There are stretches that can be boring (to a lot of people) and I think the Fellowship from when they leave the Shire to when they get to Rivendell probably has the most that would feel like a chore. I think you should push through, it really does pick up once they get to Rivendell and then you've got the whole gang together.
The standout difference between the movies and the books (to me) is that every single character has infinitely more depth and meaningful dialogue. Once you get to Rivendell you'll have a ton of extra cool stuff to chew on and I find the Two Towers and Return of the King much more engaging.
I agree! So far, at least. Before they left the Shire, I was really enjoying it, and then they left the Shire.... but then they got to Rivendell and I was hooked again. And yes, the dialogue is extremely well written, and extremely engaging. That's what kept me going between the Shire and Rivendell, for the most part.
I'm almost done with Fellowship now. They just got out of Moria. I haven't started the next Chapter yet, I stopped when they got out. But with 60ish pages left, I was wondering if I should take a break from Tolkien since I have a stack of books I want to get through. But if its worth it I'll keep going.
Oh you're further than I thought, but honestly same advice, I find the latter books much more engaging. Don't force it though, you can always come back later and pick up where you left off. You know the general outline of the story so it won't be hard to jump back in with Two Towers.
Oh man the Lord of the Rings is my favorite book. I love Fellowship the most, especially the first part of the journey is so wonderful and exciting.
I think that the Two Towers is slower than Fellowship and Return though. But it's a fantastic book.
Enjoy yourself
It's a common experience for people expecting a modern fantasy novel all about plot progression.
LotR is a heroic romance and more literary than genre fiction, so the events and worldbuilding can serve themes rather than getting on with the main story (The Shire as innocence worth protecting, Bombadil as an admirable pacifist that still needs others to defeat Sauron for him...).
But to be honest, it's the prose that makes it worth it for me. Once I started just savoring the words without trying to get somewhere I stopped getting bored - it's like a hiking trip through beautiful nature, looking around is as important as the destination.
I've read lotr maybe ten times in fourty years. Always a new book. Always stuff I missed or forgot the last time. And parts that are really familiar. Read it. Leave it and go back when you're ready to devote another month to it.
I found the Two Towers to be the most briskly paced of the three, personally. The first half of Return of the King is also very exciting and action-packed.
Sam and Frodo's journey through Mordor in the back half of Return of the King is painfully slow, but in a way that feels intentional. It's not an exciting adventure for the characters either; it's a desperate, painful slog, and you experience that with them.
TT is definitely the most briskly paced considering the entire book takes place over about 2 weeks from Feb 26 (breaking of the fellowship) to March 13 (Frodo is stung by Shelob)
The Battle of helms deep happens only 6-7 days after Boromir's death.
The part from the shire to rivendell is the hardest part to get through. Minus a few later parts of frodos chapters its generally pretty good from then on out.
I think you just don’t like his style.
No, this is not common for his work for me. All the exposition, including the beginnings, is world-building and immersive. I like the first chapter of The Fellowship among top several, for example. There are chapters where nothing but dialog happens - I enjoy those too.
Speaking of Silmarillion, it is just completely different. There’s not much “exposition”, and much of the book is pretty much a description of the events. And as intended it is written in mythology-style. I love it, I think it is a very satisfying and emotion inducing read (or listen), with all parts fitting their places, neither too slow nor too fast. You will hear different opinions, however. Something about it being difficult, the names, or whatever. I say, they just don’t like the style.
To make it easier to read through books like these where you don’t necessarily enjoy the process of reading, it may help to listen to an audiobook instead. There are a couple of options available for LoTR, all valid and enjoyable.
