# What started you on reading Tolkien?



## Beleg (Mar 29, 2003)

I guess this is an old question, but still i would like to ask what started all the members on reading Tolkien? how did their reading went on? How much have they covered and how much have they gleaned from it? Home much of their reading is left and what are their plans on continuing it? And most important did reading Tolkien books teach you a real life lesson? Did reading Tolkien enhance your literary understanding and coaxed you into reading more classics and more litrature?


----------



## Eol (Apr 1, 2003)

I started with The Hobbit, then around the time The Fellowship Of The Ring came out in theaters I started LotR. It took me a long time to finish, about five months or so. After that I let Tolkien be for awhile, but picked up LotR again. A few weeks later, I decided to get into The Silmarillion. I absolutely loved it, and soon got Unfinished Tales. After reading The Silmarillion once, it was LotR again and at the same time I was also studying The Hobbit in school. Bonus! I began BoLT. I finished both of those, and recently purchased Letters and The Tolkien Reader. The future's looking bright for my Tolkien studies!


----------



## Finduilas (Apr 2, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Eöl _
> *I started with The Hobbit, then around the time The Fellowship Of The Ring came out in theaters I started LotR. It took me a long time to finish, about five months or so. After that I let Tolkien be for awhile, but picked up LotR again. A few weeks later, I decided to get into The Silmarillion. I absolutely loved it, and soon got Unfinished Tales. After reading The Silmarillion once, it was LotR again and at the same time I was also studying The Hobbit in school. Bonus! I began BoLT. I finished both of those, and recently purchased Letters and The Tolkien Reader. The future's looking bright for my Tolkien studies! *



From your post I found that you have studied the Hobbet at school. Is that right? I mean do you study Tolkien at school?


----------



## Eliot (Apr 2, 2003)

Well, I read the Hobbit when my Dad told me about this guy named Tolkien who wrote some really good books, though he never had the time to read them. After reading that (The Hobbit), I started the LotR when the movies were in theaters. Months later, I joined this forum, then felt like reading the books again. I read The Hobbit and LotR once again, as well as the Silmarillion. Soon, I'll read all three of those again. 

Sometime in the future, I'll try to read the HoMe series.


----------



## Gil-Galad (Apr 2, 2003)

I read first LOTR,then The Hobbit,them The Sil,UT and now I'm up to BOLT 1.
If I I have to count how many times I've read every of these books.........OMG!I've reat most The Sil cause it's my favourite book by Tolkien.

At the same time I'm waiting for my Birthday present from Finduilas(the letters) and when I get them I'll read them.


----------



## Lhunithiliel (Apr 3, 2003)

A year and a half (allready?!   ... time flies!) I came across LOTR-book and then it all started!
I was "hooked" for life!  

I have now read a lot of HoMe series but far not everything!
Haven't yet read the Letters although I have read one or two while doing certain researches on certain subjects.

I have always considered the Simarillion as my favourite book, but now, under the magic of the HoMe series, I fall more and more under its spell! 

Unfinished Tales I have read, yes! But only once. Why? Because it disapointed me so much that they were _unfinished_!!!! These tales are so .... wonderful is a weak word!.... And it relly hurt to enter those worlds so skilfully described and those stories so masterfully told... but all of a sudden the narration stops and ... I feel frustrated!   
However, I find them fascinating!

All I know for sure is that I am still at the threshhold of that vast world, called _The world of Tolkien_!


----------



## Beleg (Apr 3, 2003)

I read Hobbit in September 2001, because i had heard its name in one of the Harry Potter websites i visited. But i didn't think much of it until i found an old batterred copy lying in a Vegetable Shop. I instantly liked it and my attention was specially attracted by a phrase, "And Also forms an intresting prelude for Lord of the Rings." However i didn't think much of it until 2002 when the buzz of the movie caught me too! But in an entirely different manner from others. Believe it or not i haven't still seen Movie 1 and only snippets from Movie 2. i bought the book LOTR in September and was instantly grouped by it. after finishing it i couldn't understand it properly so i re-read it probably ten times before i got the hold of it. That was sometime in NOv 2002. I read Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales in December finishing them in Consecutive days. I have read letters and BOLT1 and part of Lays of Beleriand. my favorite passage so far from Tolkien's work is Narn I Han Hùrin. I have only read Silmarillion completely twice and UT a number of times for i fell instantly in love with it, specially the tragic tales of Gladden Fields, A&E and the Druedain. 
I aim to complete HOME within the month May. 
Oh and intrestingly enough Hobbit was the first real book i read and since then i have read most of the classic and prominent novels written in English and am continuing to read more and more. What Biblo Baggins quest told me was that even the most immposible looking test can be finished Successfully. The books that seemed like Huge paper monsters with their difficult Language and huge size today look very intresting because one day I met with The Hobbit while purchasing Potatoes, A chance meeting as they would say in Middle Earth.


