I have four weeks between my book club nights, but for some reason this month I procrastinated the majority of this book until the last two days before our discussion. I read "The Hobbit" in a great whirlwind, and in fact, the last 20 pages I borrowed my mom's "speed reading" trick of reading on the first and last lines of each paragraph to get the gist of what's going on.
I read "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy about 8 years ago. Okay, that's a lie. I read the first two and threw my hands up shortly into the third. I think I might have mild ADD, because the long descriptive passages in Tokien's books are hard for me to plow through. I need more dialogue to keep things going, and those moments aren't as common. But I persisted through "The Hobbit." I think it was easier because I was slightly more familiar with the story line from watching the cartoon version as a child. But of course that cartoon was incomplete, but I found the parts of the story that were new to me were really the highlights because I didn't know exactly what was coming. For example, I loved Beorn, the bear-man. I loved his character and morphing qualities, his hospitality to Bilbo and the dwarfs, and how he followed them through part of the forest.
My very most favorite part of this story was Bilbo's transformation from being the little bumbling hobbit who fretted over his forgotten handkerchief to the individual who became the leader in fulfilling the plans to restoring the dwarfs' treasure and kingdom.
I saw the movie a few months ago, not knowing it was only a third of the story. I was slightly appalled that "The Hobbit" book was to become a movie trilogy. But now that I have read it, I totally understand and I'm eager to see the other cinematic installments.
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