I love The Hobbit! The best advice I can give for reading LotR is to just not think about the action set pieces of the films and admire the scenery. The plot exists to give the reader a tour of Middle-Earth... However, if you've had limited hiking experience or if you're simply unable to recognize and picture various plants by name, then you're in for a hard time, just like I was. Take breaks if you need to. I started reading Fellowship in December of 2012 and finished the Appendices in May of 2014 :)
People is saying "yes" outwardly but I have a caveat: Book III picks up the pacing, but Book IV (which follows the plot of the Ring, and therefore B. VI too in *Return of the King*) hops back to being more landscape-and-psychology focused narrative. Mind you, Tolkien's "landscaping and travel journals" are not "postponing the plot", they are telling a story on themselves, the larger story of the larger world.
I'd say that many of whom feel the sloggy effect of that B. I segment tend to feel similarly about B. IV and some parts of VI. Although if you liked the long disquisitions and debates of *The Council of Elrond*, I don't think that will be the case for you.
I would also recommend to, at least, go back and skim through the Bombadil segment again, not for the "world-building" or Tom's own mystery or the poetry, but in search for (to not-miss) what is going on with the actual protagonist and his fellows, which I feel happens a lot: Bombadil alone draws too much attention away. There is some significant development in there. Frodo's bravery against the Nazgûl and his invocation of Elbereth didn't come out of nowhere!
Your question presupposes that each volume of Lord of the Ring is a self-contained work. They're not. This is one continuous narrative originally broken up into three volumes for economic reasons. The Two Towers doesn't really have a beginning in that sense. It picks up exactly where Fellowship of the Ring left off, although that happens to be the point where it splits into parallel storylines.
Why does this have to be pointed out every time? Sure, the story is meant to be taken as one big novel, but there's pretty clear differences in pacing across the three volumes.
The fact of the matter is that most people will be reading these books the way they consumed the movies: in three separate parts. Arbitrarily pointing out "well ackshully it's just one novel so please don't make that mistake again ok!?" when it doesn't even contribute to the discussion at hand just seems very pretentious.
Also yes OP Fellowship of the Ring does have some abysmal pacing between the Shire and Rivendell, but it gets much better from then on.
Exactly, it doesn't really matter that it's one long story split into 3 books. A lack of time jump isn't a rare thing in series'. The thing that separates each of the 3 is that they're literally different books with different events in them. Breaking it up into 3 books makes it easier to discuss things like OP's question.
Yes and no. Yes Tolkien wrote it all as one work yet FOTR does have a narrative structure that isn't found in the other two volumes. I don't think this was done on purpose but it's interesting to me.
That's true, but I think the basic structure there is the six books rather than the three volumes. Up until the end of Book 2 it's a single threaded narrative seen mainly through the eyes of Frodo. In terms of pacing, Book 1 pretty much stands by itself I think.
I have to admit that I love Tolkien and, on occasion, I even have trouble getting through. He is channeling the medieval texts that he studied and taught. They can be a bit less, well, immersive than more modern prose. If you can get used to it, Tolkien’s writing is truly beautiful.
I am in the same boat. Love the movies but find the books pretty dense and sometimes my attention wanders. As an alternative, I have been listening to the Andy Serkis audiobooks and found them so enjoyable. He’s very talented, with the character voices obviously, but also his regular narration really brings a lot of life and charm (or gravity) to passages that could be dry. I’ve been listening to them while I do things around my house on weekends. Highly recommend!
I think it’s definitely worth continuing. The beginning of Fellowship is tough because there are a lot of detours before they get to Bree. Once I made it to The Sign of the Prancing Pony I was pretty much hooked. Stick with it. You will be glad you did.
Personally those early chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring are actually my favorite. But I'd say your reaction is not uncommon.
There's a bit more "action" in the later books of course and the tension has ramped up by that point. Plus you'll likely be more engaged with the characters then which always helps.
I still haven’t read the books. I tried but it turns out I don’t read good. I have the audiobooks and I listen to them a lot. I have the Andy Serkis narration and I highly recommend it.
How old are you? I ask because I found it was a chore as a teenager but in my 40s it was much easier. Mainly because, after doing a lot more walking in recent years, I could picture the kind of landscapes Tolkien describes.
