Book Review: The Fellowship of the Ring

Title: The Fellowship of the Ring
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Category: Fantasy
Length: 398 pages
My Rating: 9 – One of the best books I've ever read

From Goodreads.com: Frodo Baggins knew the Ringwraiths were searching for him - and the Ring of Power he bore that would enable Sauron to destroy all that was good in Middle-earth. Now it was up to Frodo and his faithful servant Sam to carry the Ring to where it could be detroyed - in the very center of Sauron's dark kingdom.

My Thoughts

My book club, The Cackling Hens, elected to read the trilogy this year. Two of our four members had never read it and, with the release of the movie The Hobbit in December, expressed an interest in reading them all together. I wasn't terribly excited about the re-read but, with the completion of the first one, am now into it.

I first read the trilogy when I was pregnant with my eldest who is now eleven and a half. The making of the movies was underway and my husband, who had started but never finished them, wanted to have them all read before the release of the movies. At the time, we were living about two hours away from his parents and driving to visit them every weekend. It was during these drives that I read the entire series out loud to my husband, who was driving, and myself. I fell in love.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy were only the second set of fantasy books I had ever read in my entire life—I was twenty-two. The first set, The Sword of Shannara, I had also read loud to my husband who had read them as a teenager and loved them. I have not enjoyed much fantasy beyond these two series—it's just not my thing—but I will forever love and remember them both. Although, LOTR is probably the only one that I will re-read, and even read aloud to my children when they get older.

So, this was my second time around, and I still love it! We had just finished watching the movies again over Christmas break, so I got to spend a lot of my reading thinking, "I can't believe they changed that!" and "Oh, Tom Bombadil! I was so upset when he wasn't in the first movie!" Another difference that stood out is how subtle the love story between Arwen and Aragorn is. It's just bare bones glimpses that leave you wondering, "Do they love each other? Is that what that means?"

I read a review recently from someone who gave this book 2 stars because he claimed the writing was too cliche. Yeah, that would be fair if you weren't talking about the author who started the genre. It was not cliche at all when these books were written. He also felt that Tolkien was too verbose and explained too much. This was a fair criticism as not everyone enjoys long descriptions. Personally, I disagree. I think Tolkien is very good at using words to slowly build the story, something we have to accustom ourselves to nowadays as we are being thrown new information constantly.

I'm really looking forward to discussing it with my girlfriends, and reading the remainder of the trilogy with them. We have The Hobbit planned for a homeschool read-aloud in the Fall. Yay!