Poll: How many people have actually read The Lord of the Rings?

[Jovlo]

I once struggled through it.
I must admit that I didn't like it very much.
Sure, it got better towards the end, but sweet zombie Jesus... that first book is tedious.
Tolkien describes everything:

And then there was a bend in the road.
There were some trees, and a rock shaped like a troll, and some grass.
And then some more grass, and more trees, and then...

Get on with it, will you!

 

[Dark Harbinger]

I have repeatedly read The Hobbit, The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, The Children Of Hurin, The Silmarillion, The Unfinished Tales and a fantastic little book called Roverandum.

I am and have been quite the Tolkien fan since I was about 10, when I first read the Hobbit.

 

[gigastar]

I have, including The Hobbit.

Must be said, it was tedious.

 

[Leon Last Lord Shyle]

Yep read them for myself at the age of 5 and had them read to me instead of nursery rhymes and children's story's before that.

 

[Colour Scientist]

I've read the trilogy and The Hobbit. I have to admit though, I did struggle to finish Sam and Frodo's section in The Return of the King, it seemed to go on forever.

 

[SirDeadly]

Where's the option for currently reading them?

 

[Gaiseric]

Nope I did not.

I wasn't interested in fantasy books until after the first movie and then I didn't care enough about the story to go buy the books. I was too wrapped up(back then) in Battetech with its mechs and interplanetary wars to spend any time with elves, orcs, and hobbits.

 

[vasudean]

I'm in the process of reading it right now. I'm currently reading The Hobbit.

 

[swankyfella]

I read the entire trilogy and currently trying to get my hands on The Hobbit and The Similarion.

Just so you know, The Silmarilion is wildly dull. It's written like a history book because that's exactly what it is. There's a good story in there but it's not as exciting to read as The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings.

 

[Kakujin]

I've read all of Tolkien's books, both translated and not ^^

 

[justnotcricket]

I ploughed my way through it - I enjoyed the story, but ol' JRR did *not* know the meaning of the word concise ;-)

Now there's an understatement. I read the whole thing and liked it way back in the day when I was younger, but at some point many years later I tried rereading it after seeing the movies, and holy crap is it tedious at times. Didn't even make it through the first book that time, and I suspect I never will again. I have too much other stuff I've been meaning to read for a while anyway, so maybe it's for the best.

It's the same effect that actually prevented me from reading more than about 10 pages of anything Robert Jordan has ever written. Friends keep recommending the series to me, but I just *cannot* wade through his prose. There's too much of it!! No offence to anyone who likes RJ, I just can't gel with it...

 

[WolfThomas]

Twice, the first time when I was like 13 and found it difficult to read. More recently I read it again and I found it kind of dull. Don't get me wrong I want to love it, but I just can't. Fantastic setting/lore and an inspiration to all fantasy that followed. But kind of boring.

It's the same effect that actually prevented me from reading more than about 10 pages of anything Robert Jordan has ever written. Friends keep recommending the series to me, but I just *cannot* wade through his prose. There's too much of it!! No offence to anyone who likes RJ, I just can't gel with it...

Yeah I had that problem. It does getter better...than suddenly worse and then better again. Which is a shame because the two most recent books written by Sanderson flow so well. I don't know if it's him or just the tying off of a ridiculous number of plots.

 

[KafkaOffTheBeach]

I once struggled through it.
I must admit that I didn't like it very much.
Sure, it got better towards the end, but sweet zombie Jesus... that first book is tedious.
Tolkien describes everything

No; Dan Brown describes everything. Tolkien is a mere description novice compared to him.

OT: I read them fucking ages ago, plus Simarillion y Hobbit. Pretty good, but with far too much extraneous material that paradoxically gives the books quite a lot of their charm - like the sheer attention to detail and the songs...you couldn't take that out because, although you might gain some FUCKING PACING, you would lose that incredible sense of existence, of the real solidity and the sense of persistent history that the books have.

 

[Ekit]

I read it along time ago. It was really good, but I liked The Hobbit better.

 

[justnotcricket]

Just an errant thought that crossed my mind, as I read it quite recently and I thought it was an epic that should be required reading for all.

At least 80% of people in the world are dumb fucks genetically or behaviorally doomed for proletarian life who wouldn't know a good book if you smacked them in the face with it, so I don't think it should be a required read. Don't worry, people who are meant to read it most likely will.

Oh, I don't know. If they arbitrarily made Tolkien required reading maybe they could also produce a compulsory vaccine against sickening arrogance?

 

[ColeusRattus]

I don't think that reading a book should be a feat for bragging rights, but sadly, it seems to be so for the general public.

I for one, have read LotR about 25 times, the hobbit a tad less, and the Silmarillion 4 times. I even had it as my in depth subject matter for my final highschool exam in english (which was way before the movies were even announced)

Reading through the thread, it reminded me of something I had almost forgotten: at first, I too was annoyed by the slow start, but as the story and the world grew on me, so did the "concerning hobbits" chapter, and nowadays, this is actually my favourite part of the books. Likewise, it also became my favourite part of the movies once the novelty and spectactle of the big battle scenes wore off.

 

[KafkaOffTheBeach]

Just so you know, The Silmarilion is wildly dull.

That is fantastic.....wildly dull.
Its such a good image - like the book is really, really excited to just grab you and assault you with a whirlwind of unimaginable boredom.

 

[Creator002]

Have not read the books. Have not seen any of the movies. Have not played any games related.
I have nothing against the series, I've just never come into contact with anything Lord of the Rings related.

 

[Toriver]

I got a boxed-set of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in 7th grade. I read through The Hobbit, then got to the Council of Elrond before stopping.

Then the movies came out a few years later.

I went to see the first movie, saw how awesome it got once you trudged through the beginning, and read the rest of the trilogy before the second movie came out. They are now my favorite books of all time. I got a beautiful hardcover copy of The Hobbit as a graduation present from a friend, and I read the Silmarillion and Children of Hurin in college.

I love the books to death, but I will say that the first half of Fellowship of the Ring is painfully slow. Once you get through the Council of Elrond, though, they are just as amazing as the movies portray them to be, if not more so.