Thanks for sharing James. Like others that have commented I received copy of the The Lord of the Rings when I was 16 (1974) from my father for a Christmas present. The hardback set was one of his favorites and the first hardback book (with fold out maps) I ever owned. I too fell I love with the story and soon bought a copy of the Hobbit which I also thoroughly enjoyed. So when the Silmarillian came out a few years later I grabbed a copy as soon as I could. Sadly I didn’t find it was easy to read/enjoy. It wasn’t until this year when I wanted to better understand the background to the Rings of Power that I tried again to read it. This time I took the time to slowly savor the Silmarillion which is ironic as the Rings of Power doesn’t even have writes for the book. After the Silmarillion I found that I wanted to better understand the early ages of Middle Earth and The Fall of Numenor was the perfect next book to help fill in some gaps in my knowledge. Since then I have been slowly adding other books like The Children of Huren, Unfinished Tales, The Fall of Gondolin , and the Maps of Middle Earth to my collection. It’s not quite as extensive as yours James….but I’m working on it!
Despite being born in 1998, I had almost no connection to Tolkien's works in and capacity until a few months before Amazon released "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power." I didn't even know that the "one does not simply" meme came from a LOTR movie. When the Amazon show was coming out, I decided to watch the movies to prepare for the show. I ended up getting interested in the Legendarium, and I ultimately ended up reading The Hobbit, LOTR, and the Silmarillion between December 2022 and April 2023. I am now an avid Tolkien fan and have read several of his other books. Your videos have helped me understand the different editions of the books that are available and given me a greater understanding of The Professor and his world!
I fell into Tolkien through the love, as a boy, for history, languages and the cultural basis of thought proces. I was at first only interested in his language creation, but am happy to have let myself be persuaded into reading his more popular works as a young man, right before the films came out. As lovers of all things Tolkien we live in very plentiful times. The discovery this year of the delightful audiobook version of the extended Letters read by Samuel West gave me so much joy and such an intimate window into Tolkien the person and (sub-) creator! It got me to go back to his The Fall of Arthur, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon and, yes, also The Lord of the Rings, now in Andy Serkis audio version which is becoming THE way to enjoy this work. The best of two worlds really, the complete unabridged works masterfully acted out by the best voice actor out there. Thank you for sharing your passion!
Great story. I picked up The Hobbit at about 10, I think (long time ago anyway) in around 1967, LotR followed. The superb BBC radio series (listen if you haven't heard it) in the early 80s cemented a vision of Middle Earth that had come through those books, my first failed attempt to read The Silmarillion and a successful attempt a few years later, followed by many, many since. I was one of those who thought LotR could never be filmed, having watched the appalling Ralph Bakshi animation (ugh!). However I was definitely hyped for the Jackson Fellowship after seeing some trailers and I loved it. Saw it on release day, packed out. I still read Silmarillion, Hobbit, LotR every 18 months but my shelves are full of other Tolkien - there's not enough time to read it all! I dip into the Histories regularly but apart from all those books there are books like Tolkien's translation of Beowulf and his reimagination of Kullervo (which, as a Sibelius fan, has a special place for me). One of the newspaper reviews many years ago, said (IIRC) something along the lines of "How, given little over half a century, did one man become the creative equivalent of a people?". I don't think anyone can fully answer that question even today.
Kinda similar, that after watching the LOTR films, I immediately picked up the Silmarillion instead of the LOTR books. Because I was more intrigued of the world than the characters. I want to know more about Balrogs, Sauron etc. What are they. So I absolutely love reading the Silmarillion the first time. And it's actually the first fantasy book that I've read, and I'm an avid fantasy reader ever since, though I'm disappointed that it all went downhill from there 😆
I very much enjoyed watching this video of your journey discovering Tolkien; I'm fascinated learning how people come to love the literature that they love. My own discovery of Tolkien came long before Peter Jackson's films. For me it was 1977, and the announcement was made that there was going to be an animated film of The Hobbit. My dad, who had read Tolkien years earlier, was very excited to introduce me to The Hobbit and he bought that book for me. (At the age of nine then, I thought the word, "Hobbit," was hilarious and envisioned a rabbit.) As it turns out, I didn't care for that 1977 film, but I loved the book. Several years later I was ready to read Lord of the Rings, and I return to reading it about every other year. I'm curious: in your video you mention originally having to be dragged by your family to the theatre to see Fellowship of the Ring. Had any of your family read Tolkien prior to those Peter Jackson films?
