A classic in a free edition

The Hobbit or There and Back Again is a great, enjoyable adventure. I don't think that it is quite as good as Lord of the Rings but it is much more than four stars, so five it is.

This 75th Anniversary edition has a lot going for it. First of all it is free from Amazon as is the Audible narration. The narration is entertaining but with my slight hearing loss, I had trouble understanding some of the characters' voices. Gollum particularly comes to mind. The only criticism I have of this edition is the strange word breaks which are particularly prevalent when reading with large print.

Our daughter is reading this in high school so she asked me to read it with her. Now I have reread it for the first time in over 30 years. This reading, I was struck with not just the adventure and descriptions of places, but also with the character development and the observations about people and life.

Addendum 2/6/24: This book is no longer free on Amazon.

The first fantasy book I ever read. This was the book that introduced a shy little kid to a world of wonderful books, and for that alone, it's owed a debt I can never repay.

The Hobbit is a tale of high adventure, undertaken by a company of dwarves, in search of dragon-guarded gold. A reluctant partner in this perilous quest is Bilbo Baggins, a comfort-loving, unambitious hobbit, who surprises even himself by his resourcefulness and his skill as a burglar.



I first read this story when I was a child. Later when I was a teacher I would read it to my students. Now as an adult I read it for myself.



Subtle humor...
“That leaves you just ten minutes. You will have to run,” said Gandalf.
“But—,” said Bilbo.
“No time for it,” said the wizard.
“But—,” said Bilbo again.
“No time for that either! Off you go!”



After being caught by trolls...
“Blimey, Bert, look what I’ve copped!” said William.
“What is it?” said the others coming up.
“Lumme, if I knows! What are yer?”
“Bilbo Baggins, a bur—a hobbit,” said poor Bilbo, shaking all over, and wondering how to make owl-noises before they throttled him.
“A burrahobbit?” said they a bit startled. Trolls are slow in the uptake, and mighty suspicious about anything new to them.
“What’s a burrahobbit got to do with my pocket, anyways?” said William.
“And can yer cook ’em?” said Tom.
“Yer can try,” said Bert, picking up a skewer.



Descriptive storms...
You know how terrific a really big thunderstorm can be down in the land and in a river-valley; especially at times when two great thunderstorms meet and clash. More terrible still are thunder and lightning in the mountains at night, when storms come up from East and West and make war. The lightning splinters on the peaks, and rocks shiver, and great crashes split the air and go rolling and tumbling into every cave and hollow; and the darkness is filled with overwhelming noise and sudden light.

On finding the Ring...
He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking; certainly it did not seem of any particular use at the moment.



On discovering the magic of the Ring...
“What has it got in its pocketses?” he heard the hiss loud behind him, and the splash as Gollum leapt from his boat.

“What have I, I wonder?” he said to himself, as he panted and stumbled along. He put his left hand in his pocket. The ring felt very cold as it quietly slipped on to his groping forefinger.

The hiss was close behind him. He turned now and saw Gollum’s eyes like small green lamps coming up the slope. Terrified he tried to run faster, but suddenly he struck his toes on a snag in the floor, and fell flat with his little sword under him.

In a moment Gollum was on him. But before Bilbo could do anything, recover his breath, pick himself up, or wave his sword, Gollum passed by, taking no notice of him, cursing and whispering as he ran.

What could it mean? Gollum could see in the dark. Bilbo could see the light of his eyes palely shining even from behind. Painfully he got up, and sheathed his sword, which was now glowing faintly again, then very cautiously he followed. There seemed nothing else to do. It was no good crawling back down to Gollum’s water. Perhaps if he followed him, Gollum might lead him to some way of escape without meaning to.

“Curse it! curse it! curse it!” hissed Gollum. “Curse the Baggins! It’s gone! What has it got in its pocketses? Oh we guess, we guess, my precious. He’s found it, yes he must have. My birthday-present.”

