J.R.R. Tolkein and the Lord of the Rings

Since my hubby and I have been playing LOTR online obsessively for the past week, we thought it would be appropriate to start re-watching the extended Trilogy on DVD. We finished The Fellowship of the Ring and it was funny because we kept comparing it to the game and wondering what levels the characters would be. I told my hubby he should read the trilogy because it was a great set of books, once you got past all the Gimli son of Gloin son blah parts. John said that was the reason he didn't think he could get through it. I told him all he needed to do was read The Laxdaela Saga, an Icelandic saga which was similar to Tolkien's Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings trilogy, and he could read it no problem. They are really good books, some of my favorite in fact. I read the trilogy in college, and yes it was around the time that the first movie came out, but all three right in a row because I got so pulled in to the storyline and Tolkein's world. I have tried twice to read (and once on audiobook) The Silmarillion but the book is just too dense. I've heard it's brilliant though once you get through the beginning parts. I would also love to read The Children of Hurin though I've heard it's not as good as his other works.

I was telling my husband that I would've loved to be at Oxford when he and C.S. Lewis were teaching there. They were friends, you know, and I bet their classes would've been fascinating (though I'm not sure how good I would've been at Anglo-Saxon). Re-watching the movies has made me think about The Hobbit, in both book and movie form. I was so excited to hear they were doing a movie version of it and that Peter Jackson would be involved, though not as director. I was especially excited to hear that Guillermo del Toro, director of the Hellboy movies would be directing it, but I am sad now that he has chosen to leave. I grew up watching the 70s cartoon version of The Hobbit, so I'm very curious to see what they do with two live action versions. It also makes me want to re-read the print version, so I'm borrowing the audiobook version once I finish my two current books.