Way back in the 70’s, I read The Lord of the Rings for the very first time. It was a rag-eared single volume edition, lent to me by a friend.
I was enchanted, and hooked.
Over the next 10-15 years I read the books again and again, buying each of the three volumes separately, more than once. I remember my son Ben devouring these at quite a young age too and that he and I used to discuss them in some depth. We both wondered when (mainly ‘if’) someone would make a credible film of the book.
It turned out that, not until Peter Jackson’s 2001 version of Fellowship of the Ring. The next two volumes followed over the next two years and I loved all of them. However, I think that the richness of the filming has spoiled my reading.
I’ve just started reading the three volumes again, this time on my newly gifted Kindle Paperwhite. Despite there being Tolkien’s original rich descriptions and prose to captivate me, some of the joy has gone out of my reading. I now see characters as played by (e.g.) Viggo Mortensen, John Rhys-Davies and Elijah Wood – rather than those that were embedded in my previous readings. It feels mildly disappointing.
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There was a cartoon version – in 1978, which Ben assures me was ‘sort of’ liked by us – but I thought it was more 1990 – hey ho. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077869/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3
Books I've read 