With a spring Gollum got up and started shambling off at a great pace. Bilbo hurried after him, still cautiously, though his chief fear now was of tripping on another snag and falling with a noise. His head was in a whirl of hope and wonder. It seemed that the ring he had was a magic ring: it made you invisible! He had heard of such things, of course, in old old tales; but it was hard to believe that he really had found one, by accident. Still there it was: Gollum with his bright eyes had passed him by, only a yard to one side.



The finding of the Ring at first seemed to be a small bit of the story, but readers of Tolkien know that this was a pivotal part of surviving the whole adventure and would lead to more.

Bilbo still had to face more goblins, wolves, giant spiders, escape from dungeons, and waiting for them all was the Dragon!

There are hints and whispers of an older world, vast in scope and rich in history throughout this simple story. Great enemies, nameless monsters and wondrous heros brush the edge of Bilbo's knowledge.



The Hobbit is a portrait of personal growth as Bilbo gains the respect of the Dwarves, Men and Elves.

Often when reading to my class a student would ask me,
"Is this story real?"
And my answer would be, "I wish it was."

"The Hobbit" my number two desert island selection.


Enjoy!

UPDATE ON THE MAY/JUNE 2021 RE-READ: Introducing my 5 y/o to this world may be one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever had the pleasure of doing.

Re-read for the Umpteenth time:

Still inconsistent, gee-willicky, and perfectly magical.



Art Credit: Good Morning by Araniart

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again may be, along with Charlotte's Web, one of the first stories I was conscious of. Published in 1937, I ate up the animated television film produced by Rankin/Bass in 1977 when I was four years old. I wore out a record album children's book of the soundtrack and even took it to school for Show and Tell. My father read each of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy but we agreed that the excitement of The Hobbit was superior to the political machinations of the trilogy. Cracking open the literary source for the first time, I was often carried away to other worlds like a child while finding much to be critical of like an adult.

Tolkien's tale begins with a map of Wilderland and one of the better opening sentences I've read in a novel: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Akin to man in all respects save their diminutive four foot height and hairy feet, the hobbit lives in fine homes burrowed in hills or under the ground. They get up for food, drink and festivity among their hobbit neighbors and avoid adventure any way they can, residing in Hobbiton far from marauding goblins or ferocious wolves. Other than their stealth, hobbits possess nothing in the way of magic. They reminded me of Munchkins from Hawaii.

Our title character Bilbo Baggins, bachelor, is enjoying life just fine when he's visited by the wandering wizard Gandalf, a family friend who Bilbo has not seen since he was a wee hobbit. Gandalf is intent to send Bilbo on an adventure, the type the hobbit's grandfather Old Took was said to have been partial to. Bilbo refuses this overture until tea-time the next day, when the first of thirteen dwarves pay him a social call: Dwalin, then Balin, the Kili, then Fili. Soon, the hobbit-hole is filled with beer drinking, cake gobbling, pipe smoking and singing, with Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin and Gloin. Then Bifur, Bofur, Bombur and the dwarves' leader Thorin Oakenshield, Gandalf joining in.

Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick. He looked out of the window. The stars were just out in a dark sky above the trees. He thought of the jewels of the dwarves shining in deep caverns. Suddenly in the wood beyond The Water, a flame leapt up--probably somebody lighting a wood-fire--and he thought of plundering dragons setting on his quiet Hill and kindling it all to flames. He shuddered; and very quickly he was plain Mr. Baggins of Bag-End, Under-Hill, again.

The dwarves are lighting out for Wilderland, over the goblin infested Misty Mountains and through the deadly forests of Mirkwood to Lonely Mountain, where their reward for surviving the trip will be a meeting with a dragon named Smaug who has plundered an Oakenshield family fortune within the mountain fortress, as well as terrorized the inhabitants of the River Running region. Seeking Gandalf's counsel for a burglar to join their party, the hobbit has been recommended, despite showing none of the backbone or knack for adventuring that will be required on the journey. Pushed out the door by Gandalf on a June morning, Bilbo is not seen by his neighbors for a year.