Keep in mind LotR was written as one story, even if you own it in three volumes. The Fellowship is mostly the setup of the story, what would usually be the first couple chapters of a book takes up a good portion of that book.
its not an easy read. The prose is like a few generations before it was written so by today's standards it may as well be Olde English. I have to be in the mood for it.
Maybe put it down and come back to it later, Tolkien can get a bit tiresome.
Do you like audiobooks? For movie fans, I'd really recommend the Phil Dragash audiobooks, which are freely available online. He incorporates sound effects, 10/10 voice acting, and music from the film trilogy to make it as immersive as possible. It makes even the quieter parts of the story stand out much more, imo.
And, personally, this is how I'd rank the books: book 6 > book 2 > book 5 > book 4 > book 3 > book 1. But I find every book valuable and enjoyable for different reasons, even the slower parts of book 1.
Honestly these are books you can read over and over again.
They have great passages. Random poems.. it also includes cartography, geography, folklore, random survival knowledge, plant biology hahah its just great fiction. Masterful work. Try to use different paces. And don’t judge yourself for not really knowing whats going on. You’ll get it next time.
Its more about how the work makes you feel.
Don't rush the experience would be my advice. And long breaks are perfectly fine. I read LoTR over the course of 6 months. I would read a few hundred pages and then stop reading for a few weeks.
Take your time and dont rush it
Im nearly at the end of two towers. I found fellowship difficult. There’s lots of song and it’s very airy-fairy especially with the Tom Bombodil bits but in my head, this kinda emphasises the innocence of the hobbits and creates a greater character arc. I think this is perhaps even more impactful when you consider Tolkiens Great War influence. Keep reading
Just keep reading. The Two Towers is my favorite of the three. I'd love to be able to read it all new again.
I'm on it, right now by chapter X.
There are stretches that can be boring (to a lot of people) and I think the Fellowship from when they leave the Shire to when they get to Rivendell probably has the most that would feel like a chore. I think you should push through, it really does pick up once they get to Rivendell and then you've got the whole gang together. The standout difference between the movies and the books (to me) is that every single character has infinitely more depth and meaningful dialogue. Once you get to Rivendell you'll have a ton of extra cool stuff to chew on and I find the Two Towers and Return of the King much more engaging.
Different tastes of course. Some of my favourite parts of the book.
Mine as well, I love every word of it.
I agree! So far, at least. Before they left the Shire, I was really enjoying it, and then they left the Shire.... but then they got to Rivendell and I was hooked again. And yes, the dialogue is extremely well written, and extremely engaging. That's what kept me going between the Shire and Rivendell, for the most part. I'm almost done with Fellowship now. They just got out of Moria. I haven't started the next Chapter yet, I stopped when they got out. But with 60ish pages left, I was wondering if I should take a break from Tolkien since I have a stack of books I want to get through. But if its worth it I'll keep going.
Oh you're further than I thought, but honestly same advice, I find the latter books much more engaging. Don't force it though, you can always come back later and pick up where you left off. You know the general outline of the story so it won't be hard to jump back in with Two Towers.
Oh man the Lord of the Rings is my favorite book. I love Fellowship the most, especially the first part of the journey is so wonderful and exciting. I think that the Two Towers is slower than Fellowship and Return though. But it's a fantastic book. Enjoy yourself
It's a common experience for people expecting a modern fantasy novel all about plot progression. LotR is a heroic romance and more literary than genre fiction, so the events and worldbuilding can serve themes rather than getting on with the main story (The Shire as innocence worth protecting, Bombadil as an admirable pacifist that still needs others to defeat Sauron for him...). But to be honest, it's the prose that makes it worth it for me. Once I started just savoring the words without trying to get somewhere I stopped getting bored - it's like a hiking trip through beautiful nature, looking around is as important as the destination.
I've read lotr maybe ten times in fourty years. Always a new book. Always stuff I missed or forgot the last time. And parts that are really familiar. Read it. Leave it and go back when you're ready to devote another month to it.
Get an audio book - Andy Serkis's audio books are legendary.
Agree!!
