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A review by dark_reader
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
5.0
Oh, Bilbo, how many times have I read your adventures? Admittedly though, the time before this was at least 20 years ago, maybe even in high school, when my grade 12 English teacher selected it as one of the books for the class to study. I found this odd given the intended age level, but it gave me another chance to read it and I am not complaining. In the interim I at one point played the 2003 Playstation 2 video game based on this book (predating the Peter Jackson films, it stayed quite true to the text). It was an adequate game.
I tried once to read this to my children, but it starts off very slow and I could not engage them with it. Will try again! But, it is very different from contemporary children's books. As a lingering pastoral fantasy it doesn't quite match current literary sensibilities. I admit to finding myself bored on occasion, during the quiet times that too often broke up the key moments of the book. I may want to skip some of those for a second read-aloud attempt. Children were clearly very bored in the 1930's.
There is no denying the enduring classic appeal of this seminal work of fantasy. Trolls! Goblins! Smaug! Spiders! Elves! Beorn! War! Eagles! A dinner party! It all weaves together wonderfully, with great little moments of foreshadowing peppered throughout. I was not terribly impressed with the character of Gandalf. He was an awful grump. The dwarves too were decidedly unheroic. The text addressed this directly late in the book, giving them a greedy nature that has been overshadowed by their battle prowess in later adaptations.
I have not yet watched the full Peter Jackson trilogy based on this but I intend to now, if only to lament all the things that he butchered or expanded unnecessarily.
I was fortunate to acquire this beautiful slipcase collector's edition. I love the runes. I have not taken the time to translate the full front border text yet, aside from "The Hobbit, or There and Back Again", and "Bilbo Baggins" down the right side. I will save that for when I re-read the Lord of the Rings in the near future and have the appendices open.
I tried once to read this to my children, but it starts off very slow and I could not engage them with it. Will try again! But, it is very different from contemporary children's books. As a lingering pastoral fantasy it doesn't quite match current literary sensibilities. I admit to finding myself bored on occasion, during the quiet times that too often broke up the key moments of the book. I may want to skip some of those for a second read-aloud attempt. Children were clearly very bored in the 1930's.
There is no denying the enduring classic appeal of this seminal work of fantasy. Trolls! Goblins! Smaug! Spiders! Elves! Beorn! War! Eagles! A dinner party! It all weaves together wonderfully, with great little moments of foreshadowing peppered throughout. I was not terribly impressed with the character of Gandalf. He was an awful grump. The dwarves too were decidedly unheroic. The text addressed this directly late in the book, giving them a greedy nature that has been overshadowed by their battle prowess in later adaptations.
I have not yet watched the full Peter Jackson trilogy based on this but I intend to now, if only to lament all the things that he butchered or expanded unnecessarily.
I was fortunate to acquire this beautiful slipcase collector's edition. I love the runes. I have not taken the time to translate the full front border text yet, aside from "The Hobbit, or There and Back Again", and "Bilbo Baggins" down the right side. I will save that for when I re-read the Lord of the Rings in the near future and have the appendices open.