Landscape familiar to Bilbo with good roads, comfortable inns and friendly men, elves or dwarves segues into the unfamiliar until the party must camp in the wild. They first encounter death in the clutches of three trolls, who capture Bilbo and the dwarves one at a time and debate too long on how to eat them. Relieved to finally be on the doorstep of Lonely Mountain, Bilbo is notified they've only reached the foothills of the Misty Mountains, where the party is put up in the elvish town of Rivendell by their warrior king Elrond, an ally of Gandalf's who despite a historical distrust of dwarves, interprets the map leading them to Lonely Mountain and the key to getting inside.

Making the trek over the Misty Mountains, the expedition is beset by terrible thunderstorms and rock giants hurling boulders down the slopes. They seek shelter in a cave, but bad turns to worse when the refuge turns out to be the front porch of a goblin enclave. All but Gandalf are captured and taken to the Great Goblin, who is overcome with fury when he examines the goblin-killing swords that the dwarves are armed with. The wizard rescues them, but in the melee to escape in the dark tunnels, Bilbo becomes separated. The hobbit ends up in a subterranean lake, where he recovers a mysterious ring and comes to face to face with its owner in what is by far the best chapter in the book:

Deep down here in the dark water lived old Gollum. I don't know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum--as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes. He had a boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake; for lake it was, wide and deep and deadly cold. He paddled it with large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make. Not he. He was looking out of his pale lamp-like eyes for blind fish, which he grabbed with his long fingers as quick as thinking. He liked meat too. Goblin he thought good, when he could get it; but he took care they never found him out. He just throttled them from behind, if they ever came down alone anywhere near the edge of the water, while he was prowling about. They very seldom did, for they had a feeling that something unpleasant was lurking down here, down at the very roots of the mountain.

Like many timeless children's stories, what struck me about The Hobbit is how thrilling much of it is. Tolkien's writing is crisp, exquisite and fanciful, but it also has a nightmare's edge. The author keeps his foot on the gas, graduating the readers from redneck trolls to angry goblins to one of literature's great villains in Gollum, who plays a central role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and whose consuming greed ultimately permits Bilbo to escape. Unless you've been living in a mountain, the qualities of the ring Bilbo steals are known to you and in the employ of a burglar, leads to many tense and exciting scenes later in the book.

Once the dwarves escape the Misty Mountains, the story's momentum slows. The least compelling chapters of the book cover the dwarves' recuperation with yet another familiar of Gandalf's named Boern, a bear-man. Their descent into Mirkwood is eerie and rather than have Gandalf appear to keep saving the party, Bilbo rises to the occasion, combating giant spiders and engineering an escape from the dungeon of the Elven King's hall. Bilbo's final burglary exam in Lonely Mountain and his face-off with Smaug is a high point, but Tolkien, in one of many goofs, robs the reader of a showdown between the two.

From a cartography standpoint, Tolkien maps the journey out supremely well, but forgets to bring along some essentials. I had questions about his story development the longer I thought about it. Other than the fat dwarf Bombur, he dwarves operate as one indistinguishable blob. Their expedition sets out without considering how to dispose of Smaug or truck their treasure back home if they made it that far. There appears not one single female character in the entirely of Middle Earth, bizarrely, not even a wench serving ale at the inn. In the climactic battle, Bilbo disappears, literally. If written for today's market, it's hard to imagine Gollum appearing in only one chapter.

The strength of The Hobbit apart from the epic world-building that Tolkien makes look so effortless to put to paper are his motifs: the open road and the life less ordinary. There's something very compelling about a character leaving the safety and comfort of home for an adventure and finding both an external reward as well as something unknown about themselves. As John Steinbeck discovered talking to Americans in Travels with Charley, I think all of us dream to get away, no matter where it is to, and Tolkien's ardor for maps and legends and strange beasts and death defying ordeals fashioned those dreams into a timeless adventure story.

