I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed.
The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This book can be found on the Observer, BBC, and My Book Lists.
Following The Hobbit, I dove headfirst into the tome that was The Lord of the Rings. Although it is often listed as a trilogy of books, my book list treats it as a singular novel, and really that was what it was meant to be. Looking at the detail that Tolkien puts into this world, it is absolutely incredible. For a book that took ten years to write, you can tell. The story is so in depth and the languages that were created so complete that you can almost feel like this is an actual world. Word of advice, I recommend that you read it like I did. Read The Hobbit first, then expand into this book because The Hobbit flows into this book. Also, watching the movies after reading these books gave me so much more insight that upon first viewing I missed. The characterization in these novels is some of the best I have ever read. I love stories that tie back into a whole wider universe. This novel alone had urged me on to explore all of the Tolkien stories tied together, from The Silmarillion to the Lost Stories. If you don't like fantasy novels this might not be for you, but it is dead center of my alley. Overall, the book is fantastic, you just need to read it to appreciate it. Definitely on my must read list.
I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed.
The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. This book can be found on the BBC Book List.
Since books are notoriously better than their movie counterparts, I wanted to wait until all of the Lord of the Rings films finished up in theaters before starting this series. The third movie was released in December of 2003 and so I could get started on the books at any time. I also like to read books in the order that they were meant to be read, so that meant starting off this series with The Hobbit. Overall, I felt that this was a fantastic book, however it definitely was not as intricate as The Lord of the Rings. The one thing it does do fantastically though is it sets up the events of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows a hobbit names Bilbo Baggins, while he goes off on some adventures with the wizard Gandolf. It definitely feels like a kiddie version of the Lord of the Rings movie/book though and so may be a good stepping stone getting into the series, but for those already accustomed to the movies, this may end up not being what they expect.
