does /lit/ like the hobbit and lotr?
>>7530639
mum read them to me as a young boy. Made for a pretty good childhood involving home-made swords and invisible dragons. Haven't read them in about a decade
>>7530714
you're mum was a good mum
as a children/teenage novel you can't go wrong with it. Reading it for relevance/fun is fine too.
Anyone that loves it as an adult, read it as a kid.
I've never met anyone that first read it as an adult, and enjoyed it.
The Hobbit is bearable, LoTR is horrific. I had to become a heavy drug user to get through the Tom Bombadil shit.
>>7530639
Reading it in 4th grade made it one of my favorites
>>7530639
It's not very well written compared to what I would normally read instead, but Tolkien's work is very unique and, although many people have tried to imitate him, they have all failed to make anything as immersive, consistent, or even as realistic. I love his books, and believe them to be works of genuine art, but they are not good literature in the way Shakespeare or Joyce is.
>>7530764
sick humblebrag m8
>>7530843
>they are not good literature in the way Shakespeare or Joyce is
well no shit I dont think anyone reads these books and expect fucking shakespeare
>>7530714
Same!!!!! Took her months to get through it, we were pretty roudy
Wonderful fairy-tale. I read it pretty often to enjoy the prose and sense of adventure.
It's also has one of my favorite book openings.
>>7530860
There are people who seriously believe Tolkien is better than Shakespeare, and this board has some very stupid people on it.
>>7530762
As an adult reading the Hobbit, Lotr, Hurin;s and pretty much all of Tolkien's stuff, I can say I enjoyed them all. HOWEVER, I don't think I could read them again without starting to hate them. So I chose to remember them as the comfy books they were when I read them.
Gives me the same feelings as I do towards my old Nokia mobiles, still love it but I'll never use it again.
I read the Hobbit and Lotr as a teenager and loved them. Later I read Silmarillion and Children of Hurin as an adult. Tolkien's universe and worldbuilding is what I like the most since some parts of Lotr can get a bit boring and I think I wouldn't enjoy the books as much if I re-read them now. But I definitely enjoyed both Silmarillion and Children of Hurin. Finding out more about this bygone era that is referenced throughout Lotr was exciting and made me appreciate the universe a lot more.
>>7530976
>not still using bricks
That battery life does not fuck around.
>>7530639
Comfy medium high tier books.
Good atmosphere
>>7530736
>>7530714
>>7530861
One of the best things a parent can do for their children is read to them.
You will be a complete failure if you all do not read to your kids.
The only people that I remember saying they read with their parents growing up are actually successful. The ones (re: majority) who didn't just think they are successful.
Blunt the knives and bend the forks!
Smash the bottles and burn the corks!
Chip the glasses and crack the plates!
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates
>>7531083
best memories from being a wee lad are my mum reading the narnia series to me. i can't wait to read to my own kids some day.
>>7531692
Luv that movie
>>7531793
Me too. Unfortunately she had decided the sixth would be too scary for me.
>>7531083
My mother read the Fellowship and Two Towers speaking aloud while she was pregnant with me.
She read aloud a lot while pregnant, under the theory that I would become an avid reader. I guess she was right, growing up I read everything I could.
She had the books in her passenger seat. A lady noticed and informed my mother that the child she was pregnant with would be influenced by the devil if she kept reading them. I'm not sure about that yet.
We also exchanged books, and she would make sure to get me books for gifts. We exchanged the Harry Potter series, and she got me into Abhorsen, Artemis Fowl, and Nancy Drew/Agatha Christie.
When I was in college and she was slowly dying from cancer we still kept up the reading. She slowly became paralyzed from the legs up, until eventually losing control of her arms. I read aloud to her every day when that started happening. It was interesting, a role reversal. She did all this stuff for me as a fetus and infant and I was returning the favor. Brushing her teeth, feeding her, etc.
The day she slipped into a coma we had just finished Memoirs of a Geisha and were starting Eat, Pray, Love. For 3 days 3 hours a day I read it to her.
I hate that book and that movie [Eat Pray Love not Geisha] now.
>tl;dr please read awesome stuff to your kids, they will make wonderful memories with you.
love 'em both.
the hobbit was written much better but lotr is really interesting too. although not "writer-ly" they're both lots of fun.
>>7531925
that's so sad and sweet at the same time :(
>>7531925
Good lord anon, have an ehug
>>7530762
I first read the hobbit when I was 18. It wasnt anything incredible but I enjoyed it
>>7530714
>>7531083
tfw your parents never read to you, even when asked.
>>7530639
not literature
>>7531925
You had a wonderful time with your lovely mother, anon. Fug, it cuts deep. Stay loved.
>>7533481
tfw Mexican, so my parents couldn't read any of the English books we had growing up, so they'd tell us stories of our family history. My ancestors were a bunch of schizophrenics, thieves, and destructive spendthrifts. Wouldn't trade that for LOTR.
>>7533551
My relatives are Filipino so same thing? many stories of my relatives witnessing spirits and other religious stuff. My one aunt claimed see saw a Minotaur fuck a dead body. As a mildly autistic person it was stories like this has set me back a bit growing up.
>>7533583
Hahaha. My mom insists that my dad's dad's ghost threw a brick at her to keep them from marrying.
>>7533551
sabés que hay libros en castellano, no?
>>7533613
They wanted us to learn to read English, since our school would hold kids back to teach it themselves. My parents kept a drawer of libros en castellano for themselves.
>>7531925
Who put these tears in my eyes
>>7531083
but my parents read to me and im not successful
All the people saying it's not great litterature are fucking plebeian
>faggots who want to claw their way into patrician literary knowledge status by being snobbish about tolkien and calling him genre fiction
>not realizing that they are basting themselves in plebstench by being unaware that tolkien was a harbinger of intertextuality
>>7531925
Your mom was doubly a mom, because she gave birth to your body, but to your soul as well
"But _souls_ which are pregnant—for there certainly are people who are more creative in their souls than in their bodies—conceive that which is proper for the soul to conceive or contain. And what are these conceptions? Wisdom and virtue. ... [H]e who in youth has the seed of these implanted in him, and is himself inspired, when he comes to maturity [also] desires to beget and generate, [and] he wanders about seeking beauty that he [too] may beget these offspring ... [A]bove all when he finds a fair and noble and well–nurtured soul ... they are married by a far nearer tie and have a closer friendship than those who [merely] beget mortal children, for the children who are their offspring are fairer and more immortal. ... Who would not emulate them in the creation of children such as theirs, which have preserved their memory and given them everlasting glory?"
You've already noticed the strangely cyclical aspect of life's procession. But you've also seen the linear thread that underlies the cycles. When you pass to your children and to us what your mom passed to you, you carry this thread on, and give the cycles meaning, just like she did. She is part of that everlasting glory, forever.
Thanks for sharing, anon. You made me appreciate things more.
>>7534117
Could you elaborate on how Tolkien was a harbinger of intertextuality? I'm curious.
>>7531925
I thought this was going to be a subtle bragpost until I read the second half.
>>7533583
>Filipino
[spoiler[are you a girl?[/spoiler]
>>7534117
in english, autist
>>7534208
he's pretending worldbuilding has literary merit by pretending it's intertextuality in the modern meaning of the word. just some fanboy who read a couple of introductory literary theory books.
>>7531925
ok, so you cared about your mother and feeded her when she was dying, now what you want applause for that idiot???
>>7530639
I read them as a kid. I appreciate the story, and the setting, but I despise Tolkien's prose sometimes. I like his translations of Beowulf and Sir Gawain, he really was a great translator.