Special effects technology finally caught up with the popularity of Middle Earth and in 1996, New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh pitched a live-action trilogy that would have began with The Hobbit and condensed the Lord of the Rings trilogy into two films. With an assist from the massive wizard mania generated by J.K. Rowling at the time, New Line Cinema ultimately agreed to finance a Lord of the Rings trilogy from Jackson, the massive global success of which in 2001, 2002 and 2003 led to him expanding the slim volume of The Hobbit into a bloated, coolly received trilogy that hit screens in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Hobbits are so much a part of global popular culture today that it’s hard to believe that there was ever a time when they (theoretically) didn’t exist. Fortunately for all of us, however, J.R.R. Tolkien published The Hobbit in 1937; and since that time, the irrefutable reality of hobbits has been very much a factor, and an inspiration, in all our lives.

As hobbits are such important beings – indeed, they saved the entire world once, back at the end of the Third Age of Middle-Earth – I think that this is a good time to allow Tolkien to introduce (or re-introduce) them to us. And please remember, as you read this description, that in 1937, when these words were published, most people didn’t even know what a hobbit was!

[W]hat is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it). Now you know enough to go on with. (p. 16)

We do indeed; and on the basis of Tolkien’s description, we know that hobbits are the perfect heroes. They command our sympathy, with their good-natured personalities and their unapologetic enjoyment of the simple pleasures of everyday life. They are ordinary, and yet they have that potential for the extraordinary that each one of us possesses, whether we know it or not. Because they are small of stature, they cannot muscle their way through a situation, like Heracles or Ajax; rather, they must use their wits and intelligence to prevail in the face of the challenges that they confront – as must we all. They are, in short, exceedingly good and enjoyable company for this wondrous tale of adventure.

The Hobbit is, at its heart, a classic quest narrative; indeed, its subtitle is There and Back Again. The title character, a thoroughly ordinary hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, is recruited by the wizard Gandalf to leave his home at Bag End, in the bucolic Shire, and accompany a group of dwarves on a voyage into the wastelands of the East, with the goal of recovering a treasure stolen by the wicked dragon Smaug.

And it’s good that the dwarves brought Bilbo along; for as the group’s adventures unfold, Bilbo displays great presence of mind, and a knack for thinking on his feet – traits that are not always apparent among his companions. When a group of giant spiders with a flair for negative magic lure the hungry dwarves into a trap by contriving mirages of delicious food, it is Bilbo who comes to his senses in time to kill the spider that was starting to wrap him in a deadly web. “Somehow,” Tolkien writes, “the killing of the giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark, without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins. He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath” (p. 154).

Bilbo is us, after all. Every time he finds a solution to a seemingly insoluble problem, he recreates the process by which all of us have done likewise, at different points in our lives when we thought that our problems were about to overwhelm us. “And that is an encouraging thought,” as Gandalf might say.

Readers who are rushing through The Hobbit because they want to hurry up and get on to The Lord of the Rings will probably find themselves, in spite of themselves, lingering over Chapter 5, “Riddles in the Dark.” For it is in that chapter that the reader – with Bilbo, who has fallen into an underground cave complex and found a ring – encounters the creature Gollum – “a small slimy creature. I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum – as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face” (p. 79).

Gollum likes meat when he can get it, and intends to feast upon Bilbo; but in the process of a deadly riddle game that unfolds between Bilbo and Gollum, Bilbo makes use of the magic ring that he has found, escapes from the cave, and in the process deprives Gollum of the one thing that the creature loves. Gollum’s parting words – “Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!” (p. 93) – echo beyond the plotline of The Hobbit, and resonate throughout the entirety of The Lord of the Rings.

One of the most powerful moments in The Hobbit, for me, comes when Bilbo has successfully penetrated Smaug’s mountain lair, and has taken a single cup from the dragon’s hoard. Smaug, of course, cannot make any use of his treasure – after all, it’s not as if he can just fly by the Green Dragon Tavern in Hobbiton and use some of his money to purchase a nice pint of ale and drink it from that cup – but nonetheless he feels the infinite rage of the truly miserly at losing even that tiny part of his treasure:

Thieves! Fire! Murder! Such a thing had not happened since first he came to the Mountain! His rage passes description – the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy suddenly lose something that they have long had but have never before used or wanted. His fire belched forth, the hall smoked, he shook the mountain-roots….To hunt the whole mountain till he had caught the thief and had torn and trampled him was his one thought. (p. 208)

