I wanna read the trilogy (or at least the first two) before TTT comes out. Should I read The Hobbit first?
I don't see why not. Its not really on the same level as the triology though. Or Silmarillion for that matter.
Right, but would I need to read that one to understand the trilogy? I don't know if I could get through 3.5 books (I'm in the middle of a great one right now, The Cold Six Thousand) by December.
Can I be a nerd now and say that it is not really a trilogy? Heehee, just read two books - The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Should only take a few days.
Well, I only went to SWT, and I'm working two jobs, so I dunno if I can get through both of them (funny how they came in four separate books) by December. Could you maybe read to me rambo?
I'm working on the trilogy now, and I read The Hobbit first. You could probably sit down and read the entire book in a few hours. I recommend it.
RM95, For the record, I was not being insulting to you - as your response seems to indicate. I was posting while you did your post before mine so i did not see that, either...just a coincidence that the language was similar. My point about the "not a trilogy" was just to be a dorky joke. It is one of those odd things in life - one book broken up into three "books." Huh? The "few days" comment was because they are all fairly simple and quick reads. The Hobbit should add very little to your overall reading time of the whole thing...besides, you technically only need to read to the end of TTT before the movie, right?
I loved all the books, except the Silmarillion. It may be because I read all the others as a kid and have such a fond memory of them but Silmarrilion just didn't do it for me when I got it a year ago. My advice would be to read the Hobbit. I think it's the foundation for the books that follow and you will get a much greater apprecitaion of the work as a whole if you don't skip the story of Bilbo acquiring the ring.
Actually, it would be much better performed by the guy who dubs all of Stallone's films into French. That guy is hilarious. His voice is not exactly the same as Sly's, but it is how you would think a French Rambo, Rocky, etc. should sound. As for the French Rimbaud, I always imagine a high voice. Is there a "First Blood" scrrenplay out there that I can adapt?
RM95, just to add my .02. The only thing reading The Hobbit will give you is a better understanding of the background of the ring and Gollum...and maybe help you better understand the references that Bilbo makes in the first movie. Otherwise, the only reading necessary before TTT should be a required reading of The Fellowship of the Ring. It will fill in what few gaps were left by the movie. Man I can't wait for TTT, the trailer looks awesome!
But if you don't read Silmarillion, you don't realy get a good grasp of relative power in Tolkein's world, or the wonder of elves, or where Aragorn is coming from. Remember Sauron, was only a minion of the true Dark Lord Melkor. And the Elves were once powerful enough to kill balrogs singlehandedly. And reading about Aragorn's bloodline makes you understand what power he has. Oh well. I guess if you like that stuff, read it. I did. Obviously.
Read The Hobbit. It's a good book. Do you all think that they will make a Hobbit movie as a prequel to the Ring trilogy?
Good point Nomar.. But if you *really* want to get into the background of the elves..read The Lost Tales..I'm tryin to get thru that one right now..I haven't read the Silmarilion in a few years..I really need to pull it back out. Thing is, RM95 may want to get fully versed in the Quadlogy and see if he gets into it enough to go deeper..
I suggest reading the Hobbit. You can finish it in a weekend(I did in 6th grade). If you don't want to spend a couple days on it, go rent the film. It's fairly close to the book from what I remember.
