25-01-2003 20:10									#1
	Confession: I'm a LotR virgin Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Here's a shocking revelation. I haven't read LotR, or seen it in the theaters.

I am currently on my fifth attempt at reading The Lord of the Rings. In fact, LotR was the last thing I bought when I left Britain - I got a nice big fat book and decided to read it at last.

I can't make it past the first 100 pages or so. I'm a D&D fan and I consider myself to be fairly amenable to most fantasy (I read P N Elrod and Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger novels, to name a few) but LotR is surprisingly impenetrable.

I've been told by friends that it picks up later and all the pieces fall together. But I'm afraid I've fallen victim to Dracula syndrome, where the genre that follows a piece of work eclipses it by changing audience demands thereof.

(Dracula started the vampire genre, but if you look at the best grossing vampire movies and books out there today, they are entire orders of complexity higher than Bram Stoker's creation.)

I am adamant that I will not watch the LotR films until I have read the book. This may very well mean never.

Why is it so hard for me to just lie back and enjoy the pleasure of LotR? It seems to come naturally to everybody else. Am I being too tense? Am I expecting too much? Do I need more lubricant (alcohol)?

Suggestions, comments.

	25-01-2003 20:37									#2
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I've experimented a bit. "Hobbit", by JRRT.

you're not alone, Alinestra.

	25-01-2003 20:37									#3
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Have you read The Hobbit? It's a much simpler introduction to Tolkien's world and you can get to know hobbits and goblins and Gandalf without trying to keep track of battles from 3000 years ago.

	25-01-2003 20:44									#4
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I've read the Hobbit. It was a good book. Well-plotted, well-set, and most importantly well-paced.

LotR by contrast seems to prefer going into diversions of staggering length about the practical applications that Hobbits have for their foot-hair and the ambiguities of the Hobbits' Higher Pedantic Script.

I find LotR fairly boring, to be honest. Everybody else says it's great. What am I missing?

	25-01-2003 21:04									#5
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With the book, don't be afraid to skip parts that are uninteresting to you--you may just not be in the mood, or you might become interested in a diversion in the future. No need to force it. It was three or four times reading the book before I started to grok (and read thoroughly) the songs.

So, for instance, try skipping the introduction re hobbits. You might also try skipping Bombadil and the Barrow Wights. Chapters 6-8.

	25-01-2003 21:06									#6
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"The King is naked" -Alinestra Covelia

	25-01-2003 22:42									#7
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Your're are a _ virgin, Aline?

	25-01-2003 22:49									#8
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I saw the topic, I saw the starter, and I waited for some perv to make a joke like UR did.

	25-01-2003 23:31									#9
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The first 100 pages of the "Fellowship" are probably the most boring stuff in the entire series. Heck, even when I rewatch the movie now, I skip through the early part.

Until the ring wraiths show up, it's just a snooze.

So just keep giving it a try. You will really like it once you get past the boring stuff.

	25-01-2003 23:36									#10
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You need a significant other who is a LOTR fanatic. That's the only thing that made me read it. And don't tell her, but I didn't like it that much. Won't read it again, well, at least FOTR - I've got better things to do. The only spot where I can recall things really pacing up was somewhere around the end of The Two Towers. The ending (returning to Shire) was pretty longwinded as well...

Edit - and it took me whopping four months to read it. Now this is me, I usually read a book in two days, one week tops. I do wonder if it had been quicker if it was in English, the Finnish translation I read allegedly makes the book even more boring and complicated.

	25-01-2003 23:58									#11
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I could imagine Finnish could such the fun out of anything

	26-01-2003 00:36									#12
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quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger Your're are a _ virgin, Aline?

i was waiting for one of those, or a "i'll help pop your cherry! [links to sites]" message

predictable

	26-01-2003 00:45									#13
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I have read the Hobbit 3 times now and the 3 books of LotR twice. And the first book Samil... (heck what wat the title - cant spell it) but the book from the first and second age two times also.

And all I can say is, that you get more and more and more of the story every time you read the books (well I did) .

Because you will with no doubt miss/forget important parts of the story the first and second time you read it.

Reading all them books at least twice or even 3 times isn't that bad at all. IMHO.

