Progress - Book # 16 of 100
I’m a big fan of the Lord of the Rings movies and
subsequently read all three of those books back around 10 years ago. The Hobbit was one that I just never ended up
reading so I’m glad I was finally pushed to read it. We were lucky and got to go to an early
screening so I actually had a hard deadline of 1 week to finish the book. Since the new movie is broken into 3 parts if
all else failed I only needed to get a third read before the week ended, but reading
the whole book in 6 days wasn’t a problem.
It was very easy to read and didn’t drag on and on like other books
have. I felt like the book was a quick
overview of a short story. I didn’t feel
like Tolkein went into too much detail. I like that the author also addressed
the reader, I always think it’s funny when they use that type of writing
style. It’s like they want to remind you
that you’re reading a book.
The story is of a Hobbit named Bilbo who is picked by the
wizard Gandalf to go on a treasure adventure with a bunch of dwarfs. Bilbo is a Hobbit and has a natural tendency
to avoid adventures at all costs, but he does go along for the journey and ends
up playing a very crucial role in multiple settings. Without him the dwarfs probably wouldn’t get
to their destination. Along the way
Bilbo discovers his own strengths and is happy to be a part of their team.
On a side note, I like to read fast. I can sit down for a few hours and really get
through a bunch of pages. It’s great for
books that are easy to read and allow for fast reading. I thought this book would allow for that and
it mostly did- but “spoiler alert” I missed one of my most anticipated moments
of the book. I completely read over
Bilbo’s finding of the magic ring. It’s
mentioned in one sentence in a very casual way and then the scene moves
on. A few pages later when we are
brought back to the ring, I was thinking where did he find it? Daniel had to help me find the place and I
couldn’t believe I just passed it by without seeing it. It’s such a big part of the Lord of the Rings
that I expected it would be a big scene, not just one short sentence. Tolkein does have a big scene with Bilbo and
Gollum and the riddles are great, but the discovery of the ring just wasn’t
what I expected. The same thing happened
later. During a big scene something is
quickly taken care of and I thought did I just read that? I thought it would be a whole big battle-
wasn’t the whole second book The Two Towers all about battles? It just seemed funny that big epic scenes
went by really fast in the book.
Overall I enjoyed the book, it was short, only 300 pages and
it was nice to be back in Middle Earth.
As for the movie I enjoyed that too, just wish we didn’t have to wait so
long before part 2. Reading the book
days before seeing the movie was good and let me know what to expect. Peter Jackson did change a few things around,
added more of the history and more characters.
I recommend the book and the movie to anyone- unless you aren’t a Lord
of the Rings fan.
The book will get an- A 95%
No comments:
Post a Comment