That use of the epic quest motif to provide commentary upon human ethics and morality is part of what gives The Hobbit its power. And Tolkien’s interest in ethical questions comes forth one more time in the book – when, after Smaug has been dealt with, the leader of the dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield, is corrupted by the vast hoard of wealth that he has gained. So completely has Thorin’s heart been turned by the dragon’s hoard that he refuses to share the wealth with the Elves and Men who are his natural allies, and is ready to make war against them – even though Elves, Men, and Dwarves all suffered equally from Smaug’s depredations, and even though goblin armies are on the march, bent upon wiping out all the Free Folk of Middle-Earth.

Against this background, Bilbo makes a crucial choice, in a chapter aptly titled “A Thief in the Night” (a clever allusion, by the devoutly Catholic Tolkien, to Saint Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians - chapter 5, verse 2). Bilbo escapes from the dwarves’ lair, goes to the Elves and Men, and gives them the Arkenstone, the most precious of all the dragon’s treasures, and the one most coveted by Thorin. He tells the Elvenking and Bard the dragon-slayer that the Arkenstone is “the heart of Thorin. He values it above a river of gold. I give it to you. It will aid you in your bargaining”; and then he adds that “I am going back now, and the dwarves can do what they like to me” (p. 257).

This is one of my favourite moments from The Hobbit. It makes me think of the scene in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when Huck agonizes over whether to betray his companion, an enslaved man named Jim who is escaping from slavery. All his life, Huck has been told by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of his antebellum Missouri community that he has to uphold the system of slavery, and that he will be a criminal in life, and damned forever after death, if he helps someone escape from slavery. Yet Huck reflects on the feelings of friendship and respect that he has come to hold for Jim over the course of their long and arduous adventures together; and finally, Huckleberry Finn decides once and for all that he will never betray his friend Jim, even if it means that he will be damned to hell for helping an escaped slave – “All right, then, I’ll go to hell!” In the same way, facing a difficult moral situation, Bilbo makes a courageous ethical choice, and plans to accept the consequences.

I re-read The Hobbit while my wife and I were on a visit to New Zealand, the nation where director Peter Jackson directed six films based on Tolkien’s works -- and where we enjoyed the opportunity to tour the wonderfully detailed Hobbiton Movie Set near Hamilton. I must say that I disagreed with Jackson’s decision to make The Hobbit a trilogy; by the same logic, The Lord of the Rings should have been nine films rather than three. If Peter Jackson wanted to make more Tolkien adaptations, why didn't he start filming The Silmarillion? There's material enough for several movies in that book, I would think.

Yet the worldwide popularity of all these films speaks to the ongoing influence of The Hobbit. It is one of the great heroic narratives of all time, with a small hero who does big things.

Gandalf Stormcrow.

Bilbo Baggins is a Middle-Earth halfling merrily living his peaceful and uneventful days in the joyous lands of Hobbiton. As any well self-respected hobbit, Bilbo loves cooking his tasty meals, enjoy the blissful sun, and dutifully drink his midday tea; ever so good-natured and hospitable with his neighbors, always undisturbed, and never bothering anyone else. This has been the way his whole pleasant life, until one fine day an unexpected troublesome visitor knocks heavily at his door; a wizard of all things, with a map, and an extraordinary treasure quest. The outrage!

What started it all. The timeless masterpiece and foundational basis of what later became the amazing Lord of the Rings trilogy that forever changed fantasy. How to ever forget poor pushover Bilbo, the formidable Gandalf, mighty Thorin Oakenshield, his band of lively dwarves, and their audacious adventure to reclaim Lonely Mountains from the terrifying dragon Smaug. So many fantastical moments to remember by  the troll dinner party, Elrond in Rivendell, Gollum’s riddle game, the awakening of Smaug, the Battle of the Five Armies  and a bittersweet ending that pierces the soul. An unforgettable fantasy journey like few others out there, considerably short, with a very simple and direct delivery for such an intricately complex world, with exquisite lovable characters, boundless lore, and an otherworldly universe that you just can never get enough of. Masterful, every single page of it. Highly Recommendable.

