How did you begin to like LotR??

[Valarauko5]

That's kind of weird to. I actually gave that same link (just found out looking) to a friend of mine on Facebook and I KNOW it worked then. I'm not sure what I did to get it to work.

[Sicirus]

I started reading when my dad gave me the books stating "You will like these" and I did. I started with the trilogy and then The Hobbit. I read Silmarillion later when I got obsessed. Need to read the Unfinished tales, bought it quite a while ago and haven't had time to read it yet.

[Valandil]

Originally Posted by Sicirus

I started reading when my dad gave me the books stating "You will like these" and I did. I started with the trilogy and then The Hobbit. I read Silmarillion later when I got obsessed. Need to read the Unfinished tales, bought it quite a while ago and haven't had time to read it yet.

Fortunately, UT is one you can read in bits - and you don't have to start with the first story. You can skip around to points of interest, or shorter segments to get you going - because each is a separate story that stands on its own - filling in part of the larger Middle Earth story.

[Sicirus]

Excellent!! I do that with Silmarillion now whenever I want to return to a certain story. I shall work on the book in that way.

[Thorir Orcbane]

I've loved the Hobbit first, but that was a long time ago. I now find everything written by Tolkien fascinating. The Silmarillion is one of my new favourites also.

[Morwen]

I finally read it after my parents kept telling me to when I was 14. Also, I wasn't allowed to watch the movies before I'd read the books, which annoyed me, everyone else was dressing up as Arwen and I had no idea who she was...
Now I'm so glad I read them before, as I think my images of all the characters would have been tainted otherwise. Immediately became a massive Tolkein nerd.

[Thorir Orcbane]

Originally Posted by Valandil

Fortunately, UT is one you can read in bits - and you don't have to start with the first story. You can skip around to points of interest, or shorter segments to get you going - because each is a separate story that stands on its own - filling in part of the larger Middle Earth story.

where could one buy the UT?

[Sicirus]

Originally Posted by Thorir Orcbane

where could one buy the UT?

Borders should have it. Or Barnes and Nobles.

[katya]

Originally Posted by Morwen

I finally read it after my parents kept telling me to when I was 14. Also, I wasn't allowed to watch the movies before I'd read the books, which annoyed me, everyone else was dressing up as Arwen and I had no idea who she was...
Now I'm so glad I read them before, as I think my images of all the characters would have been tainted otherwise. Immediately became a massive Tolkein nerd.

I wish someone would've done that for me. Most parents obviously just don't care about their children nowadays, not in the places where it counts.

[Morwen]

Well both my parents are Tolkien fans, so that's why, I guess
When I have children, I'll have read them The Hobbit and LOTR before they can speak, probably...

[katya]

My dad's side of the family are Tolkien fans. My uncles house started out as a party shack called "The Hobbit". But they're not really the type to worry about mental images of characters being tainted forever or anything like that.

I don't want to have children, but I'll do what I can for any nieces and nephews.

[Ingwe]

I got into it just after the first movie was released. My wife, who back then was just a friend of mine from college, got me to see the movie. I said to her before going to see it, "what is this Lord of the Rings, is this like Lord of the Dance?" She seemed surprised, asking me if I'd seen the previews for the movie. I said, nope. Well, we went to see the movie and it was just utterly amazing! Eventually she got me into reading the books, and that was even more amazing.

Thus it began!

[Peregrina_Took]

I started reading the books about a year ago...Everyone else in the family was reading them then, but I was convinced that the books were totally pointless and not worth my time. I held out for several months, until I had a breakthrough.

I was walking through my kitchen one boring day when I saw The Hobbit sitting on a counter. I grabbed it on impulse and read it all the way through in a matter of hours.

I enjoyed it, but I still refused to actually read LotR until a good bit later. When I did, it was also on impulse.

I've been hooked ever since.

[Pitchike12]

Well...I have found this book since I was 3rd grade, but never read it until I was 4th grade. I started liking this book after I finished the book called "The Hobbit" and after reading it I've watch the movie. But there is a little difference between the movie and the book.

[thekingofgondor]

When I was little I saw the cartoon Hobbit movie which I really liked, and then I read the book, which I loved, but for some reason I never knew that it was connected to anything else, and then over the summer before my freshman year of HS we had "The Hobbit" as part of our summer reading list, and I re-fell in love with it, only this time I was well aware of it being connected to LOTR, so I went out and bought the trilogy to read, followed by the Silmarillion some time later. It was around that time as well that the first film came out, so between the books and the films, I just ended up becoming a huge Tolkien fan. But "The Hobbit" will always have a special place in my heart for being one of the first "fantasy" books I really loved, and introducing me to the joys of sword-fighting, treasure-hunting, dragon-slaying, and cavorting with dwarves and elves and wizards.

[paul]

I came to LotR via the movieis . Then I read the set and find that as enjoyable . My favorite hobbitt Sam Wise Gamgee ,
Person I would wanted help in time of trouble Any of the Fellowship of the Ring
Least favorite charecter Saruman
Did I like the movies over the books ? Its a draw the books give one several hours/days of reading while the movis run to 12 hours more or less of watching.

[mithrand1r]

Originally Posted by shesabrandybuck

I'm sorry if something like this has already been said, but I thought it would be cool to see how everyone began to like LotR.


Instead of being read bedtime stories before I fell asleep as a kid, my dad read me the Hobbit. I honestly don't remember how I felt about it, being so young, but it was a nice change. All my life my dad had LotR things around the house. My favorite was to play this LotR computer game he had, all I remember was being in Shelob's cave as Bilbo and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I am so happy that my dad got me into this whole "world of Tolkien" as you might say, and I am really proud of being a Tolkien for such a long time.


Also, my dad is the user Keith K if you remember him...

Probably seeing the hobbit during the 80's. Eventually, I did read the books.

On rereads, I find it difficult to get through The Old Forrest, Tom Bombadil and Sam/Frodo delivering the ring to its final destination. It is not impossible, but I find myself wanting to get to other parts of the story.

[Beren3000]

Originally Posted by shesabrandybuck

I'm sorry if something like this has already been said, but I thought it would be cool to see how everyone began to like LotR.


Instead of being read bedtime stories before I fell asleep as a kid, my dad read me the Hobbit. I honestly don't remember how I felt about it, being so young, but it was a nice change. All my life my dad had LotR things around the house. My favorite was to play this LotR computer game he had, all I remember was being in Shelob's cave as Bilbo and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I am so happy that my dad got me into this whole "world of Tolkien" as you might say, and I am really proud of being a Tolkien for such a long time.


Also, my dad is the user Keith K if you remember him...

You're so lucky to have a father like that! I'm a late comer to the Tolkien world: I was introduced to it through PJ's the Fellowship of the Ring movie. I immediately became hooked and I finished LoTR and the Silmarillion before the second movie came out

[The Gaffer]

The maps.

A mate had drawn a large size copy of the maps and put it up on his bedroom wall.

That was it: hooked. I wanted to know what all these places were.

I never did find out WTF was going on with Forodwaith and Enedwaith. Grr

Anyway, how awesome is this?? A map of Middle-Earth superimposed on a map of Europe.

http://www.bogost.com/middle-earth.jpg (big file so I didn't embed it so as not to knacker the margins)

Looks a bit dubious, but I am off to Weathertop next week, apparently.. good enough for me.

[inked]

http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/featu...vw_may2011.asp

The above is a book about Tolkien that I had not previously heard of. Has anyone read it?

I went from Narnia to Middle Earth because I knew that CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien were colleagues and friends ( a la Inklings). There are interesting connections between the works.