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Yeah same here, especially the parts where Frodo and Sam are travelling from the Shire and before they meet up with Merry and Pippin.
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Dec 12, 2014 15:10
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concerned mom posted:Yeah same here, especially the parts where Frodo and Sam are travelling from the Shire and before they meet up with Merry and Pippin. In the book Frodo, Sam, and Pippin travel together.
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Dec 12, 2014 15:22
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Read Bored of the Rings first.
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Dec 12, 2014 15:39
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Data Graham posted:Read Bored of the Rings first. The scene at the ford remains one of my favorite funny scenes of all time. Single wayfarers: 1 farthing Double-axled haywains: 2 farthings Black Riders: 40 gold pieces
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Dec 12, 2014 16:33
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Ynglaur posted:In the book Frodo, Sam, and Pippin travel together. There's definitely a part where it's just Frodo and Sam isn't there?
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Dec 12, 2014 16:37
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Data Graham posted:Read Bored of the Rings first. Such an amazing combination of funny and incredibly dated.
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Dec 12, 2014 16:51
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concerned mom posted:There's definitely a part where it's just Frodo and Sam isn't there? Nope, they all leave Bag End together (Frodo, Sam, and Pippin that is). The chapter is even called "Three is Company" e: unless you're talking about later in The Fellowship then yes Sam and Frodo take off on their own near the end of the book. I just started a re-read and yeah pretty much until they hit Bree it's kind of...well, not hitting its stride yet. It feels to me like Tolkien is settling into the story and it just doesn't really get going until Bree. At least in Rivendell there's a lot of info and new characters and all of that. e: it doesn't help that I think it takes a bit to get used to his writing so you have some very slow parts right at the beginning while you're doing so. Also I think his writing starts becoming a lot more interesting when he starts really introducing lore and elves and different languages and you start feeling the size and age of Middle Earth rather than just reading about how Hobbits fuckin' love to eat in somewhat stilted writing. Levitate fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Dec 12, 2014 |
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Dec 12, 2014 17:10
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I always saw the boring countryside chapters as a way to build up the horror of all the little rumors you read about poo poo not being right back home, and then finally the Scouring of the Shire chapter. e: But when I first read it of course I was like man when is the epic fantasy poo poo gonna happen pixelbaron fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Dec 12, 2014 |
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Dec 12, 2014 17:20
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Levitate posted:until they hit Bree it's kind of...well, not hitting its stride yet. That's quite a pun if intentional.
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Dec 12, 2014 17:24
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neongrey posted:Such an amazing combination of funny and incredibly dated. In other words, a National Lampoon joint.
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Dec 12, 2014 17:28
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The Shire chapters are my favorite because they combine info dumping with setting characters. You get to know Frodo, you see Bilbo again, there are shenanigans with the Sackville-Bagginses, Gandalf shows up and threatens to blow up Frodo's front door. It's so comfy, I love it.
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Dec 12, 2014 18:10
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HIJK posted:The Shire chapters are my favorite because they combine info dumping with setting characters. You get to know Frodo, you see Bilbo again, there are shenanigans with the Sackville-Bagginses, Gandalf shows up and threatens to blow up Frodo's front door. It's so comfy, I love it. Right, I don't really dislike them myself, I can just see why they put off first time readers. I think they do help establish the Hobbits as the sympathetic characters the reader can relate to as well (compared to the elves which obviously aren't meant to be relatable, and even other Men like Aragorn and Boramir, who come off as a...step above, or royalty (hah) to the common people that the Hobbits are, etc.)
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Dec 12, 2014 18:26
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Yeah, I have never skipped that part, but I know many who have. UoI, if you have seen the movies, but haven't read the books, you'll have to understand that they have quite different feel to them. The movies were big budget action films, while the books are more like road movies.
