Where were you when ...

[Algamesh]

WarRingers,

We have probably all hinted about our first experience with "The Lord of the Rings" somewhere on the board, but, I really think this is a topic that should be centralized somewhere. Remember when you first read the trilogy ... what did you think? Has Tolkien's World made an impact in your life? Did the reading influence your tastes in fiction, etc.?

Let's see ... I was probably 11 or 12 years old when I first began my journey into Middle-earth. I had just finished C.S. Lewis' Chronicles and I was very enamoured with that at the time. I knew the Bilbo story from before throgh cartoons and magazines I believe, but, I never realized that it was a precursor to something greater. I don't think it took me very long to get through the trilogy ... that's bascially all I did ... got up, went to school, came home and read Tolkien. I couldn't wait to get to the next chapter! Gandalf's reappearance, I remember, was a very moving part for me. I remember putting the book down and jumping up ... clapping my hands ... complete madness :p ! I have read something Middle-earth related ever since and I expect I will till I pass on over. Tolkien defined the "Epic Tale" for me ... and it is in this genre that I have been lost since!

Algamesh
"He rides from the North ... like swift wind upon the grass ..."

[A! Elbereth]

I read Tolkien just last year, and the book opened me up to many things. I dont know if its the book, but ever since I read it my vocabulary has greatly widened and my English grade increased dramatically... and now I always make sure I'm making the right decision. Theres not one night that i dont think about the adventures in Tolkien's books. When I finished it I was wiping my eyes (of course) and I closed the book (amazingly when i finished the book my LOTR soundtrack ended at the exact same time) and I jumped up and down myself, braggin to my parents. I started it again 2 days ago and I'm already on the second book lol :grin: :)

[Mirkgirl]

I was 9 maybe, but I don't want to show off cause I really doen't remember (:
I'd love to tell a fascinating story for how I read it the first time (and I'm sure that the story would be fascinating) but I don't remember.... I just have one memory when my mother brought the second part (it was in two boooks) it took some time to find the second book (TTT&RotK). All I remember is the happiness, nothing specific, but I felt good for sure and the place where I stood when she entered and said she had bought it (:

My conscious life goes under the star of Tolkien so I cannot say whether it changed me or not, but it is a great pleasure (:

[Fatty]

Yes a good idea, I have already asked in the books section that people send in their stories of how they discovered the book etc. We will index them on the site for all to see.

For my own see the front (and only ;-) ) of the book section.

[Algamesh]

Fatty,

As soon as I submitted this post, I remembered the area to which you are referring. So, what I propose ...

Anyone who visits this thread should seriously consider visiting the 'BOOKS' section and submitting their experience with Tolkien's works. This thread isn't in vain though ... you can actually throw up something quick here to appease our forum appetites and then use this post as a "rough draft" for your official submission. Fatty plans on displaying our glorious Tolkien encounters (you know ... we need a really cool border around them ... like an intricate picture frame or something ... rofl )so let's get to work! :naughty:

[Fatty]

Intricate borders hhmmpf! I will wake up the graphics Troll and see if he is in a good mood. But yes good idea, rough draft an dthen if you like write it up and mail them to me. We will make a nice section for them. :-)

Not sure I like people making work for me ;-)

[Pil]

Neva mind...i'll work for you! I have sod all better to do...end of term and all... ;)

[Bonos-Girl]

ha ha ha....we have loads pil...but we got most of it on friday so you were really lucky.....i first read tolkein (the hobbit) when i was 9 or 10 because we had an au pair and my mum thought that it would be educaqtional to stay round her house where no-one spoke english....seeing as i wasn't exactly an expert at french i spent all my time reading...got through it 8 or 9 times in 2 1/2 weeks along with other books....you can tell how bored i was!!!

[Bonos-Girl]

omg....just re-read my post it sounds like i didn't like the hobbit...i did...thats why i read it loads of times....

[Pil]

Did i miss most of the homework? YES!!!!! :hooray:

The hobbit seems to take only a few hours to read now...i don't skip or anything...i just don't need to think much when reading it anymore...shame really... :mmmm:

[Bonos-Girl]

when i re-read it i discovered loads that i had forgotten

[Pil]

Yup...but its not that long...there's only SO MUCH you can re-discover! LOTR...that's a different story!...only it's not is it?! lol

[Bonos-Girl]

what???!!!!! i don't get it....

[Pil]

Well...if you went back and read LOTR a few times, then you would most probably find new stuff that you hadn't really though about first time, but the hobbit's too short for this to be effective too many times... :p

[Bonos-Girl]

even if you read a hardy boys book again you will find stuff that you've either forgotten or missed...

