September 3, 2002

To Goldie-locks
Dave M.

In a way I can sympathise with what you say about the Silmarillion being difficult - even Tolkien himself admitted as much - but you have to remember that the Silmarillion as published is a 'compression' of a collection of tales, put together by his son. It isn't necessarally as Tolkien would have wished it to be. His original vision was of a work at least as long as LOTR.

But THE HOBBIT boring! No! I suspect that you read the Hobbit after LOTR, which is fatal, in a way, in that you're expecting more of the same. I actually, more years ago than I care to remember, bought LOTR first, but then found out the Hobbit came first & bought that & read it first. You have to read it as a seperate work. Forget LOTR as far as possible.

Best advice though, if you want a wonderful experience of the Hobbit is to get the BBC radio version - its on cd via amazon. But listen to it through headphones as there is a lot of really funny stuff, asides, & little jokes - like at the end Gandalf & Balin visiting Bilbo at Bag End & seeing Bilbo's book on his desk, & Gandalf mutters 'He'll never get a publisher!'