*** I’m not even sure how to rate the movies (2012-13-14), since they have way more stuff made up than the actual book. I mean really, one movie for each LOTR, and three for this third of a book? –cough- money grab! –cough-. I didn’t time myself but this may be one of few examples where reading the book may actually be faster than watching the films. Visually astounding, that’s for sure. Flawless scenography and special effects, granted. But faithful to the book? 20% yes, 80% NO. The glaring lack of Oscars and accolades pretty much says it all too. How many times have I watched it? Once, and it was more than enough.



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n  PERSONAL NOTEn:
[1937] [366p] [Fantasy] [Highly Recommendable]
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★★★★☆  A. The Silmarillion
★★★★☆  0. The Hobbit
★★★★☆  1. The Fellowship of the Ring
★★★★☆  2. The Two Towers
★★★★★  3. The Return of the King
★★★★★  1-3. The Lord of the Rings  

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Gandalf Cuervo de la Tempestad.

Bilbo Baggins es un mediano de la Tierra Media felizmente viviendo sus pacíficos y tranquilos días en las alegres tierras de Hobbiton. Como todo decente y bien respetado hobbit, Bilbo ama cocinar sus deliciosas comidas, disfrutar del dichoso sol, y beber su habitual té de mediodía; siempre bondadoso y hospitalario con sus vecinos, sin problemas, y nunca molestando a nadie. Esta ha sido siempre la manera de su muy placentera vida, hasta que cierto día un inesperado y problemático visitante golpea fuertemente a su puerta; un mago para colmo de males, con un mapa, y una extraordinaria misión en búsqueda de tesoros. ¡El descaro!

Lo que empezó todo. La obra maestra de todos los tiempos y base fundacional de lo que luego se convertiría en la asombrosa trilogía del Señor de los Anillos que para siempre cambió la fantasía. ¿Cómo alguna vez olvidar? Al pobre y doblegable Bilbo, el formidable Gandalf, el tenaz Thorin Oakenshield, su banda de vivarachos enanos, y su audaz aventura para reclamar las Montañas Solitarias del terrorífico dragón Smaug. Tantos fantásticos momentos para el recuerdo  la cena de los Trolls, Elrond en Rivendell, el acertijo del Gollum, el despertar de Smaug, la Batalla de los Cinco Ejércitos  y ese final tan agridulce que perfora el alma. Un inolvidable viaje de fantasía como pocos allá afuera, considerablemente corto, con una muy simple y directa entrega para tan intrincadamente complejo mundo, con exquisitamente adorables personajes, lore sin fin, y un universo de otro mundo del cual nunca se puede tener suficiente. Magistral, cada página de ella. Altamente Recomendable.

*** Ni siquiera estoy seguro de cómo calificar las películas (2012-13-14), ya que tienen muchísimas más cosas inventadas que el libro original. O sea en serio, una película para cada LOTR, ¿y tres para este tercio de libro? –cof - avaricia! –cof-. No me tomé el tiempo pero creo que este es uno de escasos ejemplos en que leer el libro pueda ser incluso más rápido que ver las películas. Visualmente asombrosa, eso por seguro. Impecable escenografía y efectos especiales, concedido. ¿Pero fiel al libro? 20% sí, 80% NO. La notable falta de Oscars y premios dice todo muy claro también. ¿Cuántas veces la vi? Una, y eso fue más que suficiente.



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n  NOTA PERSONALn:
[1937] [366p] [Fantasía] [Altamente Recomendable]
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The Hobbit is the forerunner to the The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It gives the first glimpse to the world of hobbits, dwarfs, elves, and wizards. It also gives the first taste of Tolkien's adventures, which are fully developed in the trilogy. Gandalf and Bilbo, who we later meet in The Lord of the Rings, mark their first appearance here. But what's important is that we learn how the most powerful ring of Sauron, which becomes central to the story of the trilogy, comes to the possession of Bilbo, the hobbit.

