The Hobbit (never read it)

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A few months ago I wrote in a forum that I've never read the LOTR and I probably never will but have seen the movies and I love all of them. The same goes for the Hobbit as well and I'll be seeing the movie tomorrow. I've mentioned that the LOTR is just too in depth and detailed for me to read plus I'm more of a veiwer in my heart than a reader. I seriously doubt I will read the Hobbit but it's suppose to be more of a childrens book so it might be a little easier to read but I just can't be bothered and I also can't be bothered with getting the audio tapes because I'm not really that desperate but I am ank-shush (I'm sorry I can't spell that right) to see the film. I hope you don't consider me lazy for saying all that. Also if you wish to talk about the Hobbit below please keep the spoilers to a minimum.

Well, the LOTR movies have a wildly different tone than the books. They are wonderful movies on their own right, but it's filtering the source material through the lens of special effects and modern spectacle.

I expect that my thoughts on the first "Hobbit" movie will be similar.

All movies based on books take liberties on the source material and present them through the vision of the filmmaker instead of the novelist. That is why comparisons between books and the movies based off them are rather pointless.

I wouldn't say you were lazy. I know quite a few people who loved the LOTR movies that were not able to get into Tolkien's prose. You're in the company with some of my good friends on that one.

I love the LOTR movies but I have never been able to get through the books either. I read the Hobbit years ago and I really enjoyed it, but that doesn't mean that you will. So, you should go see the movie and have a good time! And, when you have time, read something you like. I don't know how you could be lazy if you are busy doing things that make you happy.

TriciaFaulconer wrote

Interesting discussion because I personally feel that Lord of the Rings is one of the very rare exceptions where the movies were actually better than the books. The books were way too detailed and the characters were way too stale. I'm glad that they made Merry and Pippin into comical characters in the movie because that was one thing the books were severely lacking. Nevertheless, the books became really popular because there was nothing like them beforehand and they revolutionized literature by making fantasy a major and popular genre.

I was a fan of the books long before the movies came out, and if I hadn't read the books first I probably never would have, because I found the movies mediocre, shallow, cheesy and kind of stupid.

I don't think there are many people who appreciate both the books and the films. They have very little in common.

I read the LOTR books after I watched the movies. Tolkien's detailed and boring writing is very intimidating at first (in fact, it took me a full year to read the trilogy), but once you get used to it, you will realize there is an epic story among the humongous paragraphs describing individual trees and rocks. My second reading of the trilogy took a week, even counting the appendices.

After the LOTR trilogy, I read The Hobbit and I was very surprised to see that Tolkien's narrative was much better and easier to follow than in his next works. The story was not as epic, but the characters were much more alive and the lighter tone was much better, in my opinion. I consider The Hobbit to be the best piece of fiction I have ever read. And I really want to see the movie, because Peter Jackson already showed us how capable he is when it comes to Tolkien adaptations.

I also read The Silmarillion, but it is even more boring (and epic) than The Lord of the Rings. There seems to be a correlation between epicness and boredom in Tolkien's writing: the grander the scale of the story, the higher the chances of you having to read it a second time to get over the initial boredom of the first reading.

The Hobbit is one of the books that I've tried and failed to read. I've read page 1 about a dozen times and couldn't take any in. I'd love to say that I've read it. The book's been in my possession for close to 30 years. I don't think there's any point in me trying to read the LOTR trilogy , which is part of my husband's book collection.

I got through Lord of the Rings somehow before the movies came out. It was decent considering I'm not that big into fantasy books. I'm more of a Sci-Fi person.

I've never read the Hobbit and still following reviews on the movie. I'm not sure how Peter Jackson's high speed frame rate will really look.

I'm also a little skeptical about stretching out a single book into a Trilogy.