Finished: March 9, 2023
Why I read this
If you can’t tell by the books I have already chosen to read I think it is pretty clear that I am a nerd. Growing up Peter Jackson’s films were some of my all-time favorites and I would watch all the extended versions at least once a year. Then when I lived in Ireland, I finally decided to pick up a copy of the book and see how the original goes. I honestly struggled with reading this the first time. The book is a bit slow, and the action scenes aren’t satisfy like the movies, so I actually quit reading it half way through the second book. Then now that I am again into reading a lot, I thought to myself that I really must go back and finish this classic, and after a few additional weeks I had read through all three.
What I learned
Like I said, the world of Lord of the Rings has always appealed to me. The characters, factions, and deep history created in this world is extremely satisfying. It is like an entire history book made on a fictional universe, one where all the fantasy things we dream of are possible. I also learned in reading this as more of an adult that a late teenager that the descriptive portions of books really are important. I was originally bored with the books, but on a second read I was happy to see that the descriptions and plot building are absolutely necessary to the flow of the book and without it, the story would be too thin and the characters unrelatable.
What I didn’t like
Honestly when it comes to Lord of the Rings I find that the fantasy tropes are a bit too strong. The good guy always wins, important people never die, there is always some magic, or trick that allows our heroes to overcome the greatest of odds. For example the ghosts that help Aragorn and company to defeat their foes in the third book has always felt to me (in both the movies and the books) as a bit of a cheat. The armies of Mordor have emptied and there is no chance for Minas Tirith. Boom! Magic ghost army that is conveniently loyal and obedient to Aragorn. Too many things build together for the “perfect” storm.
Additionally, I always find it a bit hard with fantasy where the power balancing of characters is off. For example, Tom Bombadil or Gandalf are very powerful beings. If they were to have dealt with some of the challenges of the other characters they would have been swept away quickly and saved a lot of trouble. But at least regarding this topic Tolkien handled it well with generally good reasons for why the characters acted the way that they did.
A final note is that I highly recommend people to not get the three books in one combined book. This tome was super annoying to carry around and hard to read because it was heavy.
Questions I asked
What takes a fantasy book from good to legendary?
How will modern series like game of thrones compare in the long run to stories like this one?
When should we draw the line for making additional content for universes that we love? Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune, Ender’s Game, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, on and on, we continue to milk the stories we know and love and at what point will we overdo it?
My Favorite Quote
“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.”
Samwise Gamgee
Books I liked like this one
Song of Ice and Fire: George R.R. Martin (For the excellent world building and the unusual characteristic of unprotected characters)
Dune (series): Frank and Brian Herbert (For the depth of additional books that support the universe of Dune)
Book Reviews for Mom 