The Hobbit
J.R.R Tolkien
1937
Around 310 pages
Like many nerds, I can trace my lineage to reading The Hobbit in middle school. I absolutely love the world that Tolkien created in his matter-of-fact English way. I would love to live in the Shire, and at 5'2" I would hardly need to duck. I remember putting the novel down in the cafeteria, trying to solve the riddles Gollum posed to Bilbo myself. I definitely would have died in the caves. I sure had some wild times back then.
Gandalf tricks Bilbo into throwing a party for 13 dwarves, who are on a quest to reclaim their ancient home from the dragon Smaug. Gandalf encourages Bilbo as the group's burglar, because dwarves suck at stealth.
As I've gotten older, my tastes have shifted away from Middle Earth, because I want more sex and blood in my stories. But of course I still love the OG of the fantasy world, and I know that a lot of my future favorites were heavily inspired by this. And how could they not be? He's an excellent world builder, and I'll read any story with a dragon.
I know we hate on the movies a lot, and rightfully so, but I am excited we finally got a hot dwarf.
RATING: *****
Interesting Facts:
Tolkien's friend C.S. Lewis wrote of the novel: "The truth is that in this book a number of good things, never before united, have come together: a fund of humour, an understanding of children, and a happy fusion of the scholar's with the poet's grasp of mythology... The professor has the air of inventing nothing. He has studied trolls and dragons at first hand and describes them with that fidelity that is worth oceans of glib 'originality.'"
Tolkien would often write letters to his children from Father Christmas. Tolkien, you old softie.
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1 comment:
I remember as a boyscout in my childhood, a friend brought s book to the tent and introduced me to The Hobbit and the world was never the same again.
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