A Man With An Agenda

Last time I read this was as a marathon-read along with 'The Lord of the Rings' in preparation for 'The Fellowship of the Ring' opening in theaters, and somehow I forgot how different the two are.

Reading other reviews just how many people have a connection with their parents through 'The Hobbit'. It is a book that must be shared. My parents didn't read this to me, but I remember my dad urging me many times to read it, pulling out his old Tolkien paperbacks and leaving them in visible places. A VHS copy of Rankin/Bass' 'The Hobbit' turned up in the video cabinet, too.

So with rolling eyes I tried, but didn't get past the dwarves singing about cracking plates. "This is soo dumb Dad." I said, and then probably returned to a Goosebumps books--something for which I'm incredibly sorry Dad, I'm sorry! At least I did get here, eventually.

'The Hobbit' is such a different creature from the trilogy that I am still puzzling over how I could have retroactively rewritten the book in the higher, and yes, duller, style of 'The Lord of the Rings'? I remember liking the books as I read them but when I closed 'The Return of the King' I remember thinking, "No need to read those ever again." An attitude that may still apply to the trilogy, though I feel my resolve weakening.

Through all the terrors that Bilbo goes though, the longing for home and comfort, the battles and spiders, the tone is comforting and light and even funny? How could I have forgotten? If nothing else, the movie will have motivated me to rescue a classic from faint praise.