The Lord of the Rings

[Sparrowhawk]

Who here has read this wonderful masterpiece of fantasy literature?

[elfLINGofnuitari]

Have not gotten around to reading the books. My brother despised them and one of my friends couldn't read them because they were 'too boring'. This is not very encouraging and I'm not sure if I'm going to read them.

[Sparrowhawk]

Your brother despised them? They're my second favorite book/series after The Silmarillion. I think they are awesome. I know some people have thought they were 'too boring,' but the only ones that I know who have said that have been ones who rarely read anything, let alone something that was published in 1952.

[elfLINGofnuitari]

Lol, my brother actually loves to read so, *shrug*. I guess he's an exception. I might read them, but, the problem is that everyone always wants me to read some book or another, so I never have time to read them... maybe this summer.

[Ven]

i love to read... (if i get into a book i WILL finish it before i do anythign else)
but it was too descriptive...
it was like...
it's like a Robert Jordan book... you're on page 130 and you're not out of the prologue yet...

[Sparrowhawk]

Well, actually none of RJ's books had 130-page-long prologues, so far as I remember. None of the WoT ones, at least. Knife of Dreams had a 90-page prologue, though.

You thought LotR was too descriptive? Lol--there are still debates about what Legolas looked like. I don't think it was descriptive enough.

[Meldawen]

Hey, are you kidding me? They did Legolas wrong in the movie, I'm almost positive he had dark hair. Incidentally, I've read the book (it's one book. Not a trilogy) eight times and counting, which is nothing compared to some, but okay.

And a note: If you're reading LotR for the first time, skip the prologue. Concerning Hobbits and all that jazz. It's interesting the second time you read it.

[Sparrowhawk]

I imagine Legolas with brown hair. Not necessarily black, not at all blonde. It works out.

And...yeah. If we get into a battle of how many times we've read it, I've read it 24 times now, so....

I read "Concerning Hobbits" the first time I read the book. It didn't take me too long, because I was very intent on reading the entire book. I think it took me all of 5-10 minutes, maybe. And then it got on to the really interesting stuff.

I love that book It is almost as good as The Silmarillion, but I like the characters in the latter more.

[Ven]

no i didn't mean EVERYTHING

just...
too much in general

[Sparrowhawk]

.....

pfft. I love Tolkien's descriptions. He needed to put in more.

[Ven]

..
hm
personal preferences

[RaistlinMajere]

I've read them a grand total of once. Congratulate me, yes I know. And I call myself a LotR fan, which I'm really not. Kudos to Tolkien for inspiring Salvatore on Forgotten Realms, though, and pretty much setting the foundation for modern fantasy.

I thought the plot itself to be not engaging enough, but the breadth and scope of the world was fascinating. It made me look again at a few of my own worlds. This is one of the difficulties of rping with LotR, as well as the fact that our rping styles now don't seem to embrace the classical elements of Tolkien's style.

[Ven]

hm...
well, not being a big fan of the books... you'll excuse me if ihave no idea what you're talking about

[Sparrowhawk]

Lol, ven. Yeah, that's my personal opinion, but EVERYONE SHALL POSSESS IT ONCE I AM THROUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *evil laugh*

Lol, LDM. I was reading one of his (Tolkien's) letters the other day, and Elvish was actually one of the languages he tried coming up with as a child. Most children abandon their youthful languages, but he kept modifying it, making it more realistic, and working on the other ones, too. So he spent years developing it. I don't think I could spend that long on any of my books.

Tolkien's writing style seems kind of distant, but if you let yourself get pulled in, it's perfect. However, I was never really experiencing the emotions that people felt in it, as I have with other books. It was more as though I was looking in through a window at them. However, it is the depth and detail of the book that really pulls me in. Aragorn, Frodo, and the rest of the characters are cool and all, but things get much more interesting when you forget about the basic plot for a while and just look at all the little details that Tolkien put in. I love that book just for those.

RPGs don't have Tolkien's Classical style, but can you imagine how they would be if they did? That would just be....weird. And difficult.

[Meldawen]

I would quite enjoy it, though. The problem is half that it's so tempting (for me) to play the elfmaid-who-joins-the-Dunedain, and that totally wrecks it instantly. I resist the temptation, but others...not so much. Lots of times there just isn't room for an Eowyn-like character.

I found the plot very engaging at certain points. I stayed up really late reading, for example, Shelob's Lair. Most bloodchilling chapter EVER. The whole reason I read LotR was because I saw FotR on DVD and then TTT in the theatres on the same weekend and decided I had to know what happened.