----------



## Sador (Apr 13, 2003)

I read the Hobbit as a ten year old in 1974. Read Lotr the next year, and have been reading them plus Sil. HOME etc over and over again ever since.
I think they have taught me the joy of learning about words, their origins and associations. And much more.


----------



## Eledhwen (Apr 14, 2003)

I have read the first two HoMEs (the BoLTs), but I've stalled on the rest because I don't want to be answering questions based on them when they are asked on the Sil and UT when it comes to my ranking test. 

The Letters of JRRT is a really good book, because the information comes from Tolkien himself, and not from experts on him; and also because he wrote so well, even in his letters.


----------



## Samwise_hero (Apr 14, 2003)

When i was in year 7 my teacher read The Hobbit to the class. As soon as we had finished reading that i got straight into LOTR. It was a little hard to understand then so i kinda drifted after the firt book. in yr 9 i read the hobbit again and then agin in yr 10. after that i got totally stuck into LOTR. i was brain washed. i'd read it for 4 hours straight. it ended up taking my a month to read. so i finished reading it fully just after the first movie came out. as soon as i got a job i spent my first couple of pay checks paying off my very own copy. it cost me $50! I was in shock! But i love it. i read my grandfathers copy originally but it's retired now cos all the pages are falling out coz i took it every where with me.
i just read the other books as i found 'em in the library but they're hard to get your hands on coz they're so popular.


----------



## Eol (Apr 16, 2003)

> From your post I found that you have studied the Hobbet at school. Is that right? I mean do you study Tolkien at school?



Oops, haven't been paying attention to this thread! Yes, we did, but just _The Hobbit_. I wish we could study _The Silmarillion_ but we're supposed to be reading books we wouldn't normally read...*sighs*



> It cost me $50!


 Wow, seriously?!? I got mine at Target for $20, and that has all three books in it...Hmm. Did you get that leather-bound expensive edition?


----------



## Aulë (Apr 16, 2003)

Ahh, it all began in August last year.
I was given the FOTR EE DVD as a gift from my parents. I loved it so much, that I went and bought _The Hobbit_ and _Lord of the Rings_. Over the following couple of weeks, I read all of them.
Several months later, I went to see the TTT movie. The following day, I found this place.
In the past 3 months, I have read (in the following order) _Farmer Giles of Ham_, _Smith of Wootton Major_, _The Adventures of Tom Bombadil_, _Leaf By Niggle_, _Roverandom_, _Unfinished Tales: Part 3_, _The Silmarillion_, _Unfinished Tales: Part 1 and 2_. I have also had a quick browse through _HoME: 7, 8, 9 and 10_.

Future investments include: _The HoME series_ and _Letters of JRR Tolkien_


----------



## Finarfin (Apr 16, 2003)

I got interested in Tolkien when i heard that the movie was coming out, so i read LOTR, and even though i didnt have a clue what was going on, my interest took off and now i know a whole pile about ME. Thanks gilgalad for lending me the fellowship DVD!


----------



## Morgoth (Apr 21, 2003)

I had The Hobbit read to me when i was about 7, and that inspired me to read LOTR when i was 9. However, since then I have read LOTR several times, and the Hobbit only once. Hence the failure of my Journeyman test some time ago.

P.S. Where did the What If....? Game go? I have been absent for some time, watching 24 hour news, and have missed alot during the war.