Thank you for sharing your story with us. After all, your videos/channel served for me as the ultimate reference point when I began to seriously collect the Tolkien books 🙂 I remember back in 1995 (I might have mistaken by a year in either direction) a friend of mine was very enthusiastic about "The Hobbit", and my then-wife decided to read it (we all had it in our home libraries). Then she told me how great it was, and so I read it too. Soon after that we learned there was a continuation... We read it all in Russian translation. "The Hobbit" was duly translated, and the new set of "The Lord of the Rings" books (with the most common and popular translation) was soon purchased and read. I then learned about "The Silmarillion", and found a copy and began to read it... I read it through, but the translation was terrible. I understood nothing. After that I found online a... sorry... parody book. I read that out of curiosity. Surprisingly, the stories told were now so clear to me that I decided to read another translation of "The Silmarillion". Another disaster that translation was, so I gave up. It's with the rise of the Peter Jackson's trilogy that I decided to give the books another go, however I re-read the same books. I found out then that "The History of Middle-earth" existed in 12 volumes, and was desperate to find it. Still, I kept researching and seeking for more information about the available translations of the Tolkien books. I found online and read thorough researches of the available translations and found the best set of both "The Hobbit" (by Maria Kamenkovich and Vladimir Stepanov) and "The Lord of the Rings" (by Maria Kamenkovich and Valery Carrick). The translations are closest to the original as possible: no omissions and cutouts, no retelling instead of translations, no regional localizations (they even didn't change the 'Baggins' surname, even though JRRT suggested doing that to provide some resemblance with a bag), and they provided full (and correct) translations of the Appendixes. Now, when the 2020 illustrated set was released, I spotted the books with the same design in our shop (I live in Armenia, but our book shops keep distributing the popular printed books in Russian as well). However, seeing that that very "most common and popular translation" was used for that set, I decided not to buy it and... That was the point when I said to myself: "If I want to buy a new set of those illustrated Tolkien books, why shouldn't I buy the originals?" That's how it all started. The collecting, I mean 🙂 The collection was growing very quickly thanks to the online shops and eBay. Reading Tolkien in the original language is a wonderful experience. I re-read the four books, and also "The Silmarillion", which I finally felt and found so beautiful. Now I am reading a series of other books, but one day I will get back to the rest of the Tolkien legacy.
Never heard of Tolkien until once at a friend's house I saw a paperback book, "Bored Of the Rings" on the bookshelf in his brother's room. He let me borrow it so I took the book home, read it and didn't get hardly any of the jokes, to really understand the satire in "Bored" you need to be familiar with the real novel. Tommy, you tricked me into reading LOTR didn't you. Well, I have you to thank for introducing me to the wonderful world of Tolkien these 50 years and still going strong.
@@brewingbooks Yes, and that was about '77 too, I had just finished the Trilogy great timing to catch the 1st edition of The Silmarillon when that book came out.
For it was walking out of a toy store with my two year old son and seeing a display of DVDs for the Fellowship by the checkout. I thought, ‘oh didn’t these win a bunch of awards? Must be good. Maybe I should give it a go!’ In hindsight very much like Bilbo’s, ‘Why shouldn’t I keep it?!’ Absolutely blew my mind. I quickly bought the books and power read my way through them. ‘Oh no way, Gandalf is back?!’ I remember particularly well, sitting outside our holiday campervan one autumn evening. I could never get into the Silmarillion until recently but now sit here with Tolkien’s Deluxe Slipcase Legendarium. Also thinking of how I can add more shelving to collect different versions.
