Suyash Verma

This book is a masterpiece. When I was about 11 or 12 years old I read The Hobbit. At that time I thought it was alright but with some good bits in it. However, I felt it couldn't compare with Watership Down as an adventure tale (that is another great book, surprisingly brilliant). My Grandmother ("on my father's side...") once said that I should read the book and put the old, incomplete cartoon into the video player. Intrigued, but I didn't get what was going on (the Black Riders in that cartoon are terrifying - scarier than the movie versions, and cost me some sleep!). As I grew to become an older teenager I sometimes considered looking at the Lord of The Rings book, but was rather put off the idea due to its imposing size and the apparent "unfathomability" of the tale in my ignorance having not read it yet. Nor had my understanding of the cartoon improved. But, somehow in some way, the tale that had not been read just niggled at me from time to time. I met some good friends at 20 years old and they said, "You've not read it yet!? You've got to read it. It's so worth it - but READ IT ALL or you won't get the benefit!" Later that year I bought the one-piece, bulky novel and got down to it... It has maps in it, always a good thing and gradually helped my immersion. Gradually, gradually. The first part, the first time, the Fellowship of the Ring was slow and for me, was an effort to read, I didn't know the characters, the lay of the land, the lore, or anything. It had some tense and joyous moments. It was a deeper version of the world found in The Hobbit. But the English and sentence composition was exquisite in many parts. Didn't dig the singing though, for I knew not the tunes or hints! Then after the new band left Rivendell... Suddenly the book changes tracks! Whoa! It became a massive page-turner, though the times I paused reading and was lost in my imagination about what was happening, where and to whom gradually increased in length and frequency. And THIS is what makes it great. You get lost in this world in your imagination before returning to read the next paragraph... Suddenly the book ends. What an epic and what a fabulously cool ending! Such a good ending, one not used in the movies I saw 8 years later. The Scouring of the Shire. Awesome LOL. The book ended far too soon. You spend all this time lost in this world and suddenly, it's gone. Over. The end, Oh no! Ridiculously, I started reading it again about 6 weeks later. Oh my goodness, it's EVEN BETTER the second time because you know what is going on and where. The second reading made it even deeper and the little imagination trips went into overdrive! I have read Lord of the Rings five or six times and now I have started reading it again for the first time since seeing the movie 15-plus years ago. Wow. Tolkien's English is just so exquisite and now it's a joy to read every sentence. The Hobbits have just been dropped off by Farmer Maggot at the Brandywine ferry... 8oD When I read reviews of people complaining about the book, I can see from my own experience that almost all of them didn't get through the Fellowship of the Ring! LOL. For those who haven't read it yet, please take a look at my old friend's advice, READ IT ALL. It becomes a page-turner after the first part. Seriously. This book is awesome. The movies are great (I love them), but they are just like the images you see in the corners of the pages of old children's books. Wonderfully complimentary, but not it. Read it.