How the movies sparked my family's interest of Middle-earth

[KyleMcM]

First of all, I'd like to say "Hi" to everyone. This is my first post here. I found this site a few days ago via another link. What a wealth of information of Tolkien's world and what a wonderful group of people discussing various topics of Middle-earth.

I first read "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" about 20 years ago. My friends and I, being in our early teens, were drawn into Tolkien's writings. We would discuss various characters and stories every chance we could. However, no one in my family had any interest in the books. I remember my 15th birthday when I got "The Atlas the of Middle-earth" and some of my family rolled their eyes.

I must admit that my interest in Tolkien diminished over the years. With college, jobs, marriage etc. I read less and less, but the books always held a special place for me in the memories of my teens.

When I first heard about the movies, my interest was renewed and I picked up the books again. But I was not the only one that had an interest this time. My youngest sister started asking questions, and I suggest she read the books before the movies came out. She was hooked! My wife also became interested, and my oldest sister, and my mother, and my cousin.

These are women, all over the age of 27, with families, jobs, etc., who now have an interest in the books because of what they saw in the movies. All of them now are experiencing the incredible world that Tolkien created, where before, they thought the story was something only for kids.

I laughed to myself the other night when one of them asked me, "Exactly where is Middle-earth?" and I drew a crude map from memory from my old "Atlas of Middle-earth" . The same book that they had once rolled their eyes at.