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intertribalI discovered that Lord of the Rings was given to me by my parents in 1997, for doing well in fourth grade. They must have remembered that I really liked The Hobbit when I read it in third grade. There's a note in the beginning in my dad's handwriting, which is always a nice find.
Book I "review" here.
- This section was actually a fast read. I went through a couple weeks' stretch where I didn't read at all, but when I picked it up again, I read through multiple chapters a night.
- Wow, fighting scenes are like a paragraph long! And the scenery is described for pages and pages! I do enjoy Tolkien's scenery, and I'm not a huge fan of written battles, so this is all ok, just kind of funny. It made Gandalf's death feel anti-climactic.
- I think the best page in all of Book II was where Frodo was sitting on the throne of Amon Hen and looking at the world through the eyes of the Ring. Powerful piece of writing right there.
- On the characters so far: Sam is awesome, Aragorn is awesome. Frodo has proved surprisingly smart. Gandalf sort of... less so.
- Okay, Gandalf is still cool. He's just not wonder-dude. And that makes him more endearing. Like in Moria where he meets the Balrog for the first time and then runs down the stairs away from it so fast he falls over.
- Pippin and Merry are just fucking irrelevant. Legolas and Gimli are gradually becoming more relevant. The Gimli-Galadriel scenes were really cute. I'm like, yay, alliances! Too bad the Elves are all going to leave now.
- I feel really bad for Boromir. Especially when he's all like, "I'll go to Minas Tirith by myself then, if all I've done for you isn't worthy of any companionship." I mean, yeah, he cracks at the end, but I fail to see it like Frodo does, of "evil" having taken Boromir. He's clearly an example of bad leadership - when he talks about being fearless and ruthless, etc., and accuses the elves of being too scaredypants instead of wise - he's essentially a hawk. But as a person, he seemed so lonely and lost, so not the chosen one. I was just like, :(
- Man, reading these books as an Aragorn/Arwen shipper is hard! (And before everyone goes all BLAARGH I HATE MOVIE-ARWEN here, let me just say that that is not what drew me to the ship.) I have counted all of 3 references to the pairing so far. That's okay, I've had LOTS of practice in this department.
- Moria was cool, as expected, although jesus, I cannot imagine living in a place like that. With the whole being-under-the-mountain and fires coming through the floors and all, it's a little too Silent Hill. Something really evocative and tragic about Balin trying to take back Moria and establish a colony there while holding back the orcs. Very Roanoke-y.
- Wish there were more, you know, living dwarves around in this story, but I guess there's more of them in The Hobbit.
- I kind of miss the ring-wraiths, now that they're gone.
- Tolkien still needs an editor, but at least he rambles about more interesting stuff now. I think I may be getting used to his writing style.
I definitely remember my dreams more after reading LOTR.
Book I "review" here.
- This section was actually a fast read. I went through a couple weeks' stretch where I didn't read at all, but when I picked it up again, I read through multiple chapters a night.
- Wow, fighting scenes are like a paragraph long! And the scenery is described for pages and pages! I do enjoy Tolkien's scenery, and I'm not a huge fan of written battles, so this is all ok, just kind of funny. It made Gandalf's death feel anti-climactic.
- I think the best page in all of Book II was where Frodo was sitting on the throne of Amon Hen and looking at the world through the eyes of the Ring. Powerful piece of writing right there.
- On the characters so far: Sam is awesome, Aragorn is awesome. Frodo has proved surprisingly smart. Gandalf sort of... less so.
- Okay, Gandalf is still cool. He's just not wonder-dude. And that makes him more endearing. Like in Moria where he meets the Balrog for the first time and then runs down the stairs away from it so fast he falls over.
- Pippin and Merry are just fucking irrelevant. Legolas and Gimli are gradually becoming more relevant. The Gimli-Galadriel scenes were really cute. I'm like, yay, alliances! Too bad the Elves are all going to leave now.
- I feel really bad for Boromir. Especially when he's all like, "I'll go to Minas Tirith by myself then, if all I've done for you isn't worthy of any companionship." I mean, yeah, he cracks at the end, but I fail to see it like Frodo does, of "evil" having taken Boromir. He's clearly an example of bad leadership - when he talks about being fearless and ruthless, etc., and accuses the elves of being too scaredypants instead of wise - he's essentially a hawk. But as a person, he seemed so lonely and lost, so not the chosen one. I was just like, :(
- Man, reading these books as an Aragorn/Arwen shipper is hard! (And before everyone goes all BLAARGH I HATE MOVIE-ARWEN here, let me just say that that is not what drew me to the ship.) I have counted all of 3 references to the pairing so far. That's okay, I've had LOTS of practice in this department.
- Moria was cool, as expected, although jesus, I cannot imagine living in a place like that. With the whole being-under-the-mountain and fires coming through the floors and all, it's a little too Silent Hill. Something really evocative and tragic about Balin trying to take back Moria and establish a colony there while holding back the orcs. Very Roanoke-y.
- Wish there were more, you know, living dwarves around in this story, but I guess there's more of them in The Hobbit.
- I kind of miss the ring-wraiths, now that they're gone.
- Tolkien still needs an editor, but at least he rambles about more interesting stuff now. I think I may be getting used to his writing style.
I definitely remember my dreams more after reading LOTR.
