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For lack of a better title, The Book Thread!
KharBevNor:
@onewheel: Precisely. The only reason I've been able to re-read it so many times is the amazing depth. There's all the things you miss the first time (when the only other Tolkien works I'd read were The Hobbit and Farmer Giles of Ham, which is completely unrelated) that leap out once you've read the Silmarillion, or the history of Middle Earth...But the scope is, indeed, unparalleled. Think that tolkien invented every cliche. Almost every fantasy book after him has to some degree been based on his work, the breadth of his vision is IMPOSSIBLE to escape. Every stock cliche of the fantasy world: Elves, Orcs and everything else, all his. Also, Sindarin is almost certainly the greatest artificial language ever constructed. I've got to say my copy of Lord of the Rings is one of my favourite possessions: single volume, hardbacked, illustrated, beautiful dust-jacket and my poncy private school creative writing prize firmly stuck in the front.
@sp2: Yes, but all that came before was basically 'Tales of Mystery and the Imagination' type material. Tolkiens use of Arthur and Beowulf (as well as countless lesser known works) was of course deliberate: Tolkien was one of the greatest Beowulf scholars of his generation. The Lord of the Rings is, in his own words 'a reconstructed anglo-saxon mythology'.
negative creep:
the lord of the rings DOES NOT have any "dull bits".
KharBevNor:
Fan as I am, most of Book IV is pretty tedious on the second reading.
negative creep:
um... what exactly is book IV about? i always confuse them...
KharBevNor:
IV is the portion of the ringbearers quest in the Two towers. From round-about when they meet Smeagol to just after Shelobs cave. It livens up nicely at each end but it's rather drawn out in the middle.
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