into LotR, I found it dry. But T Hobbit was a wonderful journey.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I first read The Hobbit in 8th grade for a junior high English class (the other classes were reading Lord of the Flies but our teacher was a bit of a hippie so we read Tolkien). It is still one of my favorite books, and I've read it probably half a dozen times. I won't read it again because I have some other books to read and also I don't want to get sick of it, but I'll gladly join in the discussion.

[Vanessa]

I’ve yet to tackle any of Tolkiens’ books and so glad to be able to read The Hobbit with this group. I’ve seen ALL of the movies... several times and am excited to delve deeper into this world.