"Lord of the Rings" -Caitlin's Thoughts

So I read The Hobbit (just like every other nerdy 12 year old with no friends did) during a few lunch periods in middle school. I found that it dragged but was an interesting story so I thought I'd check out some more Tolkien. When I picked up The Fellowship of the Ring ten years ago, I put it down almost immediately; needless to say, I was nervous for this 1200+ page portion of the challenge.

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS: Jackpot. As a twelve year old, I hadn't developed my skill for skimming or seen the LOTR movies so I could not appreciate these books. As I have since discovered the glory of skipping all things in italics (for example, anything latin in my law books) and become a huge fan of the movies (especially the director's cut of The Two Towers), these books went a lot faster on attempt #2. The books do drag but if you skip all of the boring parts (poems, songs, and histories of made up places), the story is pretty exciting and insanely clever. I do think I enjoy the movies more than the books (WHICH IS SHOCKING AND UNHEARD OF AND A LITTLE SHAMEFUL, I KNOW!) because the movies take all of the exciting parts and lengthen them and cut out all of the boring parts. However, the Frodo/Sam parts are much less obnoxious in the books and you even like Frodo a little in them. As a whole, these books are great if you love fantasy worlds, elves, heroism, self-sacrifice, and bro-love. If you are looking for feminism, realism, or challenges to the social order, these are not the books for you.

SPOILER ALERT: The good guys win.

MUSINGS: Tolkien loved the gays. Maybe he didn't realize it but the number of male-male vaguely homosexual pairings in this book was higher than expected.

GRADE SHEET:

Narrator's Likeability: Somewhat condescending (like sorry I haven't read Bilbo's History of Middle Earth) but fine.

Readability: A
Pace: B+ if you skim, C- if you don't

Satisfying Ending: A+

Battle Scenes: C+ (the movies were way better)

Creativity: A+