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Dec 12, 2014 18:30
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The first few times I tried to read Fellowship I definitely hated the first chapters and it put me off finishing but nowadays I really enjoy them. It feels sort of homey, I guess? Like once you've been through the whole story already the time you spend in the Shire when you read it again is a nice comfortable settling down to what you know is going to be a sweeping adventure full of dark times, so you appreciate the cozy Shire parts more. Just like Frodo 
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Dec 12, 2014 20:31
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Alright, thanks for the tips. I'm going to go ahead and pick up the Hobbit and give it a read.Hogge Wild posted:Yeah, I have never skipped that part, but I know many who have. Oh yeah, I've heard much about the books and wasn't going in expecting what was in the films. I've gotten to chapter three of the Fellowship and kind of enjoy it already. I'm not so much reading it for the story as I am for learning more about the Lore of Middle-Earth.
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Dec 12, 2014 21:30
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The neat thing is that a lot of the stuff that's mentioned in passing (like the story of the Rangers and talking about the Witch King of Angmar, the old kingdoms and wars and all of that) actually has back story that's expanded on in the appendices of Return of the King and also in the Silmarillion, etc. It's not just bits of stuff thrown in to spice things up, it's actually referring to "real" history of the world that Tolkien wrote out.
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Dec 12, 2014 21:39
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And not stuff that he wrote later to fill in the blanks; stuff that he'd written years and decades before, but never really intended to publish unless he could get it perfect (he didn't).
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Dec 12, 2014 22:38
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UoI posted:Alright, thanks for the tips. I'm going to go ahead and pick up the Hobbit and give it a read. Tell me what you think of the Barrow Downs when you get to that part, particularly the Barrow-wights. They're some of the most interesting lore in Arda but they get so little backstory.
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Dec 12, 2014 23:21
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I mostly like the early Fellowship chapters. The worst parts are easily the Old Forest before they meet Tom, and the Barrow-downs before Frodo wakes up in the tomb. Basically the parts where Tolkien spends several pages just describing how hopelessly lost they are. All the Shire fluff is great.
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Dec 12, 2014 23:28
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HIJK posted:Tell me what you think of the Barrow Downs when you get to that part, particularly the Barrow-wights. They're some of the most interesting lore in Arda but they get so little backstory. I sure will! Although if what you say is true I may come back here with a less-than-happy attitude. One thing that really makes me want to pull out my hair was Tolien's inability to decide how Orcs came to be. It annoys the hell out of me. 
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Dec 13, 2014 01:43
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Could you post your impressions while you read, could be interesting.
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Dec 13, 2014 01:57
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Hogge Wild posted:Could you post your impressions while you read, could be interesting. If people don't mind reading about my horrible opinions on fantasy, sure! 
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Dec 13, 2014 02:07
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UoI posted:If people don't mind reading about my horrible opinions on fantasy, sure!
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Dec 13, 2014 04:49
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Data Graham posted:And not stuff that he wrote later to fill in the blanks; stuff that he'd written years and decades before, but never really intended to publish unless he could get it perfect (he didn't). Right, it's actually pretty drat interesting to read how the whole history of Middle Earth and the Hobbit and the LotR's came about. Tolkien's life work was really the Silmarillion and he worked long and hard on that but it was never quite to his satisfaction. Then one day he sat down and wrote "In a hole in the ground lived a Hobbit". He didn't know what a Hobbit was, or if it even related to Middle Earth, but he started from there and wrote a book. Suddenly that book became a success and people were clamoring for a sequel, and he realized he could join this all together with his work on the Silmarillion. The Ring became something more than it was originally intended and things took off and suddenly the Lord of the Rings is known as his major achievement, while he's still really trying to get the Silmarillion just right. It's some ways sad he never really finished that but he was such a perfectionist that maybe it never would have happened without some real kind of outside pressure. We at least still got a pretty detailed history of Middle Earth, albeit with some uncertainty about some things, but sometimes that makes it a bit more real UoI posted:If people don't mind reading about my horrible opinions on fantasy, sure! Meh even if you dont' like it, whatever. In some ways it's not the best writing and all of that and if you come into reading Tolkien's stuff after being used to all of the fantasy cliches and archetypes that came out of it, then it might feel like "orcs and wizards? this is some lame d&d poo poo!", but on the other hand all that d&d poo poo basically came out of his writings and I still am amazed at how real his world feels while at the same time feeling like some amazing high myth that really stimulates your imagination
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Dec 13, 2014 04:56
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Levitate posted:Tolkien's life work was really the Silmarillion and he worked long and hard on that but it was never quite to his satisfaction. Then one day he sat down and wrote "In a hole in the ground lived a Hobbit". He didn't know what a Hobbit was, or if it even related to Middle Earth, but he started from there and wrote a book. Suddenly that book became a success and people were clamoring for a sequel, and he realized he could join this all together with his work on the Silmarillion. The Ring became something more than it was originally intended and things took off and suddenly the Lord of the Rings is known as his major achievement, while he's still really trying to get the Silmarillion just right.
