The Hobbit
 

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. That's how the book starts.
Forecasting a very boring weekend (my gf left for the whole weekend to visit her family in Maryland, I think), I took a walking trip down to the public library, to check out some books(something I rarely do).
Of course, like most normal human, elven, dwarven, and hobbit creature that walked the earth, saw the movie 'Lord of the Rings', so I thought I might enjoy reading the book(s). However, all the copies of the 'Lord of the Rings' were checked out (wonder why :)), so the librarian lady recommended me this book. The Hobbit. At first I thought it was silly, but I've only read the first chapter, and I can literally barely put it down. The librarian said the author of "Lord of the Rings', wrote this book, and that there is some background info about 'Lord of the Rings' in it. In fact, she said that this was the author's first book. Pretty awesome. I can't wait to spend all night reading it. It's not often that I find a book to keep me up all night. The last book that did however, was "Black Order" by James Rollins, which by the way, was one of the best books I've ever read.
Anyone else a bookworm like me :D ?(I'm only sometimes, not always, like let's say when my gf is out of town, or I go to Europe for vacation :))
Or did anyone else read The Hobbit b4 and enjoyed as much as I do? (If you did, please don't post what happens in the book, hence I want to find out on my own skin :D)

word, i've not read the hobbit...but it's the story of Bilbo Baggins before the whole trilogy. there was talk of making a movie of it...but I don't think it's gonna happen.

That sux.. It would prob make a good movie. Not as popular as Lord of the Rings, but still good one :)

There was an animated movie released in the 70's, my precious.

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Afterwards, you may wish to check out the Silmarillion.
It contains one of the most beautiful Creation Myths I have ever read!

I believe Peter Jackson turned down a proposal to film The Hobbit.
Personally I would like to see this director make a movie of The Pillars of the Earth, an unexpected masterpiece by Ken Follett. Highly recommended!

omg, LOTR books are the most boring books ive every tried to read, its actually put me off watching the movies, thats how bad i think they are

Well I read them all in college in the 70's and they were fine to me back then. I started to read them again after the LOTR movies came out and to be honest, they aren't as good as the first time. They can drag a bit here and there, but they still are a great fantasy series.

I recommend "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" by stephen R. Donaldson as an alternative fantasy series. Definitely a more dynamic group of books. The "hero" is a man who has lots of inner demons that he struggles with and the series has more adult themes throughout. It is not simply a "good" vs. "evil" story as in the LOTR. Lots of conflict in some of the characters, and IMHO, brilliantly written. Those I read twice and loved them both times.... I'd even go back for a third. There are two trilogies, the first starts with "Lord Fouls Bane"....

Sorry for the almost thread-jack, but it is sort of related on the fantasy novel thing....

And it was a musical! My mother bought the soundtrack on LP.

"May the hair on your toes never fall off."

Couple things, One- all copies of that cartoon should be collected and ceremonially burned.

Two - As for LOTR being hard to read, yeah, it is...and it takes some real patience. Perhaps this is a bit much for these forums, but understand that Tolkien was trying to write in an "Epic" style, kind of along the lines of the Illiad and the Odyssey. He was of the opinion that England really has no true epic, so he wanted to write a psuedo-epic to show people what a purely English epic (i.e. untainted by French Mythology) would look like. That's why the book feels so archaic. And Tolkien was a linguist, don't forget, one of the best the world has ever seen, so if anyone could get that "epic" feel correct it would be him.

Conversely, the Hobbit was merely written to be a childrens story, and it is quite easy to read. Truth be told, when it comes to reading Tolkien, the Hobbit is what I prefer. When I want to go over LOTR again, I usually watch the movies...

Beowulf
 

Well, surely ye got Beowulf? Writ in wonderful Old English...
Of course that’s dealing with all good things Scandinavian. ;)

Isn't there a Beowulf movie being released soon? I'll be curious to hear what you think of it.

