Honestly, if you see the movies, and don’t feel a burning desire to read the books, I wouldn’t bother. What RickJay said is absolutely true: in the hands of a better author, LOTR would be a great story, and accessible.
When the Cool Kids[sup]TM[/sup] want some post-WWII British high-fantasy fiction in trilogy form, we read Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast novels.
Uhhhh…yeah! That’s it! :eek:
Yeah, that durn unaccesible Tolkien. He only wrote the second most-read book in English of the 20th century.
Yeah well, I’ve never read LOTR OR Harry Potter, or seen the movies. Or seen any reality TV. Or watched Friends (except when they played the first seasn 20 billion times at work.
And I refuse to go to any more Star Wars movies.
We’re here, we’re queerly out of step with popular culture, get used to it.
::::standing up:::::
My name is Shirley
::::looks meekly over the crowded pub of Dopers::::
and I’ve never made it past the first chapter of LOTR. I have never watched the New Star Treks, nor have I played Dungeons and Dragons. :::::::::: I haven’t watched *Friends * in years and *ER *, last I heard, was still on, but it was in 1997 that I last cared. Reality TV shows make me nauseous and I think the *Osbornes * should be Sterlized, Lobotomized and Euthanized ™ along with any singer who wears their hat backwards/sideways, has some kind of Alias Name and studded jewelry larger than a chihuahua. I also think wrestling is fake and NASCAR is a cult for rednecks that is stranger than the Raelians.
I am so not geeky::::::bowing head in shame::::::: not are these all *deal breakers *, I…*kill threads *
Hm, after meeting you this month, I thought you were cool, but now, my dear, the engagement is off!
i got about 4 chapters in to Two Towers before i gave up, since it made me sleep after 10 seconds of reading it. At least Fellowship gave me a few chapters before i fell asleep. Hobbit was entertaining, but had some slow parts. And i didn’t watch friends until the season where Emily was introduced, then it became like crack.
Persephone.
PERSEPHONE!
You don’t need to read the books but you do need to see the movies. We’re talking major eye candy here. You don’t need to follow the plotline, just stare at all the pretty men. I mean, you must have seen at least some photos? Some?
Your membership to the girly club will be revoked if you don’t immediately rush out and watch the movies for the men alone. All tastes are catered for.
However if you fall for Gimli, you’re on your own.
—What RickJay said is absolutely true: in the hands of a better author, LOTR would be a great story, and accessible.—
Yeah, there’s no pictures in it (well, a few)!
Seriously, I understand that not everything floats everyone’s boat, and florid descriptions of passions and landscape sometimes turn people off. But seriously, as a ten year old, I put days and days of reading into this book, and I loved it. I read it on the bus to school in Hong Kong, even though I puked every day when I got there from reading on the bumpy curvy ride. And I still kept reading. I was hooked. I cared. And I still do, decades later. So yes, it IS possible to read it and love it as literature, and appreciate what it is, for what it is.
Oh, and as a Tolkien fan, I’m not a particular fan of the movies. I think they capture the cheese factor of the books way too much, without being able to grasp the real passions of the work.
As a friend described it to me, they are really hurt by the litany of fantasy movies that came before. The books have magic and strange peoples: but they come across as natural and in their own time. The movies have to distill the action: so we get constant weirdness and magical showmanship constantly, which plays like a goofy effects review, harking back to plenty of fantasy movies before. I think they did the best they could (though dully missing some of the most important grace notes, like the cloak of many colors, and turning it into an action story), but the book simply cannot be captured on the screen
Primaflora, how could you not like Gimli? He’s no eye candy, but he certainly is adorable (comparing Galadriel to jewels, then looking away shyly at the gift-giving scene in FOTR). I’m afraid I have a small crush on him, if only for that.
Of course, Legolas and Aragon are very attractive. 
Gimli’s likeable but he ain’t beautiful.
In some ways, it is probably easier to enjoy the PJ films if you haven’t read the book!
sigh. One more thing I’ve failed at.
Actually, I sort of vaguely liked The Hobbit. Not enough that I’d read it again, but it was ok. I tried to read the rest of them and got bored out of my mind. Every few years I try again…buy them or check them out of the library. They either end up at the used book store or returned before the due date.
Haven’t seen the movies either. I keep thinking about it, but there are so many things I’d rather do with my time.
I ain’t saying Tolkien’s a bad author–I definitely couldn’t put any of the books down once I picked 'em up–but Tolkien’s not a really great story-teller. His descriptions are overly long, his pacing has no happy medium, and his character development could’ve been better. But it’s a great story, and that more than makes up for any faults.
Such an admission would almost make up for your lack of interest in LotR. You’re still a bit behind though, read The Hobbit and we’ll call it even.
Enjoy,
Steven
6 days
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I’ve recently been informed by a very good friend that it is not in fact necessary for me to read the books, but that it might be helpful come the day said friend forces me to watch the movies.
So, I’ll cave. Someday. I’m not in a hurry. I’ve got a couple of other books to finish first. Good ones, too. Factual stuff. Historically accurate stuff. Stuff that will never be made into movies with hot babes in the lead roles.
Damn. Can someone give me a ride to Borders?
Well, I’ve never watched Friends, or Seinfeld, or any Reality TV. Heck, I don’t watch television at all. I’d read The Hobbit as a child and loved it (even with the sad ending - the dragon dies), and tried to read LoTR immediately upon finishing it. I got bogged down somewhere in the Old Forest and didn’t pick it back up again.
In my teens, I picked it back up and started over, just so I would understand all the Tolkien references in my RPG materials. I made it to Bree this time. I saw the Bakshi movie on VHS somewhere around this time and didn’t understand any of it.
In college, I tried once more. I got to Rivendell, I think. Tolkien’s pacing kept killing me, plus people kept telling me he was a misogynist. I never took any classes from Dr. Chance, which is a shame, but it was partially because I knew I’d have to read it (turns out that wasn’t true, and I should have taken Chaucer from her instead of the Modern American Novel from the guy I hated, but that’s neither here nor there).
I went to see the movie of FoTR, and loved it, but I didn’t understand anything that happenned in Lothlorien. After the extended DVD came out, I decided to give the books one last chance.
Smooth sailing. Finished them in a little over a week. (Haven’t finished The Silmarillion yet, though.) I haven’t the slightest idea why I found them such hard going the first three times, although his characterization and pacing are still not great. I’m not a visual thinker, and Tolkien is very much a visual writer, so that might have something to do with it - and having the images from the movie might have helped with that.