----------



## Manveru (Jun 27, 2003)

Hmm...let me think
During all my primary and high school education I was not paying much attention to books (wrong, very wrong... now I see it). I did all kind of stuff (like most teenagers): play football, basketball, computer games, watching video films, meeting with friends and so on... And then, when I finally graduated from high school, one question troubled me: 'What am I gonna do next?'. All my friends went to universities and stuff like that, but I wasn't sure what I want to do in life. I didn't realise that one book would change my hole life...
It was like 3 and a half (nearly 4) years ago. I liked to play computer games (I still doespecially RPGs) and thanks to that I came across (I guess I read on some website...I don't know, I don't remember--short memory-->I need to train this) this magical surname --Tolkien-- and started to look for his works. This 'one book' that changed my life was 'The Silmarillion' (actually the only Tolkien's book that was in my library at that time--someone had been faster and borrowed LotR before me). So I didn't have much choice. I started reading and ... I totally fell in love with Middle-earth and Elves (my beloved race from all the races of Middle-earth) and all kind of Fantasy. From that time I have read many fantasy books (I think I've tried to make up the lost time), but still Tolkien's are the best for me (I've read LotR two times...now I'm reading IT in english version for the first timeand I am still amazed by IT's greatness - though for me 'The Silmarillion' has been, is and always will be this 'spark that starts the great fire'-->in good faith I mean).


----------



## Kelonus (Jun 27, 2003)

I was interested in Tolkien when the first LOTRs movie came out. While I watched the movie, I loved it. I knew about LOFTRs when I was younger when my father bought the animated movie of it. I didnt pay much attention then, but after seeing the movie done by Peter Jackson, I was interested. I read the last Lord of The Rings book and I get inspired by it. My cousin has the first part, which I lent her. Im waiting to get it back and read it. Tolkien is the man in fantasy books. Im no match to mess with his work.


----------



## Celebithil (Jul 2, 2003)

*How it all began....*

I was a little kid (5 or 6) at my grandmothers and I found these books with some really cool pictures and this wizard guy who I really liked and thats when my Tolkien fascination started. I read the Hobbit a few years later then a few years after that again. Then I moved onto LOTR but after that there was a few years break before I started reading them my Dragonlance obsession being to blame. Then I came back read Lotr, the Sil, Lotr, Hobbit, Sil, Bolt, Lotr, UT, HObbit, Bolt2 or something like that over the past year or so.


----------



## syongstar (Jul 2, 2003)

*friend*

I found the books from a friend.I got alot of wisdom, learned new words and dreamed Tolkien told me to write.
When I first saw Goldenberry and Galadriel.it was so awesome I wondered if writers create a thoughtform that comes alive in our imagination like it's real and it lives there~~*~~


----------



## Courtney (Jul 2, 2003)

I started reading the Fellowship in 7th grade, but I couldn't really get into it... I only read like 20 pages. I didn't quite understand what was going on, so i just quit. But later that year, I was looking through the library and I found an exceptionally beat up book with weird writing all over the cover. I decided to borrow it because I really liked figuring out different languages, and I like beat up books (it's the best way to tell if they are good or not, the worse the condition of a book, the better it is). Of course, the book was the Hobbit, and I loved it although I thought it was kind of childish. Then, the following landslide of the FOTR, TT, ROTK, the Sil, and a few histories. And I am so glad I did!


----------



## Melian Le Fay (Feb 14, 2004)

I am ashamed to say that I had The Hobbit and LOTR in my hands, and I never bothered to read them... Even though I love reading books! And I read so many fantasy books before them. My friends (Tolkien freaks, too  ) begged me to read them (they got in touch with them long time before me - I was in high school). They told me Tolkien is like The Bible of fantasy, a must-read... And I (stupid me) wasn't into reading them!!!! God, I hate myself for that. 
It was right after I had seen FOTR movie ("so that's what the book is about...?") when I called my friend at 2am to give me the books the next day. I read the entire LOTR with appendices in 2 DAYs! (Kinda proud of it  )
Then I read The Sil (slowly, so I managed all those names of persons and places), and then The Hobbit... A little up-side-down, I know, but I don't care.
Then I read LOTR again, but this time in English...God, how beautiful Tolkien's English is!!! And I'm soon to read first three books of HoME...
And I'm desperately trying to find Unfinished Tales...


----------



## Elessar II (Feb 14, 2004)

I heard that this epic movie was coming out in a few years called LOTR:FOTR. My older brother had read the series and said they were awesome, so I decided to read them starting with the Hobbit. I've now read them 5 times, and have Silmarillion sitting on my bureau waiting for me to take the plunge!


----------



## Inderjit S (Feb 14, 2004)

A certain Mr. Jackson and his movie project.


----------



## Melian Le Fay (Feb 14, 2004)

Inderjit S said:


> A certain Mr. Jackson and his movie project.



Do I sence a little irony...?


----------

