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keri
2013-01-04 04:28 am UTC (link)

Dunno if it matters much, but I was a voracious reader as a kid and loved fantasy, so someone gave me a copy of the Hobbit for my 9th or 10th birthday (can't remember which). I tried to read it several times throughout my teenage years, but could never get past the first page or two. It was just mind-numbingly boring and tedious.

I've never felt inclined to make an effort again, especially when I see people mention the LotR as more difficult with harder language... On the other hand, I realized at some point in high school that I don't really like High Fantasy as led by Tolkien anyway. And I don't give a flip about spoilers for something so old. Or new. I like knowing how things end. TVTropes is my friend.

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	iczer6 2013-01-04 07:06 am UTC (link)
	This 100%. All I know about Tolkien was what I learned from the Rankin-Bass animated movies and the live actions movies. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ardath_rekha 2013-01-04 08:31 am UTC (link)
	It's... such a relief to "hear" people saying this. I always thought there was something really wrong with me because I couldn't get into Tolkien. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

ghostmaster
2013-01-04 05:36 pm UTC (link)

Me, too. I got through Hobbit, but I don't remember much about it because I was so mind-numbingly bored. I couldn't read but a few pages of LotR. I guess I liked the movies well enough, but they were slow and tedious for me. I still feel like a failure for not memorizing every page of all four books somehow. Every time someone makes a reference that I don't get, they look at me all weird and make me feel self-conscious.

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alcesx2
2013-01-08 10:02 pm UTC (link)

No, you're DEFINITELY not alone. Tolkien, Lewis, and Dickens are all authors I cannot stand because they take too damn long to get to the point. Like I pride myself on being able to read quite a bit of stuff and I LOVE detail, but I just about threw myself off a cliff trying to wade through "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." Then I felt bad for hating a book (it was the first book I was going UGH all the time), so I waded through the next one and finally gave up on the third one.

When I had to read Charles Dickens for my honors English class Sophomore year, I just about died. I couldn't. I ended up reading the Great Illustrated Classics version just to pass my tests and write my papers.

TL;DR: YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

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adverb
2013-01-04 12:29 pm UTC (link)

My "advanced reading group" in fourth grade read the Hobbit, and I liked it (okay, I mostly just liked the riddles part of it) - it and Tamora Pierce (whose books I was recommended at the same time by a German exchange student) were actually what got me into reading fantasy books instead of nothing but Civil War historical fiction.

So a couple of years later I decided to try and read the Lord of the Rings. I got the collected tome (I think this was around when the first movie came out?), and I spent about three years trying to get past page ten. I still haven't ever managed it.

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	lady_ganesh 2013-01-04 04:53 pm UTC (link)
	The first time I tried LOTR, I made it about halfway through the second volume, I think, before I completely stalled out. I slogged through the whole business when the movies came out, though. (One help: skimming all the songs.) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	uldihaa 2013-01-04 10:03 pm UTC (link)
	Same here. I gave up completely when I realized I was skimming over a quarter of the book though. I just couldn't "connect" to the books. Tolkien loved language and the written word and it showed. Personally I'd have been happier with a little less "love" and quite a bit more simply "like". (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lady_ganesh 2013-01-04 11:52 pm UTC (link)
	Hahah, true that. He builds up character, but it's pretty subtle, and it definitely took seeing the characters onscreen to make me fall in love with them. (Reply to this)(Parent)

harrylovesron
2013-01-05 09:46 pm UTC (link)

This was me, too. I loved The Hobbit, but the main trilogy was so tedious I put it down halfway through Two Towers and haven't felt inclined to pick them back up. I loved the movies, but the books were too much for me. I love fantasy of all sorts, but Tolkien's style just does not jive with me for some reason- but then again, I've seen even hardcore Tolkien fans admit that first-time readers should probably skim through some parts to make it more palatable.

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	lady_ganesh 2013-01-05 10:03 pm UTC (link)
	IMO, the reason his stories are so strong in some ways - that loving, obsessive attention to detail - just overwhelms the narrative at times. And not in that fun, "Melville is just completely in love with whaling okay" way that say, Moby Dick has. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	omgpolarbear 2013-01-06 12:45 pm UTC (link)
	The beginning of the book is a slog. I remember being 11 and hating the march through the forest and the arrival of Tom Bombadil with a passion. Every time I re-read the books, I tell myself it can't be that bad and YES YES IT IS ACTUALLY. Once they get to the Prancing Poney, though, I can't drop the book anymore. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	hosta 2013-01-07 11:27 am UTC (link)
	I loved the Hobbit. And then I read ALL OF LOTR hoping it'd be fun again like the Hobbit. ALL OF IT. I was a stupid, hopeful, dangerously tenacious reader of a kid. You missed the stuff in the movies, plus some moments of wtf, a little poetry and a great many descriptions of food. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	coffeebun 2013-01-07 03:58 pm UTC (link)
	YES THIIIIIS. All attempts I've made to read the main trilogy failed after 50 pages or so, it was just so dull. The Hobbit though I easily breezed through when I was 15. Huh. (Reply to this)(Parent)

amaresu
2013-01-04 02:19 pm UTC (link)

I know I read them in 7th grade, LotR and the Hobbit. I know this because I remember being annoying that my school library didn't have Return of the King and I had to hunt it down at the public library. When Fellowship hit the theaters I tried to read them again and I just couldn't. They were so tedious and full of information that I didn't care about. Not to mention the long, drawn out descriptions of everything.

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