Living in Ireland with its history, mythology, castles and ancient sites going right back to Neolithic times… Tolkien’s world really appealed to me. Yes, the LoTR is a fantastic story BUT there are glimpses of a much older world and from the get go I wanted to know more. Even now reading HoME, I feel I’m more studying history than reading fiction. I look forward to rereading LoTR knowing sooo much more backstory.
Oh and thank you James for a great video. As you say, listening to your experience, really made me think about my own Tolkien journey. I still have a long way to go and the verse’s of ‘The roads go ever on’ spring to mind.
Like you, the film introduced me to the series. But in-between the first two films, I read all the books. I enjoyed the next two films, but not enough to buy them on DVD, as I was a bit annoyed by them since they didn't live up to the books, which were fresh in my mind. I'm more understanding and forgiving, of the reason behind the changes now.
i never watched the movies when i was a kid, for i wanted to wait until i was ready to read the books first. and wait i did while everyone was already talking about the films and it all seemed so fun. then, when i was 12-13 i picked up the hobbit and love it. i finished it around the time the hobbit films were coming out. then, i read lotr and watched the movies as i finished each book. it took me a couple watches to learn to love the movies but i love them SO MUCH now. afterwards, i tried to get into some of tolkien other works but i just couldnt, until a couple years ago, when i picked up the silmarillion again and actually managed to get through it. and it's all been downhill from there
I first watched the Lord of the Rings for English Class in High School. All the English classes gathered in the auditorium to watch it, but it was only an abridged version, so we never got to see the ending. Fortunately the Return of the King came on TV one day and I watched it then and loved it. But I never read the books until just over a year ago, even though I had the Hobbit for years. Anyways, I finally read the Hobbit & Lord of the Rings and loved both. I just finished reading the Silmarillion this past weekend and it was excellent. I’ve also read the Child of Hurin and loved it and I have the other two separate Silmarillion books as well as the Unfinished tales, the letters of JRR Tolkien, Beowulf, and a book on the Inklings. I haven’t finished all of them, but they add to my bookshelf. Peace ✌🏻
When I was 11 or 12 I watched the lord of the rings movies, and I found it amazing. A few years later I started collecting the basic tolkien books. And now I have a wonderful collection. This summer I have read the Silmarillion for the first time and it was amazing. So keep reading and collecting Tolkien books!
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is something of a "family heirloom" that I inherited from my father. I had a thing that was precious to me, and so there was a family joke about my precious, and how that connected to a character from a book. Then I was taken to see the animated Hobbit film, and shown the hardcover edition my father had, illustrated by Tolkien. I got halfway through it, and thought it was great, yet I was overwhelmed. A few years later, family and family friends were watching the animated LotR during Thanksgiving, but we had to turn it off to eat the dinner. I recognized the characters of Bilbo and Gollum, and was glum about leaving it, but again my dad promised he would show me something when we got home. He showed me again The Hobbit, and next to it the hardcover box set of TLotR. I made two unsuccessful attempts to read it, and on the third try after nearly stopping again (all three times I got stuck somewhere in the early parts of The Fellowship of the Ring) I was able to persevere. 10-15 years later, the Peter Jackson films came out, and before it arrived I read through The Silmarillion for the first time, then read through The Hobbit all the way for the first time, and finished up with my second reading of TLotR. That was a satisfying marathon read. The new Rings of Power series got me looking at The Silmarillion all over again, and I transitioned from a cheap paperback to a nice illustrated edition. I figured out a new way to read through The Silmarillion, more slowly and deliberately, and I branched out to The Children of Hurin, Of the Coming of Tuor to Gondolin, and other works to suppliment The Silmarillion narrative. Since the end of The Rings of Power's first season, Tolkien has been a steady part of the rotation of my reading. I love how adaptations of Tolkien's works bring new fans to his actual writing, and renews my own curiosity to try again, revisit, and delve deeper into the lore. My dad had a hardcover copy of The Silmarillion, but I don't think he was ever able to get into it. I was able to cheer him up during a hospital stay (he's ok, now out of the hospital) by playing storyteller and telling him a story of Feanor and the history of the Elves, and connecting it to Galadriel and Gimli's meeting in Lothlorien thousands of years later. I was able to give back to my father, from the heirloom he passed on to me.