Once upon a time, I would reread the LOTR trilogy about once a decade. Then quite some time passed, and when trying to read it again, my copies had become unglued in our extremely dry climate. It was difficult finding copies of them, and I had to scour used bookstores. I ended up with a mismatched set finally.

Then the movies came out, and the bookstores were loaded with wonderful new editions. So, now I've a matched set, which if I can still see in another decade, look forward to rereading. :)

First, I read The Hobbit in early childhood - in Russian. I don't remember anything. Then, a bit later, I came across LOTR and read it almost at a stretch... Also translated into Russian. then I grew up and managed to learn English. My knowledge was satisfactory to master LOTR in the original. I was fascinated and crushed. To my mind - this is one of the greatest masterpieces of English literature ever (speaking in terms of Tolkien's imagination, his ability to create new worlds and his knowledge of language structure). Really, he was one of the most prominent linguists! Then I took up The Hobbit in the original and it was some kind of easy-reading (though very entertaining anyway). I still think that LOTR is one of the greatest epics ever written! Greeting from Russia!
P.S.: You know Tolkien's saying? It is something like this: "It is very easy to think out a green sun, you know... To think out a universe, where it will not look absurd - that's what is difficult".

I was more a Chronicles of Narnia guy. The movie was very close to the book. Awaiting the sequel next year.

As for Jackson and The Hobbit Movie...
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,2003...142132,00.html

My girlfriend started reading the book about Narnia (translated). I found it to bee to simplistic... Didn't like. Though film was rather entertaining

It was written for children. So simplistic was the intention. Remember, this was C. S. Lewis. Anything but a simplistic thinker or writer.

Yes, I understand that it was written for kids. That's why I simply can't read it. As well as Harry Potter, for example. i think that the movies are more entertaining. I don't like these series, in fact:o

The depth comes in the analogous narrative. Something still debated today. The representation of Aslan, the White Witch, the Turkish Delight, the warfare, the Altar, etc. Sometimes the most simplistic of stories have great depth and meaning. However, you may be a Tom Clancy or Joel Rosenberg type. Different strokes. ;)

Whch is why my mother introduced me to the series.

I was eager to try Turkish Delight after reading about it. My grandmother always bought tons of candy on trips back to England (she came to the U.S. as a war bride) so I asked if she had some. She didn't think I'd like it.

She was right. Bleah.

I did enjoy all of the books, and now give them as gifts to younger relatives and friends who might enjoy them.

I might pick them up again myself, it's been a while.

Good books transcend age group. I still love to read "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak, obstensibly to my children. It's one of my favorite books.

I agree, "bleah" is right.

I got the hobbit one year for christmas, when I was around 9 years old I think. I read through it and once i got to the part where they were in the caves fighting the orcs and goblins I was hooked. I have read all of Tolkien, and IMO, the Hobbit is a better read because of the ending of the book. I couldn't put the books down either, but I am a stickler for detail, and Tolkien was excellent at writing in every little detail. I mean I like to know everything. For example, every time I see a doctor or a dentist or anyone who gives professional advice about my health or a possession of mine, I always google the hell out of it. Like, I had a bacterial infection not too long ago (see my spider thread) and before I started taking my antibiotics I googled the hell out of them. To find out all the side effects, to see if I could drink a beer on them, to see what other people felt about them, etc. I just got a membership to a shooting range. I want to buy a hand gun, mainly because I enjoy shooting. I don't know what type of gun I want, so I got a membership and am going to go shoot a ton of guns (you can rent them) and find which one suits me. However, there will be lots of reading about the guns before I decide.

