How many times have you read it?

[Elanor the Fair]

It doesn't matter how late you are coming to Middle-Earth, the important thing is that you got here!!

[Snowdog]

I read the Hobbit twice, The Trilogy about 10 times, including the Appendices and learning to write the Tengwar. The Silmarillion I only read once straight through, and I treat it as more of a reference book. A few chapters I read more than others, especially of the coming of Men. Unfinished Tales I read a few times, with many references to certain chapters depending on what I'm writing or RP ing at the time.

Sadly, since the coming of the movies, I have read the trilogy only once, and I feel that some of the 'magic' has worn off. Why? I don't know. I saw a few bits of the movie on UPN this weekend, and I thought of the books and how I see the whole world that I read of before the movie images came out, and that is what I wish to remember. Unfortunately when I read it after seeing the movies, I would at times have those images interfere with my original mind images, and in that, it became more of a struggle to keep it pure. So now I relish in my minds images, and do not read it anymore except in reference. Middle Earth lives on in my mind!