The Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit (4 Volumes)

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Even if we lament its stolid lack of imagination, The Lord of the Rings is the work of a careful and deliberate scholar of language, style, and culture. It might be a classic, but there are many who have stern reservations about reading this series, partially I suspect due to its length. I could do without the 80 pages on tobacco production, but Tolkien wasn't writing a story; he was writing a history of a place that had never existed. Good will always win as long as there are good men and women willing to give of self for the better good.

The dullards of fantasy have merely rehashed and reshuffled the old tropes back and forth, imagining that they are creating something.

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I think it was the last book he ever read me as a 'bedtime story', but we embarked on the adventures of Bilbo Baggins together and absolutely loved every minute of it!In some ways, his central, conflicted role resembles Eddison's Lord Gro, whose work inspired Tolkien.

I'm a modern day person and I use a computer and a car on a daily basis and, you know, it's easy to just take it for granted that that's the way the world works. This deluxe edition of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is the perfect gift for any fan of Tolkien's world, and a great replacement for your battered paperbacks. Tolkien just doesn't strike the same chord, so all hail Peter Jackson, and I'm afraid the books have largely been relegated to display-only on my bookshelf.They are illustrated throughout by Alan Lee, the lead concept artist for Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning film adaptation. Dec 2013: Rereading with my 2 oldest kids after seeing "Desolation of Smaug" (they wanted to read it, the 2nd hasn't read beyond "Hobbit" yet, and I wanted to check my memory since I didn't remember things the same way the directors of the movie seemed to ;) Also gave a challenge to them, as in, "I'll read these with you if you'll read through DICKENS with me, ha ha ha ha". When The Lord of the Rings first appeared in the 1950s, one of Tolkien's greatest disappointments was that Christian periodicals ignored it. Although LoftR is a "pagan" story (no religion) it is filled with Christian themes of mercy, free will, divine mission, and hope, individual worth, and salvation. One of the scenes I remember most vividly is when the whole Fellowship is just walking along a road somewhere, and he describes how the footfalls of each race of character sound differently.

I also think it's interesting, that he's equally good at writing these big epic-scope sequences as he as at writing really quiet ones.It is unfortunate that both good and evil seem to be external forces at work upon man, because it removes much of the agency and psychological depth of the characters. You get a true feel for the scale and even the politics of such a creation by journeying through it with different companions, each with a different purpose. One event after another, crisis after epic excitement, wonder at the enormity of the main character's daring and courage. Elvish, Dwarvish, and the languages of men transported me to the heart of each culture, enriching the immersive experience. His books have been translated into over 80 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.