LOTR.

So, I can't be the only one here who is totally obsessed with the Lord of the Rings.... and believe me, I am TOTALLY obsessed with the Lord of the Rings.

So, what do you like best about the series?

What do you like the least?

Who's your favorite character?

And your least favorite character?

Your favorite book in the series?

Aaaand least favorite book in the series?

Any favorite quotes?

Movies or books? (I know, silly question, but still....)

What did you like best about the movies?

What'd you like the least?

Have you read the SIl. or any of the other history of Middle Earth books?

Do you have the extended editions of the movies? Thoughts on them if you do?

Favorite movie actor?

Aaaand least favorite?

The absolute MOST ANNOYING change they made to the movies?

Favorite Harry Potter/LOTR comparisons?

Answer any or all of them. I'd love to discuss individual points on these things, though... it's been too long since I've talked to another LOTR fan!

Ooh finally a LOTR topic! I had a question about the series though (I'm starting to read The Hobbit): how many LOTR books are in the series? I can't seem to find a straight answer

RandmWiz wrote:

Ooh finally a LOTR topic! I had a question about the series though (I'm starting to read The Hobbit): how many LOTR books are in the series? I can't seem to find a straight answer

Well, the LOTR series has three books: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and the Return of the King, but there's also a whole lot of other books about Middle Earth, like The Hobbit, the SIlmarillion, the Children of Hurin, the Lays of Beleriand, and a TON more.

I haven't read the books; I've only watched the movies. BUT, I LOVE the movies though! I started reading "The Fellowship of the Ring" during winter break though but when college started after that, it was hard to read it because by the time I started it again, I had to start it all over because I hate reading a book in the middle. Sadly, I couldn't finish it because of more college work. I had so many essays that quarter. >_< I was planning on reading them in the summer but then I took summer classes. So, I'm on my summer vacation now and I only have about two more weeks left but I want to use it all to read HP. I've promised myself that I'll read LOTR though, by the end of this year at least.

Anyways, when I did read it, I got up to the part where they were in the mountains? With the rocks? Sorry if I've got the scene wrong, I can't really remember it. It was after the fellowship meeting. The chapter about the ring (I think it was the second chapter?) when Gandalf tells Frodo was really good. I was reading that part at night and I felt like I was IN the book. I kept looking around haha.

In the Return of the King movie, that battle scene was epic. XD

readergirl1028 wrote:

Well, the LOTR series has three books: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and the Return of the King, but there's also a whole lot of other books about Middle Earth, like The Hobbit, the SIlmarillion, the Children of Hurin, the Lays of Beleriand, and a TON more.

Ohh... okay. Thank you! It's just there's SO many books I'm so confused! I don't know what to read first or anything! I'm starting with The Hobbit... would I be confused on anything or is The Hobbit the book that introduces the whole LOTR saga?

RandmWiz wrote:

Ohh... okay. Thank you! It's just there's SO many books I'm so confused! I don't know what to read first or anything! I'm starting with The Hobbit... would I be confused on anything or is The Hobbit the book that introduces the whole LOTR saga?

Starting with The Hobbit would be an awesome place to start.

I started with the Fellowship, which was not horrible to start with either... really, either of those are fine for a beginning spot.

And since I first read The Hobbit in kindergarten and the Fellowship in first grade, I don't remember a whole lot about whether they were confusing because of where I started... I don't think so, though.

I read The Hobbit before I started on the Fellowship, partly because it was on my summer reading list. I have to admit I was having trouble getting through the Council of Elrond and only finished that chapter this morning. :O I guess I could use the excuse my brother was reading it so I couldn't..... but it's a library book and due tomorrow so I HAVE to finish it today.

But we watched the movie last weekend and my mom wants to go the the library and get the other two.

OMG I EFFING LOVE LOTR!!! Honestly that is what got me into reading even before Harry Potter. A lot of people grew up reading HP and other stuff but I grew up watching LOTR. My dad got me into it first because he has read all the books and when the movies came out we saw the first one the first week it came out, then saw it several more times before it went out of the theaters, then we bought the movies. I was almost constantly watching the movies when I was younger to a point where I can still watch the movies and quote it line for line.

I tried reading the books when I was younger, but I could not get past the first several chapters, because it is just so long! And there is so much description so it takes a while to get into the action, but after I decided I couldn't read those books I read The Hobbit and that is what started me on reading. After The Hobbit I went on to read TONS of books, including Harry Potter of course!

I recently tried to read the series again, and I'm currently in the middle of the second book, but I keep getting distracted by other books, so later this school year I'm going to reread the first one and start the second one over, so I actually know what's going on.

DorkyBookworm wrote:

... I grew up watching LOTR.... I was almost constantly watching the movies when I was younger to a point where I can still watch the movies and quote it line for line....

I tried reading the books when I was younger, but I could not get past the first several chapters, because it is just so long! And there is so much description so it takes a while to get into the action...

...I recently tried to read the series again, and I'm currently in the middle of the second book, but I keep getting distracted by other books...

First, same with me! But I grew up reading it, not watching. It's sort of a family thing- my mom read them before first grade, my grandma read them before first grade, and so did I.

And I can pretty much quote the movies line for line, too. (: And whole sections of the books. I can do that with Harry Potter, though, too, so...

The whole thing with it being really slow in the beginning is what astonishes me that I actually got through it as a little kid, and understood it all to boot, and then kept reading through to the 2nd and 3rd books.

I've read all the books at least 10 times each, but I also went back to re-read them again recently (because it's been several years since my real LOTR stage) and I got until the beginning of the RotK before I decided I had books to read, worlds to discover, and not enough time to re-read the old favorite at that time period.


Now, this is a PostSecret-ish confession that I've hardly ever told anyone, but under the safety of the anonymity of "readergirl1028," I'll say it here:

When I was little, my mom bought me an awesome new set of the LOTR for my graduation from second grade, and threw out my old, battered, yard sale copies. The thing was, as awesome as these new books were, the old books meant more to me (I read them so often that people at school called them the Blue Book, the Green Book, and the Red Book, because those were the colors of the covers of my old copies, and my new copies didn't have those colors, just pictures from the movies.) But I, stupidly, let her throw them away.

All except the RotK, which had always been my favorite, which I kept in secret and hid under my pillow for years. Finally, when it wasn't an issue anymore, I took it back out and put it on the shelf, but it just looked so lonely there without the other two, that I decorated it all pretty, taped up the fallen off cover, added stickers to every page, wrote notes, drew pictures in it, highlighted passages, wrote quotes from other books and people at the top of the pages, translated things to Dwarvish in it, wrote my own review of it and stuck it in there, stuck in magazine clippings about it and the movies, just made it completely and totally my own.

And now that it was so mutilated/awesome I couldn't just leave it on the shelf. Anyways, it's just such a contributing factor in my childhood (the LOTR in general, I mean, not just this copy). So it still stays under my pillow, and I take it with me when I travel. Other people have safety blankets, stuffed animals they still sleep with after years and years, and I have this battered old copy of the RotK covered in stickers and quotes.