The LOTR films have legions of fans, but for me they are a pale imitation of the books. So much has had to be stripped away to fit the 3 movie format, with Fellowship suffering the most. Whilst the movies are memorable for battles and landscapes (and I can’t read it without seeing Ian McKellan as Gandalf) they don’t come close to the experience of the books. Of course movies are a different medium, but they need to do justice to the original books, or work in their own right. For me they are like a fast food version of the books - they fill a gap if you are in a bored, but are ultimately underwhelming.
The depth and complexity of the books is breathtaking. Almost every word of the books was artfully and skillfully placed like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle. I love the way Tolkien described the sun rising and setting each day, the moon phases and colours of the sunrise and sunset, the wind and the terrain and the plant life.
My 11 year old boy loved the Hobbit when he read it when he was around 9. He is a pretty mature reader, so when he showed interest in reading the LOTR back a couple of months ago, I told him that I would buy him a set and we would read it at the same time. I also told him about the movies. That made him really excited. I told him we would watch the movies together once he finished all 3 books. He read all three books over the summer and we just watched the fellowship last weekend. This coming weekend we are planning to watch the two towers. Now I just have to figure out what books he should read next.
Thanks for sharing James. Like others that have commented I received copy of the The Lord of the Rings when I was 16 (1974) from my father for a Christmas present. The hardback set was one of his favorites and the first hardback book (with fold out maps) I ever owned. I too fell I love with the story and soon bought a copy of the Hobbit which I also thoroughly enjoyed. So when the Silmarillian came out a few years later I grabbed a copy as soon as I could. Sadly I didn’t find it was easy to read/enjoy. It wasn’t until this year when I wanted to better understand the background to the Rings of Power that I tried again to read it. This time I took the time to slowly savor the Silmarillion which is ironic as the Rings of Power doesn’t even have writes for the book. After the Silmarillion I found that I wanted to better understand the early ages of Middle Earth and The Fall of Numenor was the perfect next book to help fill in some gaps in my knowledge. Since then I have been slowly adding other books like The Children of Huren, Unfinished Tales, The Fall of Gondolin , and the Maps of Middle Earth to my collection. It’s not quite as extensive as yours James….but I’m working on it!
Thank you so much for sharing 😃
Despite being born in 1998, I had almost no connection to Tolkien's works in and capacity until a few months before Amazon released "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power." I didn't even know that the "one does not simply" meme came from a LOTR movie. When the Amazon show was coming out, I decided to watch the movies to prepare for the show. I ended up getting interested in the Legendarium, and I ultimately ended up reading The Hobbit, LOTR, and the Silmarillion between December 2022 and April 2023. I am now an avid Tolkien fan and have read several of his other books.
Your videos have helped me understand the different editions of the books that are available and given me a greater understanding of The Professor and his world!
I appreciate the story of your journey. Thanks for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you 😁
I fell into Tolkien through the love, as a boy, for history, languages and the cultural basis of thought proces. I was at first only interested in his language creation, but am happy to have let myself be persuaded into reading his more popular works as a young man, right before the films came out.
As lovers of all things Tolkien we live in very plentiful times. The discovery this year of the delightful audiobook version of the extended Letters read by Samuel West gave me so much joy and such an intimate window into Tolkien the person and (sub-) creator! It got me to go back to his The Fall of Arthur, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon and, yes, also The Lord of the Rings, now in Andy Serkis audio version which is becoming THE way to enjoy this work. The best of two worlds really, the complete unabridged works masterfully acted out by the best voice actor out there.
