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What book(s) are you currently reading or listening to? June 09 (discuss.online)
submitted 14 hours ago by dresden@discuss.online to c/books@lemmy.world
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What have you been reading or listening to lately?

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[–] rowrowrowyourboat@sh.itjust.works 7 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Finally reading The Lord of the Rings.

Almost at the end of Fellowship, but I must say it has been a bit of a drag.

I will most definitely finish it, but from all the hype I did have slighty higher expectations.

It's also very likely that since I have already seen the movies and loved them, and already know what is going to happen, it has somewhat taken away from the book experience.

Although the whole Bombadil section was new, and I did not find it especially interesting.

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

Bear in mind that LOTR started out as a sequel to a children’s book, and changed into something else about halfway through FOTR. So you’re literally seeing the epic fantasy genre being born on the page in front of you.

[–] hakase@lemmy.zip 5 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

While technically true, I feel that this is a bit of a misnomer. Even though LotR is usually considered the archetypal example of "epic/high fantasy", based on the other most popular works in the genre I think that LotR (and the rest of the non-Hobbit legendarium) is better described as "myth", and I think that fans of epic/high fantasy coming to Tolkien are often disappointed for this reason.

For me the disappointment went the other direction - I read LotR first, and then I went on a fantasy reading binge and was repeatedly let down because I couldn't understand why none of it felt like Tolkien.

[–] rowrowrowyourboat@sh.itjust.works 3 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

I did read The Hobbit and enjoyed it quite a bit. It felt much smoother.

Also read his short stories "Farmer Giles of Ham" and "Leaf by Niggle".