Apart from acting as the precursor to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit has its own adventure story. Bilbo Baggins, at the bidding of Gandalf the Grey, goes on an adventure with a group of Dwarfs led by Thorin to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and the treasures hidden in it from the hold of the Dragon, Smaug. Facing many hardships and perils, they outmaneuver the dragon successfully at a heavy cost.

The Hobbit is a children's book, and I believe must be read in your childhood or at least in your teens. If you are an adult by the first time you read it, I fear some of its magic is lost. An adult's mind can never awaken the innocent wonder of a child's. This, unfortunately, is my story as well. I read it as an adult, and so it deprived me of the charm it might have had as a child. As if this mistake was not enough, I piled it with additional follies. First, I read The Lord of the Rings before The Hobbit; second, I read the book immediately after watching the movie. Of course, the movie is an extensive interpretation of the book, but unfortunately, watching it had made me expect more. All these unintentional mistakes prejudiced my opinion of the book.

This is my second time reading The Hobbit. And happily for me, I was in for better luck this time. I listened to the audio while following the text. The combination worked wonders for me. I was able to enjoy the book for its worth. Listening to the audio narration created a sort of a similar atmosphere to listening to a bedtime story. :) I don't claim I had the same awed experience of a child, but I enjoyed it and appreciated it as an independent, important work of Tolkien canon.

More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/

One of my favorite books I've ever read! I never have read this before today, but I am so excited that I finally have! I cannot wait to continue on with the LoTR trilogy!

Read to my 10 yo son. Hadn't read this book since my mom read to me twenty years ago. Hasn't lost a single shred of magic. Sheer brilliance.

Buddy read with Fares and I could not be more excited!

Edit after finishing: So I'm bawling right now. Every time I have to say goodbye, I just can't bear it. Full review to come.






Since this is a buddy read with the awesome Fares , my review will be chapter by chapter, accompanied by appropriate gifs and quotes every two days.

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Party. This is giving me such nostalgia!

Underrated quote: The hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses have lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mine, and most people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected; you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is the story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected."



Chapter Two: Roast Mutton



Tolkien's humour is really underappreciated: "Thorin and Company to Burglar Bilbo greeting! For your hospitality our sincerest thanks, and for your offer of professional assistance our grateful acceptance. Terms: cash on delivery up to and not exceeding one fourteenth of total profits (if any); all travelling expenses guaranteed in any event; funeral expenses to be defrayed by us or our represented, if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise arranged for.

Or another gem:

"Where did you go to, if I may ask?" said Thorin to Gandalf as they road along
"To look ahead." said he
"And what brought you back in the nick of time?"
"Looking behind."



Chapter three: A short rest



What I love about this chapter is that it establishes my favourite ship, Bilbo X Rivendell. All jokes aside, it is the chapter where Bilbo discovers a lifelong connection with Rivendell, a place that will ultimately provide him with respite and comfort in his late years.

They stayed long in that good house, fourteen days at least, and they found it hard to leave. Bilbo would gladly have stopped there for ever and ever.

Chapter 4: Over Hill and Under Hill



When he peeped out in the lightning flashes, he saw that across the valley the stone-giants were out, and were hurling rocks at one another for a game, and catching them, and tossing them down into the darkness where they smashed among the trees far below, or splintered into little bits with a bang,

Chapter 5: Riddles in the dark



Gollum had no sword. Gollum had not actually threatened to kill him. Or tried to yet. And he was miserable, alone, lost. A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up within Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second.

If it weren't for Bilbo's empathy at that moment and he had decided to kill Gollum, Frodo and Sam would have had Gollum to help them make it to Mordor on a more secret path. Bilbo's empathy saved Middle Earth. Think about that. Deep stuff.

Chapter 6: Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire



Unpopular opinion time: I love the Hobbit movies with all my heart. This chapter is one of my favourites in the movie (even though there's a lot of Bilbo/Thorin drama - alright, I love the drama. That bromance is the best).

