I remember loving this book as a teenager, having first read it during middle school. I just recently decided to reread it and The Hobbit and, while I found The Hobbit really enjoyable and whimsical, the actual LotR was extremely boring.
The characters and dialogue were great, but the incessant lore building and dry descriptions of everything got on my nerves about a third of the way through. What are your thoughts on this book?
>>8234012
it's gay
>>8234012
Lmao, this means you're an unintelligent person. You're a plebeian
>>8234012
Very homosexual.
World building is what makes genre fiction, genre fiction.
>>8234012
What's the point of reading genre fiction when you literally have their cinematic adaptation hailed as one of the greatest films of all times...
The first one who tells me that the Battle of Helm's Deep is meant to be read and not watched can literally go fuck his own face.
>>8234012
I'm almost finishing The Hobbit book, great work too, very better than the movies.
>>8234012
You almost certainly read the 'fixed' Hobbit. The one that had the ending, and few other details, corrected and expanded by Tolkien so it fits better with LOTR. So, I find that observation a poor man's trolling attempt, and hard to explain. The Hobbit that most people read is almost an continuation of LOTR, so they are very close stylistically, the original release is different story. In all aspects LOTR is superior work, it expands on the first and adds a much bigger world. A world that elevates a basic children tale to the level of proper and accepted literature.
Yes GRRM is much better
>>8237539
lolwut? The Hobbit was not extensively rewritten by Tolkien, and the one bit that was was Riddles in the Dark, not the ending
>>8237555
Yes. Ending especially. Whole four nations battle is extensively changed. Originals are hard to find though, so it's hard to know for sure, and all the wikis and other web nonsense base everything in modern editions. I first read Hobbit in translation that for some reason based it original, and I was then flabbergasted when I read it again in English.
>>8237578
>>8237539
No. The only major revisions made to The Hobbit after the 1937 publication were to Riddles in the Dark. There are many tiny changes elsewhere, but none of note, and certainly the battle of five armies is no different. I have both editions, manuscript drafts, and annotated versions.
In the original Gollum was genuinely willing to bet his ring on the riddle game, the deal being that Bilbo would receive a "present" if he won. Gollum in fact was dismayed when he couldn't keep his promise because the ring was missing. He showed Bilbo the way out as an alternative, and they parted courteously.
Your memory or translation are wrong, I'm afraid.
Could it be, OP, that the world building got on your nerves because you knew it all already?
>>8234012
The book as a whole picks up after they leave The Prancing Pony. The council of Elrond is the best part of the story
>>8234012
I love LOTR and all of Tolkien's works. The lore building is the best part for me... Read the Silmarillion and unfinished Tale's and Children of Húrin then go back and reread the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings... So worth it.
I've always loved mythology though, maybe I'm a bit weird... But things like the Sagas of the Icelanders are simply engrossing to me.
>>8237652
>In the original Gollum was genuinely willing to bet his ring on the riddle game, the deal being that Bilbo would receive a "present" if he won. Gollum in fact was dismayed when he couldn't keep his promise because the ring was missing. He showed Bilbo the way out as an alternative, and they parted courteously.
Oh shit I must have read the original when I was younger. Reread the Hobbit recently and the whole riddle scene seemed strange, like it had been different.. Guess it was. Whether because that is what I read first or not, I think I prefer the original.
>>8238364
agree. council is my favorite part