Thank you for sharing your passion!
I enjoyed hearing your experience. I read the wonderful books in 1978. At that time Dungeons and Dragons was becoming a very popular game also. 👋🏻
Great story.
I picked up The Hobbit at about 10, I think (long time ago anyway) in around 1967, LotR followed.
The superb BBC radio series (listen if you haven't heard it) in the early 80s cemented a vision of Middle Earth that had come through those books, my first failed attempt to read The Silmarillion and a successful attempt a few years later, followed by many, many since.
I was one of those who thought LotR could never be filmed, having watched the appalling Ralph Bakshi animation (ugh!).
However I was definitely hyped for the Jackson Fellowship after seeing some trailers and I loved it. Saw it on release day, packed out.
I still read Silmarillion, Hobbit, LotR every 18 months but my shelves are full of other Tolkien - there's not enough time to read it all!
I dip into the Histories regularly but apart from all those books there are books like Tolkien's translation of Beowulf and his reimagination of Kullervo (which, as a Sibelius fan, has a special place for me).
One of the newspaper reviews many years ago, said (IIRC) something along the lines of "How, given little over half a century, did one man become the creative equivalent of a people?".
I don't think anyone can fully answer that question even today.
Kinda similar, that after watching the LOTR films, I immediately picked up the Silmarillion instead of the LOTR books. Because I was more intrigued of the world than the characters. I want to know more about Balrogs, Sauron etc. What are they. So I absolutely love reading the Silmarillion the first time. And it's actually the first fantasy book that I've read, and I'm an avid fantasy reader ever since, though I'm disappointed that it all went downhill from there 😆
I very much enjoyed watching this video of your journey discovering Tolkien; I'm fascinated learning how people come to love the literature that they love. My own discovery of Tolkien came long before Peter Jackson's films. For me it was 1977, and the announcement was made that there was going to be an animated film of The Hobbit. My dad, who had read Tolkien years earlier, was very excited to introduce me to The Hobbit and he bought that book for me. (At the age of nine then, I thought the word, "Hobbit," was hilarious and envisioned a rabbit.) As it turns out, I didn't care for that 1977 film, but I loved the book. Several years later I was ready to read Lord of the Rings, and I return to reading it about every other year.
I'm curious: in your video you mention originally having to be dragged by your family to the theatre to see Fellowship of the Ring. Had any of your family read Tolkien prior to those Peter Jackson films?
Thank you for sharing your story with us. After all, your videos/channel served for me as the ultimate reference point when I began to seriously collect the Tolkien books 🙂
I remember back in 1995 (I might have mistaken by a year in either direction) a friend of mine was very enthusiastic about "The Hobbit", and my then-wife decided to read it (we all had it in our home libraries). Then she told me how great it was, and so I read it too. Soon after that we learned there was a continuation... We read it all in Russian translation. "The Hobbit" was duly translated, and the new set of "The Lord of the Rings" books (with the most common and popular translation) was soon purchased and read.
I then learned about "The Silmarillion", and found a copy and began to read it... I read it through, but the translation was terrible. I understood nothing. After that I found online a... sorry... parody book. I read that out of curiosity. Surprisingly, the stories told were now so clear to me that I decided to read another translation of "The Silmarillion". Another disaster that translation was, so I gave up.
It's with the rise of the Peter Jackson's trilogy that I decided to give the books another go, however I re-read the same books. I found out then that "The History of Middle-earth" existed in 12 volumes, and was desperate to find it. Still, I kept researching and seeking for more information about the available translations of the Tolkien books. I found online and read thorough researches of the available translations and found the best set of both "The Hobbit" (by Maria Kamenkovich and Vladimir Stepanov) and "The Lord of the Rings" (by Maria Kamenkovich and Valery Carrick). The translations are closest to the original as possible: no omissions and cutouts, no retelling instead of translations, no regional localizations (they even didn't change the 'Baggins' surname, even though JRRT suggested doing that to provide some resemblance with a bag), and they provided full (and correct) translations of the Appendixes.
