Sunday, February 24, 2013

The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

Title: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Pages: 389
Published: 2012 (originally published 1937)
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction
Challenges: 2013 TBR Pile Challenge, Classics Club
Edition: Paperback
Source: Personal library

Description: Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely travelling further than the pantry of his hobbit-hole in Bag End.

But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of thirteen dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an unexpected journey ‘there and back again’. They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon… (via Goodreads.com)


Thoughts: Before I give my actual thoughts of the book, I have to confess something.  The cover that I am showing here isn't the one that I read from.  I lost that particular copy of the book and am not sure where that particular copy has ended, so I bought a new copy of the book and I am basing my stats on the new copy, not the old one.

Overall, I thought it was pretty decent and because I read it while listening to an audio version of the book, I was able to catch most of what I had somehow skipped over the first time I read it (I quit reading about 3/4 of the way through).  I did find the story a tad boring at times and while I liked the visuals that the movie gave to the first third of the book (yes, I am planning on seeing the next two Hobbit movies), as it gave me a sense of place, I did find that for the most part it was rather dull and thought that the ending was a bit of a cop out, but maybe I will think better of the ending later on.

I suppose it didn't help that I read the book at the end of the day and maybe I couldn't enjoy it as much as I probably could have.  I did enjoy the book, but it just felt that it was more of a chore than an enjoyable read.

Bottom line:  I would recommend this book to those that enjoy fantasy fiction and have enjoyed the Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin.  I think I will tackle the three books in LOTR series at some point, but I need a bit of a break and maybe once I have finished those books, I will have a different view of the book.

Rating:  3.5/5

Pages for 2013:  2701

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