Books - Lord of the Rings Book Discussion - Page 3

LKB · 08-13-2003, 10:31 PM

Soz - I would have to agree. The book is the original, so the movie would be a spoiler for the book. (Don't worry, we all get nitpickty about something.) [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Soz · 08-14-2003, 01:15 AM

[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Thanks LKB.

I read FOTR years ago and barely remembered it so the movie seemed almost all new. But I loved reading the book because there was so much more there and I got to totally immerse myself in Middle-earth, which one can only do so much with a 3 hour movie. For each movie, I will have a slightly different experience. I read FOTR, but didn't remember much, read part of TTT, but never finished so I'm reading it now, and for ROTK, I'll see the movie after reading the book because I intend to read the book soon. I really want to find out the end of the story from the book rather than from the movie. After reading FOTR, I watched the movie again, and I plan to do the same thing with TTT later this month. I like to see just what has been changed, left out, done perfectly, etc.

Has anyone else taken the Barnes & Noble LOTR class? I was thinking of taking it after I read the books because there's no way I can read LOTR, plus The Hobbit in only four weeks!

Crossbow · 08-14-2003, 02:35 PM

I read the books twice before I sw the movies, and I think the movies increased my enjoyment of the books when I read them a third time. I always thought the weakness of the books was that Frod wasn't a very well-defined character. I know people will disagree, but that's how it was for me. Having Elijah Woods's interpretation to back up my mental image made me like Frodo a lot more. The third time through, I acutally cared whether he lived or died.

jjt · 08-14-2003, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Soz:


Has anyone else taken the Barnes & Noble LOTR class? I was thinking of taking it after I read the books because there's no way I can read LOTR, plus The Hobbit in only four weeks!

Would love to .. but time wont allow. [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

jjt · 10-02-2003, 08:10 PM

I'm mid Two Towers now. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] I have high hopes of getting thru all three books before the 3rd movie. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

***Raonaild*** · 10-03-2003, 11:51 AM

I'm reading RotK now, should be done in a week or so. It's the book I remember the least because I've started reading the series a bunch of times and got distracted before I made it to the final volume. I think I'll try to go through the appendixes this time too, I've never really looked through them before.

jjt · 10-04-2003, 09:34 AM

Hey Roan .. I'm almost thru two towers .. should start on Rotk this weekend. Have you read The Silmarillion?

***Raonaild*** · 10-04-2003, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jjt:
Hey Roan .. I'm almost thru two towers .. should start on Rotk this weekend. Have you read The Silmarillion?

I bought a copy when I bought the LotR trilogy, but I haven't read it yet. Too many other unread books on my bookshelf [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Side note, my current copy of the LotR is actually the third set I've read: the first I borrowed the trilogy from the library, the second set I bought years ago and they've gotten pretty worn and ratty since, and the third I bought when the movies started coming out. It's funny actually, I'm not an autograph hound by any stretch, but my new copy of FotR is actually signed by Elijah Wood. Turns out he was filming a movie in town that my uncle was working on, so my uncle took my LotR books with him to work one day.

jjt · 10-04-2003, 05:48 PM

Very cool! I'd keep that one in good condition .. and buy another to read. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

PVCscully · 10-05-2003, 09:21 AM

I'm reading the LOTR saga for the second time. I read the books a year ago, and have just picked it up again, I'm about 3/4 of the way through FOTR, and I'm loving it just as much. Seeing the movie of TTT made me more interested in the books, in the whole world that Tolkien created, and I'm looking forward to the movie of ROTK. I was never keen on the animated LOTR though...

Anyway, after finishing the books last year, I was at a loss as to what to read after that...how do you follow such an epic tale? And I'm already lost in it again. Interesting to read people's thoughts on the books, especially as I live only a few miles from Tolkien's old house, the real towers that inspired the two towers in the book, and the bog that inspired the marshes.

I bought a copy of the Silmarillion the other day, and plan to read it after LOTR.

I've read The Hobbit twice, once before LOTR and once after, but I didn't like it either time.

[ 10-05-2003: Message edited PVCscully ]

jjt · 10-05-2003, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PVCscully:

I've read The Hobbit twice, once before LOTR and once after, but I didn't like it either time.

[img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] Yeah I enjoyed it .. but it didn't suck me in like fellowship did. I'd always thought I didn't make it thru the series when I tried to read it back in high school. But as I read [and flip ahead] I remember most of the major action. So perhaps I did? It's much much better this time around though .. now that I'm more mature and patient. [img]smilies/innocent.gif[/img]

StellaSlight · 10-05-2003, 04:37 PM

I didn't like The Hobbit either, when I read it the first time. I didn't like the story, and frankly, the characters seemed all weird and crazy to me.
Many years later, I read the LotR series and I fell in love with the books, and I decided to re-read The Hobbits. I certainly understood it better, but I still didn't like it.

Ilyena · 10-07-2003, 04:56 AM

I read the books in swedish after I had seen the first movie. Now I'm in the middle of re-reading almost every book in english. It's much nicer reading them in english, what annoyed me in the swedish books was that they had translated the names. Like Strider was something completely else in the swedish books.

StellaSlight · 10-07-2003, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ilyena:
I read the books in swedish after I had seen the first movie. Now I'm in the middle of re-reading almost every book in english. It's much nicer reading them in english, what annoyed me in the swedish books was that they had translated the names. Like Strider was something completely else in the swedish books.

In the French version, the traduction is very old. They kept the first traduction, so some of the names are translated too. For exemple, Frodo and Bilbo have become Frodon and Bilbon. And Strider has turned into Grand-Pas. All the others have kept their original name.

-anna- · 10-07-2003, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by StellaSlight:
I didn't like The Hobbit either, when I read it the first time. I didn't like the story, and frankly, the characters seemed all weird and crazy to me.
Many years later, I read the LotR series and I fell in love with the books, and I decided to re-read The Hobbits. I certainly understood it better, but I still didn't like it.

That happened to me and the LotR series. I didn't like it at first, but then I read 'The Silmarillion' and understood LotR better. Now I'm in love with it.

'The Silmarillion' is a wonderful book. It enables us to understand so many aspects of the Tolkienverse, including key LotR characters, like Galadriel, Sauron, Elrond ...