Well. not positive as far as where 120 pages puts you in the story, but you have to get past "Rivendell" before it really picks up. A truly wonderful tale!!!!
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Thanks Bill, I feel better now. Haven't gotten to Rivendell yet...just left Tom Bombadil's house. I won't give up on it.
In fairness. It's overall a marvelous story, but there are parts that sorta drag.
Yes, do continue!
It's all rather Hobbit light until Rivendell. Complete the story and then you will know if it was worthwhile.
Tom Bombidil is an enigma in the story,the council of Elrond is probably one of my favourite chapters ever. It opens up the whole story.
In all fairness i was young the first time i read it which may have had something to do with my feelings about that book. However you are correct, It is a crucial book and set up the rest of the trilogy amazingly. VERY well written and like i said, neccesary. :)
I always assumed that the pacing of the book was deliberate, as in the start was slow to show off the lazy relaxed lifestyle the Hobbits lived, as opposed toSpoiler:
On a side note, what did people think of 'The Council Of Elrond'?
All the information was almost an overload for my brain but I absolutely adored that chapter. Your view of Middle Earth just expanded at an instant. You realised that this wasn't just a hobbit problem but something that would effect everybody.
Can you tell I love Tolkien?:lol1: 05-27-2012 08:10 PMsgc1999It left a pretty bleak feeling in the pit of my stomach at the time. 05-27-2012 09:21 PMTCCBodhiFor your enjoyment, these are my copies, maybe less rare but I'd say no less loved. These are paperback Ballentine editions of my parents that I have from the mid 70s that I remember as a child of 6 or 7, really reading first as a 6th grader (and not understanding much of), and are still my reading copies read every few years (although I treat them quite a bit more carefully now.
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg826...pg&res=landing
Here in The Hobbit (assuming that I got these URLs in the right order), I tried to get a futile family tree to try to keep the names straight. For some reason, I kept merging Bilbo & Frodo into the same hobbit, not understanding this was a prologue of essentially a different cast of characters.
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg805...pg&res=landing
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg94/...pg&res=landing
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg404...pg&res=landing 05-27-2012 11:24 PMPatrickI edited your post to show the photos rather than just links. Hope you don't mind.
Those books remind me of the set I first read as a kid in the '70's as well. THE HOBBIT was great, but reading TLOTR series was a long haul for my developing attention span. 05-27-2012 11:52 PMMerlin1958 05-27-2012 11:59 PMPatrickYou read a full TLOR book each day for three days in a row?! That's crazy, Bill! 05-28-2012 12:08 AMMerlin1958Well, as I said I was "Laid up", but after Fellowship I was under the covers with a flashlight!!!! Plus there was no cable at the time. "Star Trek", "Twilight Zone" and "Outer Limits" were about it for me mostly. This was like '74-'75. Also, there was no "TV" like the one in your mind. Remember that???? I read a LOT of books by flashlight in those days!!!! I could literally devour them!!!! LOTR was almost like that "Where were you when Kennedy was Shot"? thing. You just have to remember the first time you read LOTR. right? AWESOME book!!!!! I read "The Hobbit" and Silmarillion" after. 05-28-2012 06:53 AMTCCBodhi 05-28-2012 12:23 PMjhanicThose Ballentine editions came out at the same time as a set of Ace editions (which were unauthorized). I ended up buying the Ace editions anyway, because the Ballentine editions were $.95 while the Ace ones were $.75. Back then, it really made a difference. I just wish I still had them (they were destroyed when my basement flooded.)
John 05-28-2012 04:06 PMBriceDid you lose a lot of books when it flooded? 05-28-2012 05:08 PMjhanicBetween 20,000 and 30,000 books, paperbacks, magazines, etc. I'd been collecting for more than 40 years. I donated most of what was left to charities.
John 05-28-2012 05:25 PMBriceOh my god! :cry: I know it must have been devastating. 05-28-2012 05:32 PMjhanicLuckily, I had some of the most valuable items upstairs--an almost complete set of Weird Tales (1923-1954), most of my Stephen King items and some other stuff. It just about broke my heart, though.
John 05-28-2012 05:48 PMBriceNo doubt! It makes me sick just to think about it. 05-28-2012 10:26 PMPatrick 05-29-2012 03:04 AMnoalWow, that's some serious bad luck, sorry for your loss.
I had a lot of things stolen from me and I kind of lost heart with beginning again as I just didn't have the energy or the money to start from scratch. I just had to let go...:cry: 05-29-2012 03:09 AMnoal