Now, when the 2020 illustrated set was released, I spotted the books with the same design in our shop (I live in Armenia, but our book shops keep distributing the popular printed books in Russian as well). However, seeing that that very "most common and popular translation" was used for that set, I decided not to buy it and... That was the point when I said to myself: "If I want to buy a new set of those illustrated Tolkien books, why shouldn't I buy the originals?" That's how it all started. The collecting, I mean 🙂
The collection was growing very quickly thanks to the online shops and eBay. Reading Tolkien in the original language is a wonderful experience. I re-read the four books, and also "The Silmarillion", which I finally felt and found so beautiful. Now I am reading a series of other books, but one day I will get back to the rest of the Tolkien legacy.
Never heard of Tolkien until once at a friend's house I saw a paperback book, "Bored Of the Rings" on the bookshelf in his brother's room. He let me borrow it so I took the book home, read it and didn't get hardly any of the jokes, to really understand the satire in "Bored" you need to be familiar with the real novel.
Tommy, you tricked me into reading LOTR didn't you. Well, I have you to thank for introducing me to the wonderful world of Tolkien these 50 years and still going strong.
How wonderful! All thanks to Bored of the Rings ironically 😅
@@brewingbooks Yes, and that was about '77 too, I had just finished the Trilogy great timing to catch the 1st edition of The Silmarillon when that book came out.
Hello, is there any podcast about Tolkien’s work that you would recommend / that you very enjoy? Thank you!
For it was walking out of a toy store with my two year old son and seeing a display of DVDs for the Fellowship by the checkout.
I thought, ‘oh didn’t these win a bunch of awards? Must be good. Maybe I should give it a go!’
In hindsight very much like Bilbo’s, ‘Why shouldn’t I keep it?!’
Absolutely blew my mind. I quickly bought the books and power read my way through them.
‘Oh no way, Gandalf is back?!’ I remember particularly well, sitting outside our holiday campervan one autumn evening.
I could never get into the Silmarillion until recently but now sit here with Tolkien’s Deluxe Slipcase Legendarium. Also thinking of how I can add more shelving to collect different versions.
Living in Ireland with its history, mythology, castles and ancient sites going right back to Neolithic times… Tolkien’s world really appealed to me. Yes, the LoTR is a fantastic story BUT there are glimpses of a much older world and from the get go I wanted to know more. Even now reading HoME, I feel I’m more studying history than reading fiction. I look forward to rereading LoTR knowing sooo much more backstory.
Oh and thank you James for a great video.
As you say, listening to your experience, really made me think about my own Tolkien journey.
I still have a long way to go and the verse’s of ‘The roads go ever on’ spring to mind.
Like you, the film introduced me to the series. But in-between the first two films, I read all the books.
I enjoyed the next two films, but not enough to buy them on DVD, as I was a bit annoyed by them since they didn't live up to the books, which were fresh in my mind.
I'm more understanding and forgiving, of the reason behind the changes now.
i never watched the movies when i was a kid, for i wanted to wait until i was ready to read the books first. and wait i did while everyone was already talking about the films and it all seemed so fun. then, when i was 12-13 i picked up the hobbit and love it. i finished it around the time the hobbit films were coming out. then, i read lotr and watched the movies as i finished each book. it took me a couple watches to learn to love the movies but i love them SO MUCH now. afterwards, i tried to get into some of tolkien other works but i just couldnt, until a couple years ago, when i picked up the silmarillion again and actually managed to get through it. and it's all been downhill from there
I first watched the Lord of the Rings for English Class in High School. All the English classes gathered in the auditorium to watch it, but it was only an abridged version, so we never got to see the ending. Fortunately the Return of the King came on TV one day and I watched it then and loved it. But I never read the books until just over a year ago, even though I had the Hobbit for years. Anyways, I finally read the Hobbit & Lord of the Rings and loved both. I just finished reading the Silmarillion this past weekend and it was excellent. I’ve also read the Child of Hurin and loved it and I have the other two separate Silmarillion books as well as the Unfinished tales, the letters of JRR Tolkien, Beowulf, and a book on the Inklings. I haven’t finished all of them, but they add to my bookshelf. Peace ✌🏻
When I was 11 or 12 I watched the lord of the rings movies, and I found it amazing. A few years later I started collecting the basic tolkien books. And now I have a wonderful collection. This summer I have read the Silmarillion for the first time and it was amazing. So keep reading and collecting Tolkien books!
