I should premise this by saying I own all of the extended versions of the film trilogy, and my father made sure we went to all the midnight premiers, so I’m familiar with the Hollywood version of this story. The fact that my high school English teacher has a life size cut out of Orlando Bloom as Legolas that wore various hats throughout the year… yeah, I’m pretty familiar with most of the characters. However, the trilogy published in the 1950s has so much that was left out of the movies. For example, I spent 9 hours of audiobook just getting to Rivendell. If you are familiar with the movies, the books provide a much richer and more expansive world, and explain a lot of the background of the various characters.
I did mention in an earlier review that I chose Hitchhiker’s Guide over this book for Father’s Day. I had attempted to reach Fellowship some time ago, and got so frustrated with wandering hobbits that I gave up half way through the book. I think it was the influence of other fantasy novels that made the same sort of “the journey is the entire point” stance that helped me enjoy Fellowship this time around.
Library of 1000 Books 