One Box To Rule Them All... · 7:06pm Jun 26th, 2015
I have a shameful confession to make:
I've never read Lord of the Rings.
I've TRIED, but Tolkien's prose is...agonizingly slow for me.
Back in sixth grade, I read about a third of The Hobbit.
I've never even seen the movie adaptations because TNT has a habit of marathonning them all in one shot on any given day when I'm not aware there's going to be a marathon and, well...that's a LOT of hours to watch all at once. And...anyway. I decided it's long past time I got around to actually reading The Hobbit and LotR, so I picked them up cheap off eBay.
LotR arrived today, and...well...the seller was a little overzealous with the packaging.
The following is an IM log between myself and Zef as I attempted to unpack my new (used) copy of Lord of the Rings (omnibus edition).
If the books are in near perfect condition, then it explains why your box was prepared to face the fires of Mt. Doom. He wanted to make sure nothing happened to the holy books
I've never read them, either, and it's mainly because I'm not interested in doing so. By no means whatsoever am I implying that the books are bad, though
I tried to read Lord of the Rings once and even made it to Return of the King but the main issue I have with Tolkien is the pacing of his books. Both the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings have almost the same amount of story in them but Hobbit is paced much too fast, while Lord of the Rings is too slow. If they weren't both so good it could have ruined both books but of course they are both amazing and deserve the amount of praise they get.
while that was greatly amusing, i do have to agree about LotR, ive tried to read it a few times myself...never got very far...read the Hobbit though, liked that one...
I love Zef's sense of humor.
I have the same problem with the works of R.A. Salvatore.
A book in shrinkwrap, wrapped in bubble wrap, burred in foam peanuts, with the box itself covered in tape. Overly overprotective Twilight sent the book
Congratulations on getting everything out. I got two books and a Transfer Pak in the mail recently and I just had to deal with bubble-wrap envelopes.
This was hilarious to read.
Thank you for the smiles.
I've met even rabid Tolkien fans that will —if grudgingly, admit that The Fellowship only really gets going when they reach the Mines of Moria.
And that's nearly a third into that book. Several hundred pages, even!
So yeah. Great books that deserves the mark they've left, but they're not for everybody.
I've managed The Hobbit, but I couldn't get past Tom Bombadil in the actual trilogy. I should probably try again at some point.
That sounds like the conversation I have with my dad whenever my grandma sends us something.
<rant>
</rant>
I've managed to read the Hobbit and even get through most of the Hobbit movies, but for some reason I just can't seem to get through the Lord of the rings itself, book or movie. I've brought shame on my family because of it. My dad has four copies of each book in various formats, like one that you can fit in you pocket, the original paperbacks, and some hard covers that weigh about ten pounds each. He's also got the extended editions of all of them on DVD, replica Lotr swords, his office has a statue of Smoug, and he uses sting as a letter opener! And yet surrounded by all of this stuff, I still haven't even seen the movies.
It's really rediculous too because I managed to get through all thirteen books of the wheel of time in two weeks, and that was 13,000 pages of walking and sexism. I think I need help, there's something wrong with me.
3184113 Unfortunately, I have the same edition with the same small print...I'm going to need to buy a new magnifying glass before I read it (the one I have now is badly occluded).
3184186 Yup. From page one up until Moria, it's all mostly happy-happy adventure, ale, and third breakfasts accompanied by singing and scenery porn. LOTS AND LOTS of singing. When Moria hits, the Fellowship is no longer in a condition where singing and carousing is appropriate anymore (though other people still do it for them) so Tolkien cuts down on it very noticeably. Two Towers is relatively fast-paced, and the only problem I had with Return of the King was with the endless descriptions of amassing all the various armies --as opposed to the armies actually battling each other.
And if people had issues with the film adaptation having four or five endings, the book version is worse. There's a whole plotline at the very end that Jackson wisely omitted. (I WISH he had exercised that same wisdom to his OWN script in the adaptation of The Hobbit.) It's a nice counterpart to the opening of Fellowship, and it serves its purpose, but it would have been a bad choice for the film.
3184210 There is absolutely no shame in skipping "Regarding Hobbits". It's a nice, relaxing read when you want to wind down, and Tolkien shows a lot of love in his wold-building, but if you want more meaty plotting, that opening section can feel excruciatingly slow.
3184356 Think this one came out after the movies, actually.
3185418 I found an image of the cover online earlier:
writerswrite.com/journal/dec01/lordoftherings.gif
Oh my. All that wrapping seems...rather excessive.
Note to self: NO SHIT, SHERLOCK.
Why am I such an idiot?!
3184196
I found Tom to be one of the better parts of the book. He sets up so much stuff the characters need later in the adventure. Which got cut from the movie and Aragorn filled in for too a small degree.
Thats amusing and damn maybe they where concerned Derpy was going to be delivering it.
LOTR is an amazing story. The hobbit was good, its much more toned down version of LOTR. But it was supposedly written for his son. Who by the way is a horrible writer in my opinion. Ive read the silmarillion and thats a bit harder to get through then LOTR. some of that I think is more because of his son's writing. But otherwise the world building in it is incredible.
I read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings for the first time when I was in third grade; took me the better part of a month and I only understood a quarter of it, but I've been hooked ever since. I think the reason so many people enjoy Tolkien's work is because, no matter how many times you reread it, there's always something new to discover. Whether it's a sentence or a name you missed, or seeing something familiar from a new perspective, no two readthroughs are the same.