Turtlefark wrote:
That's fine with me. I'm actually in the middle of re-reading The Hobbit, but I should be done with that by today, so I'll probably be caught up to you all in a day or two. Oh, and yeah, I can't wait to see how those turn out.
Hi Turtlefark. As you go along please let us know what your first impressions are as you read. Many of us tend to get bogged down in the details and lose our perspective. It is always refreshing to see how a new reader might see the story.
At the end of this month we will be watching and talking about the movie, Fellowship of the Ring, so you would be up to your 101st viewing! We wanted to watch and talk about the movie and the differences while the reading was fresh in our mind. There are some differences of "vision" between the two.
Turtlefark wrote:
I'll definitely do that. Awesome, my 101st viewing is gonna be epic
Message Edited by Turtlefark on 04-09-2008 03:16 PM
Welcome to the group. Yes, definitely the extended version. I was just about to post something on it in our schedule.
Hi there My name's Jenny! I first started reading LOTR 5-6 years ago after I watched the first instalment of the movies by Peter Jackson. Thereafter, I really fell in love with Tolkien's work and I proceeded to read The Hobbit and then The Silmarillion. I'm ashamed to say that I've only read LOTR once and therefore I consider myself new to Tolkien's work. Really excited about joining you guys and reading the wonderful books again!
My name's Jenny! I first started reading LOTR 5-6 years ago after I watched the first instalment of the movies by Peter Jackson. Thereafter, I really fell in love with Tolkien's work and I proceeded to read The Hobbit and then The Silmarillion. I'm ashamed to say that I've only read LOTR once and therefore I consider myself new to Tolkien's work. Really excited about joining you guys and reading the wonderful books again!
yavanna wrote:
Hi there
Hi, Jenny. You are in the same situation I was when I first started with this group--saw the movie but read The Hobbit and LOTR once. You are one up on me, though, I had never read the Silmarillion. I am starting to tackle that now. Since you have the same back ground in Tolkien as I did, how did you find the silm, especially as a first-time reader? I have read very mixed reactions on this board.
Hi Lorien Nice to meet you. With regards to reading The Silmarillion, to be honest, I have to admit that it is very difficult to get through the whole book. It is a lot more literary than LOTR. In addition to that, I'm sure you already know that there's a lot of names and places that you have to be familiar with - and this makes the reading all the more difficult (like a real quest 
). Having said that, I really do love this book. When you read it, don't think of it as a literature, think of it as you're peering into Tolkien's mind and you're unravelling the creation of Middle Earth as well as all the people (or creatures) in it. The Silmarillion certainly fills in a lot of gaps and it contains A LOT of information on the First Age. I don't really encourage anyone to read this book in one go, I would say, read and plunge into the book slowly, and enjoy seeing Middle Earth dancing alive in front of you again
Nice to meet you. With regards to reading The Silmarillion, to be honest, I have to admit that it is very difficult to get through the whole book. It is a lot more literary than LOTR. In addition to that, I'm sure you already know that there's a lot of names and places that you have to be familiar with - and this makes the reading all the more difficult (like a real quest ). Having said that, I really do love this book. When you read it, don't think of it as a literature, think of it as you're peering into Tolkien's mind and you're unravelling the creation of Middle Earth as well as all the people (or creatures) in it. The Silmarillion certainly fills in a lot of gaps and it contains A LOT of information on the First Age. I don't really encourage anyone to read this book in one go, I would say, read and plunge into the book slowly, and enjoy seeing Middle Earth dancing alive in front of you again
yavanna wrote:Hi Lorien
Thanks, Jenny. That does sound like good advice. In my LOTR research efforts I have been "dipping" into it here and there and have found what I did read quite beautiful--at least the beginning stuff. I really thought the Creation Story was one of the most beautiful I have ever read. The later histories were the ones that really lost me. And some of it is pretty dense reading. Maybe I will try the story of Beren and Luthien again now that I am a more seasoned Tolkien reader.