This chapter has some great lines by the dwarves, especially underrated ones like Dori and Balin. There are wargs, goblins and of course, Eagles in this one. The Eagles are cool and neutral assholes as usual. You know, as the saying goes, don't risk a feather for a mortal. I totally made that up, but that's how they are

What did I tell you?" said Gandalf laughing Mr Baggins has more about him than you guess." He gave Bilbo a queer look from under his bushy eyebrows, as he said this, and the hobbit wondered if he guessed at the part of his tale that he had left out.

Chapter 7:Queer Lodgings



I love this chapter so much. I love Beorn. I can relate to him - he's a vegetarian who loves nature, animals and plants. And he's a bee keeper! It's as if Tolkien predicted our bee crisis and rise in vegetarianism. Beorn is the Tom Bombadil of the Hobbit - he doesn't care for shiny things, rings and gems. He just loves his nature.

I love how Gandalf introduces the hobbits! We get spoiled by Gandalf's sharpened-by-a-whetstone-wit and Beorn's hilarious sense of humour!

There are some tantalising parts of this chapter where Beorn wants to know the story of the company's journey thus far. However, there are some weird bits like the dogs serving food on their hind legs and Bears dancing outside in the moonlight. This is the whimsical side of Tolkien I love!

Gandalf leaves the dwarves to journey through Mirkwood alone. AND THIS is where things get awesome!

Some of my favourites quotes:

At any rate he under no enchantment but his own. He lives in an -oak-wood and has a great wooden house; and as a man he keeps cattle and horses which are nearly as marvellous as himself. They work for him and talk to him. He does not eat them; neither does he hunt or eat wild animals."

So they all went to breakfast with him. Beorn was jolly for a change; indeed he seemed to be in splendidly good humour and set them all laughing with his funny stories; nor did they have to wonder long where he had been or why he was so nice to them, for hetold them himself. He had been over the river and right back up into the mountains - from which you can guess that he could travel quickly, in bear's shape at any rate. From the burnt wolf-glade he had soon found out that part of their story was true; but he had found more than that: he had caught a Warg and a goblin wandering in the woods. From these he had got the news; the goblins patrols were hunting with Wargs for the dwarves and they were angry because of the death of the Goblin King.
Side note: I wanted to share something special with all my reading buddies. This is the exact copy of The Hobbit my aunt gave me ten years ago for my 11th birthday. I've read it about eight times. It is the book that got me into reading and eventually got me two Tolkien tattoos and a lifetime of love.



What I love about The Hobbit is that the protagonist isn't some young person with strength and energy to boot - he's a middle-aged guy who finally lives a life of adventure. It's a message that anyone out there can have an adventure despite their age.

I had not read The Hobbit since I was 12, and all I remember is that I had skimmed through a lot of the parts that I had deemed “boring”. God knows why. Coming back to it nearly 15 years later, it was like being wrapped by a blanket. You know what I remembered? Not the previous act of having read the book, first coming to the famous hobbit, Mr. Bilbo Baggins. Nothing book related, if I’m being honest. I remembered the first few years of strengthening my brotherhood with my best friends in early high school. Taking long walks in the rare Toronto sun, early May, school almost out for the summer, walking through the closest thing to green, rolling fields that we could find. I would play Howard Shore’s Concerning Hobbits and we would walk around until we found a nice and warm spot on the grass to sit. Even now the melody squeezes my heart with that confusing, pleasurable and yet painful feeling of nostalgia - harps and fiddles and mandolins. In the back of it all, an archetypal and fatherly voice: “My dear Frodo…”

This isn’t really a review, but then again, none of my “reviews” are - I just come here and type out a bunch of shit vaguely related to how I felt, then I go back and do it all over again. I think this is a world that stands by itself. If you are lucky enough to have formative memories with it, I salute you. It’s such a privilege. I’ll be in LOTR territory soon.

Is there an optimal reading experience? I’m not sure, but I have always been a fan of the editions that contain Alan Lee’s wonderful drawings of Tolkien’s world. This time around, I also listened to the audiobook along with the book. I would give the audiobook 25 stars out of 5 if I could, for it was read by none other than Andy Serkis. The voices imparted to each character were so on-point, but there was one character whose voice was the most most most most on-point. It made the following meeting worth the Audible credit.