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is something of a "family heirloom" that I inherited from my father. I had a thing that was precious to me, and so there was a family joke about my precious, and how that connected to a character from a book. Then I was taken to see the animated Hobbit film, and shown the hardcover edition my father had, illustrated by Tolkien. I got halfway through it, and thought it was great, yet I was overwhelmed.
A few years later, family and family friends were watching the animated LotR during Thanksgiving, but we had to turn it off to eat the dinner. I recognized the characters of Bilbo and Gollum, and was glum about leaving it, but again my dad promised he would show me something when we got home. He showed me again The Hobbit, and next to it the hardcover box set of TLotR. I made two unsuccessful attempts to read it, and on the third try after nearly stopping again (all three times I got stuck somewhere in the early parts of The Fellowship of the Ring) I was able to persevere.
10-15 years later, the Peter Jackson films came out, and before it arrived I read through The Silmarillion for the first time, then read through The Hobbit all the way for the first time, and finished up with my second reading of TLotR. That was a satisfying marathon read.
The new Rings of Power series got me looking at The Silmarillion all over again, and I transitioned from a cheap paperback to a nice illustrated edition. I figured out a new way to read through The Silmarillion, more slowly and deliberately, and I branched out to The Children of Hurin, Of the Coming of Tuor to Gondolin, and other works to suppliment The Silmarillion narrative.
Since the end of The Rings of Power's first season, Tolkien has been a steady part of the rotation of my reading. I love how adaptations of Tolkien's works bring new fans to his actual writing, and renews my own curiosity to try again, revisit, and delve deeper into the lore.
My dad had a hardcover copy of The Silmarillion, but I don't think he was ever able to get into it. I was able to cheer him up during a hospital stay (he's ok, now out of the hospital) by playing storyteller and telling him a story of Feanor and the history of the Elves, and connecting it to Galadriel and Gimli's meeting in Lothlorien thousands of years later. I was able to give back to my father, from the heirloom he passed on to me.
The LOTR films have legions of fans, but for me they are a pale imitation of the books. So much has had to be stripped away to fit the 3 movie format, with Fellowship suffering the most. Whilst the movies are memorable for battles and landscapes (and I can’t read it without seeing Ian McKellan as Gandalf) they don’t come close to the experience of the books. Of course movies are a different medium, but they need to do justice to the original books, or work in their own right. For me they are like a fast food version of the books - they fill a gap if you are in a bored, but are ultimately underwhelming.
The depth and complexity of the books is breathtaking. Almost every word of the books was artfully and skillfully placed like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle. I love the way Tolkien described the sun rising and setting each day, the moon phases and colours of the sunrise and sunset, the wind and the terrain and the plant life.
My 11 year old boy loved the Hobbit when he read it when he was around 9. He is a pretty mature reader, so when he showed interest in reading the LOTR back a couple of months ago, I told him that I would buy him a set and we would read it at the same time. I also told him about the movies. That made him really excited. I told him we would watch the movies together once he finished all 3 books. He read all three books over the summer and we just watched the fellowship last weekend. This coming weekend we are planning to watch the two towers.
Now I just have to figure out what books he should read next.
I discovered Lord of the Rings in 1973! 16 years before your were born and longer than you have been reading Tolkien! Welcome to the club.
16 years
@@redmo11 Indeed. Great to see young people discovering Tolkien! Keep spreading the word about how wonderful these books are.