[Narloth]

I read 'the Hobbit' when I was 9, and I only read 'the Lord of the Rings' shortly after the movie was released. But I didn't let the movie affect my interpretations of the characters. I read 'the Silmarillion' shortly after reading 'the Lord of the Rings'

[Tinwë]

Hmmm...my friend tried to make me read LoTR about a year and a half ago, or so, and I DID NOT want to. I was determined to hate it. And hate, I did. I didn't even get past Tom Bombadil, and I knew right then that that would be enogh of that. So, I told her that I wouldn't read anymore of it, and I returned the book back to her. Well, when the movie was coming out, that was all my friend could talk about, Lord of the Rings this, Lord of the Rings that. Ugh. She wanted me to go see the movie with her when it first came out, but I had school that day, so I couldn't go see it. Finally, after a few days of being out, I went with her to see it, and I LOVED it. I tried to read FoTR again, but I couldn't..so my friend suggested that I skip it, and start reading on TTT. So, that's what I did. And I LOVED it. I even read the 3rd one ;) I've loved them ever since, I'm so glad that she told me about it! Right now I'm reading the Hobbit, and after that, I'm planning to read the Sil.

[Nessa]

Aren't you glad your friend dragged you to the movie? ;)

Have you still not read The Fellowship? I suggest giving it another try.... it becomes a lot better after the second and third.... skip the Bombadil parts if you have to, theres quite a bit you're missing out on.

I actually bought a copy of Lord of the Rings a few months before the movie came out.... I read a few words, got bored, and promptly lost it. :embarras: That seems awful to me now.

In all honesty I would have never read them if I hadn't fallen in love with the movie like I did. I would have missed out on so much....

[Tinwë]

Thank you for the advise, Nessa. My friend suggested the very same thing! As soon as I finish a few other books that I have to read, then I will definitly give it another shot. lol

[Cutkin]

It wasn't the first time I read it but the 8th or 9th, that had the most affect on my life. Previously I had read it with the eyes of an Innocent, living a life like some hobbit in the Shire. Great Story. But this time was different. Someone I loved very much was dying a slow and difficult death. My spouse had become an abusive drunk. In the previous year I had lost 2 close family members. I made the decision that no matter what, I would stay beside my dying mother/best friend and never let her know that about the other part of my life. She needed all her stregnth and focus to let go.
She was Frodo and I was Sam. Gandalf's words about doing what we must do whether there is hope of succeeding or not rang true with me. I became totally identified with the Struggle.
At last she was gone and I could get on with getting the rest of my life in order and what I had learned from the Book and from the Struggle has stayed with me ever since. It has affected me in that I am able to commit to a task whether I can see the outcome or not.

[Catz]

yeah....its amazing how much strength we can draw from things like books...i did much the same when i was in a similar position Cutkin...*catz hugs Cutkin*
my books helped me thru that...not just LOTR, but its a major one...one of my old friends...my tried and trues...dont know what id do without them....ive read LOTR at least once a year for over 20 years......grown up with it....
:catz:

[A! Elbereth]

Yes, even now, only reading the books 3 times so far in the past 1 1/2 months, I look at life so differently. I am thankful for everything i have, and (like i said b4) I look at country, and mountains so differently now. And when things get rough, i remember that whats going on with me is nothing compared what was going on in LOTR. And it makes me feel stronger, tackling one thing at a time. I am so thankful i read this book. I actually became a better person, and was nicer to my family than i was before. I love this book :loveyou:

If Tolkien was alive, I would be writing him a nice letter expressing my gratitude (A long one at that)

[I Luv Legolas]

hmm...let's see... i never heard of the hobbit before last year and i had heard little about LOTR. When i first read the hobbit it was in class last year(my gr.8!):o I was immediately interested to begin reading the lord of the rings... i was almost done 'FOTR'(taken out of the library) and i bought the trilogy. I still haven't finished it because i am always hanging out with friends and am too busy but i REALLY REALLY want to finish it before the next movie comes out! and i knwo i can always make time to read some of LOTR! When i saw 'FOTR' in theatres that made me more interested in the book :thumbs: (i had just begun reading it at that time and i can still remember reading it on the way up to the theatres!):battle: I can't wait for 'T2T' to come out!!!!!!!!:whoohoo:

[Lady Ashley]

'Twas last Christmas that I recieved The Hobbit. I don't know how I reacted to it at first...I just read it and started to like it. I read one chapter a day until the book was done...and I was hooked.

So hooked, I wanted to go see the movie and did so in January. However, I read Fellowship before I saw the movie, got it on Jan 5 and finished it on Jan 17. I was quite taken with it by then. Then I read the other two books. I think it took me two weeks to read TTT and then 7 days to read ROTK...6 days to read book 5 and then one day to read Book 6 and the Appendixes.

I was completely hooked by the end of The Hobbit. *grin*

[Pil]

I felt pained to actually carry on after the tail of aragorn and arwen...someone else had told me that the appendixes were really boring....i foned them up an hour later to protest! :battle: lol