Tolkien breaks down everything to the bare essentials. You get to read how the Hobbits live, and how they age, their social behaviors, and even their mating habits. How he describes Gandalf, and how he writes Gandalf in is very interesting. Not to mention, the Hobbit brings up a lot of what middle earth was after Sauron was defeated the first time. There is mention of a black tower, which is never explained further, so it keeps you wondering exactly what that tower was. Now, if you read into it even further and find out what Tolkien really was about you will be more amazed. The man was a genious, and his vocabulary was amazing. He helped write over half of the oxford dictionary a few years (or a good portion of it). He was a professor. He studied old english and celtic languages that are dead. These words he learned from the ancient dead languages can be found in his books. The word Gandalf actually comes from an old dead Norse language, and it litterally translates into a few different words (depending on who is translating) which are: Staff Elf, magical being, or wizard. Now, Gandalf is not human either, he is something else, hence his name even has roots in an old language which gives this away. Plus, in LOTR, he mentions to the King of Helms Deep? (ug can't remember been too long lol!) he comes out and says he has lived a 100 lifetimes as man. So, by some deductive logic here, is your average man lives to be 75 years old, then he is roughly 75 * 100 = 7500 years old. I can't remember the exact number of lifetimes he has lived...

Also, Gandalf's appearance is very similar to some depictions of the Norse God Odin. Odin has been painted and described as an older looking man with long gray hair and a long gray beard and a pointy hat. Except, Odin has an eye patch because he sacrificed one of his eyes to gain the knowledges of mankind. But that is a whole other mythology.

Honestly, I have found a few parallels in literature of epics like this, and epic characters. Tolkien put everything out there in bits and pieces and left it up to the readers to piece everything together. He didn't have a linear story line that explained everything. Some things that happened before the hobbit were explained in conversations in Return of the King. The same thing Marvel Comics did with Wolverine. His whole past is out there, but it is spread across tons of different issues and delivered in many different ways. One way, is when Kitty Pride travels through time and finds Logan fighting in WWI. Of course Logan had no idea that he ever fought in WWI and in WWII also. There was one time where he was in Japan and joined an underground warriors guild, and he was taught by a bushido master the way of the sword. I once stumbled upon a complete time line of wolverine while working help desk a few years ago. this guy has this site that references every comic, and even the page with the dialogue and actually put together Logan's whole life. Marvel always said it was out there, you just had to piece it together.

These types of epic characters are a good way to drive a story, and to make the reader eager to figure everything out about them. I used to watch the firefly series when it was on and then saw the movie, Serenity. They never explained the preacher! That drove me nuts!

anyways, here is the wolverine site. The guy who put this together has too much time on his hands but it is a very interesting read. It has also been said that some Marvel Comics executive actually has a hand written book containing everything about Wolverine's life, and only a few comic writers were every allowed access to it. The people that did Origin were one of them.

http://www.typingmonkeys.com/wolverine.html


...Oh and...

I forgot to mention the book Grendel
which is an awesome take on the story of Grendel's life. Grendel was the Monster that Beowulf slain in the epic tale of Beowulf.

Phew!
 

Tom, I can't recall you writing such a long post!

I'm in awe of your OCD! :)

Thanks for the links about Wolverine. When my kids were little, I had come across a hard bound book (not comic) which was a slice from Logan's life, pre-Wolverine. He was working in East Berlin, as an operative for some Western spy organization, presumably the CIA. It was actually well written.

Wish I could recall the author.

And regarding handguns, does Kansas offer some sort of concealed carry permit? If it does, it's well worth looking into. There's a growing body of evidence that citizen gun ownership has an inverse effect on crime, and especially we're seeing that in states which have some sort of concealed carry permit.

KS and MO both allow concealed carry license. However, I don't think I want to be in that situation. My fascination with guns is entertainment really. Just shooting at non living targets.

You can tell I'm tired. I had mentioned Kansas instead of Missouri.

I'm looking forward to the day when we'll have a readily available projectile weapon as good as a firearm, without the tremendous flash and bang. I know there are devices like this that are being worked on, that use electromagnetism, but I wonder if they'll become widely available in my lifetime.

I also like edged weapons, and have watched with great interest, the choreography behind recent movies such as 300 and LOTR. I generally keep an eye peeled for relevant shows on Discovery or the History channels.

tlarkin, thank you very much for the interesting post!:)