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Dec 13, 2014 06:38
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UoI posted:If people don't mind reading about my horrible opinions on fantasy, sure! I am interested in all of this, watching new impressions is always so cool.
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Dec 13, 2014 08:20
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I'm starting to think it's time for (another) re-read..
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Dec 13, 2014 08:43
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I gotta say I'm really fond of the opening chapters of the book. The safety and cozyness of the shire makes the departure to the big unknown that much more threatening. It felt that way when I first read it as a kid, and the feeling has stuck ever since.
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Dec 13, 2014 14:41
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Seriously there's not many better things for a thread like this than a first-time reader's road-trip impressions. I'm sure everybody else here is so familiar with the material as to be able to recite large chunks of it, but newbie impressions are diamonds in the rough.
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Dec 13, 2014 21:27
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If you're interested in the lore, be sure not to skip the appendices after finishing The Return of the King.
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Dec 13, 2014 22:10
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I remember the first time I read LOTR and getting to the end of ROTK and being confused and pissed off. 'Well, I'm home.' Frowns, turns page... but there's still like a fourth of the book left? What the hell is an Appendix? (in my defense I was like 11/12).
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Dec 14, 2014 05:18
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poo poo, dude, spoilers.
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Dec 14, 2014 16:10
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Data Graham posted:poo poo, dude, spoilers. At the end of the book the King Returns 
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Dec 14, 2014 20:21
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Books ruined. Thanks! 
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Dec 14, 2014 20:23
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I will happily spoiler-tag anything remotely significant in this thread in return for a trip report on your first-time read. I hope you enjoy it!
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Dec 15, 2014 15:19
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Ynglaur posted:I will happily spoiler-tag anything remotely significant in this thread in return for a trip report on your first-time read. I hope you enjoy it! Haha, don't worry about it. I barely read the OP. Also sorry for no trip reports. Been busy and work and just too tired to sit in a comfortable chair and do something enjoyable.  I hope to get around to chapter three at latest this weekend.
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Dec 15, 2014 20:43
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I was a little wrong about where I left off but I picked up the book today (finally!) and read more of chapter two with the conversation about Bilbo and Gollum's past between Frodo and Gandalf. I didn't learn much more than I already knew but it did finally clarify for me that it was the ring that made Gollum start with the throat noises and body changes. I was confused from the movies and thought that it was his family or tribe that did that because he said they cursed him in the prologue of RotK but I wasn't certain. So that's nice. I didn't read much because it's late, but I left off at the point where Gandalf tells Frodo to attempt to destroy the ring. I'm hoping I'll find the time to read the last few pages of this chapter and a good chunk of chapter three.
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Dec 17, 2014 09:38
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Nessus posted:He was definitely deeply steeped in actual Norse epics and literature and I think a fair bit of it echoes out. Meanwhile a lot of fantasy writers nowadays were steeped in... Tolkien! Maybe not even all the books either. There is a formula for determining the quality of any given fantasy work: Good fantasy steals from mythology. Mediocre fantasy steals from Tolkien. Bad fantasy steals from D&D. BravestOfTheLamps fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Dec 17, 2014 |
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Dec 17, 2014 13:41
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:There is a formula for determining the quality of any given fantasy work: That's pretty accurate.
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Dec 17, 2014 16:06
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:There is a formula for determining the quality of any given fantasy work: Counterpoint: Percy Jackson, which is pretty mediocre.
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Dec 17, 2014 16:21
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