	26-01-2003 02:34									#14
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Yeah, that's the reason I've read all five parts of The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy four times in two different languages.

	26-01-2003 02:42									#15
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I'd been on my friend's case to read the books for the past eight years, but he could never make it past that first 100 pages. He saw the movies when they came out though (he's a tremendous fan of swords and 'splosions on the big screen), and it finally gave him the impetus to finish the damn book.

You might want to see the first LOTR movie, just so that you'll be able to figure out what parts to skip in the book.

	26-01-2003 03:17									#16
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Seen the movies, haven't read the books other than Hobbit.

	26-01-2003 03:55									#17
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I've never even seen the books, but the movies were wicked good!

	26-01-2003 04:05									#18
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the books are great, the fellowship is a little slow fro some to began with though

if you would think it helps, skip some of the elrond and party stuff the first time through ( I would never do this though)

Jon Miller

	26-01-2003 04:20									#19
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Same here. I have never been one for reading literature...but I did enjoy the films

	26-01-2003 07:07									#20
	Re: Confession: I'm a LotR virgin Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia Here's a shocking revelation. I haven't read LotR, or seen it in the theaters. I am currently on my fifth attempt at reading The Lord of the Rings. In fact, LotR was the last thing I bought when I left Britain - I got a nice big fat book and decided to read it at last.

Just get past the first book and the rest is all good. Tolkien was a master of the slow start and the great finish.

As much as I love the story now, it was hard getting past the beginninjg.

	26-01-2003 07:12									#21
	Confession: I'm a LotR slut Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I can't even remember how many different times I have read it and where.

	26-01-2003 07:16									#22
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quote: to grok

Hey DanS, I did't know you were a Martian?

About LOTR, it's like the Bible, just skip the boring parts and you are left with one heck of a great story...

	26-01-2003 14:13									#23
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Yup, just give it a try, it is worth it.
Especially "The two Towers" and "The return of the King" involve a lot of great battles.

And the first book is really getting to be interesting, when you get to the part where the Fellowship enters Khazad Dûm (Moria).

I loved the part when Gandalf read from the Chronicles with the last Days of Balins Folk which they found at Balins Tomb in Khazad Dûm.



....
Drums, Drums in the Deep.
They are coming

	26-01-2003 16:29									#24
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try skipping ALL the poetry

	26-01-2003 17:03									#25
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Oh, yeah, when I read it myself, I skipped the poetry too. At the start I looked through some parts that seemed important, but then decided for the better and let them all be.

	26-01-2003 17:57									#26
	Re: Confession: I'm a LotR virgin Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia Here's a shocking revelation. I haven't read LotR, or seen it in the theaters.

Same here. I can't be arsed, the genre doesn't really interest me, and I wasn't planning on either reading the books (or any other book by Tolkien) or watching the movie.

...until yesterday: yesterday, a guy at my work gave me the SVCDs of LotR2. [He burnt them for someone else, but that person already left, so he gave them to me.]

And now I am in dubio about whether or not I should watch it.

	26-01-2003 20:03									#27
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Well, I think I might wait until all three films have been released, then go watch them.

I haven't got the time to read the books yet, but I think a condensed 9-hour film trilogy should be manageable.

So, probably something to get around to late next year then.

	26-01-2003 20:05									#28
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quote: Originally posted by DanS You might also try skipping Bombadil and the Barrow Wights. Chapters 6-8.

Bombadil is the best part of the trilogy.

	26-01-2003 20:17									#29
	Re: Confession: I'm a LotR virgin Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

quote: Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia I am adamant that I will not watch the LotR films until I have read the book. This may very well mean never.

You shouldn't take that attitude! In many ways the film version is an experience of it's own. Consider that they've condensed a book that will take you many hours to read into about a three time slot. Something has to get lost, so right away there will be a difference between the two.

Enjoy the movie for what it is, and if you ever get the patience, you can still enjoy reading the passages they had to leave out, and the enhanced details that Tolkien included in his work.

	26-01-2003 20:18									#30
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quote: Originally posted by Felch X I saw the topic, I saw the starter, and I waited for some perv to make a joke like UR did.

What do you know? I left a blank and a couple of people rushed in to fill it with overactive imagination.