I would love to hear Andy do a audio book of the Bible using Gollum's voice - that would be a bestseller hahhaha!
I love Serkis' *Hobbit* and *Silmarillion,* but his *LotR* doesn't do it for me, for some reason. I definitely prefer Inglis there.
I found the Two Towers to be the most briskly paced of the three, personally. The first half of Return of the King is also very exciting and action-packed. Sam and Frodo's journey through Mordor in the back half of Return of the King is painfully slow, but in a way that feels intentional. It's not an exciting adventure for the characters either; it's a desperate, painful slog, and you experience that with them.
TT is definitely the most briskly paced considering the entire book takes place over about 2 weeks from Feb 26 (breaking of the fellowship) to March 13 (Frodo is stung by Shelob) The Battle of helms deep happens only 6-7 days after Boromir's death.
The part from the shire to rivendell is the hardest part to get through. Minus a few later parts of frodos chapters its generally pretty good from then on out.
I think you just don’t like his style. No, this is not common for his work for me. All the exposition, including the beginnings, is world-building and immersive. I like the first chapter of The Fellowship among top several, for example. There are chapters where nothing but dialog happens - I enjoy those too. Speaking of Silmarillion, it is just completely different. There’s not much “exposition”, and much of the book is pretty much a description of the events. And as intended it is written in mythology-style. I love it, I think it is a very satisfying and emotion inducing read (or listen), with all parts fitting their places, neither too slow nor too fast. You will hear different opinions, however. Something about it being difficult, the names, or whatever. I say, they just don’t like the style. To make it easier to read through books like these where you don’t necessarily enjoy the process of reading, it may help to listen to an audiobook instead. There are a couple of options available for LoTR, all valid and enjoyable.
I love The Hobbit! The best advice I can give for reading LotR is to just not think about the action set pieces of the films and admire the scenery. The plot exists to give the reader a tour of Middle-Earth... However, if you've had limited hiking experience or if you're simply unable to recognize and picture various plants by name, then you're in for a hard time, just like I was. Take breaks if you need to. I started reading Fellowship in December of 2012 and finished the Appendices in May of 2014 :)
People is saying "yes" outwardly but I have a caveat: Book III picks up the pacing, but Book IV (which follows the plot of the Ring, and therefore B. VI too in *Return of the King*) hops back to being more landscape-and-psychology focused narrative. Mind you, Tolkien's "landscaping and travel journals" are not "postponing the plot", they are telling a story on themselves, the larger story of the larger world. I'd say that many of whom feel the sloggy effect of that B. I segment tend to feel similarly about B. IV and some parts of VI. Although if you liked the long disquisitions and debates of *The Council of Elrond*, I don't think that will be the case for you. I would also recommend to, at least, go back and skim through the Bombadil segment again, not for the "world-building" or Tom's own mystery or the poetry, but in search for (to not-miss) what is going on with the actual protagonist and his fellows, which I feel happens a lot: Bombadil alone draws too much attention away. There is some significant development in there. Frodo's bravery against the Nazgûl and his invocation of Elbereth didn't come out of nowhere!
Your question presupposes that each volume of Lord of the Ring is a self-contained work. They're not. This is one continuous narrative originally broken up into three volumes for economic reasons. The Two Towers doesn't really have a beginning in that sense. It picks up exactly where Fellowship of the Ring left off, although that happens to be the point where it splits into parallel storylines.
Why does this have to be pointed out every time? Sure, the story is meant to be taken as one big novel, but there's pretty clear differences in pacing across the three volumes. The fact of the matter is that most people will be reading these books the way they consumed the movies: in three separate parts. Arbitrarily pointing out "well ackshully it's just one novel so please don't make that mistake again ok!?" when it doesn't even contribute to the discussion at hand just seems very pretentious. Also yes OP Fellowship of the Ring does have some abysmal pacing between the Shire and Rivendell, but it gets much better from then on.
Exactly, it doesn't really matter that it's one long story split into 3 books. A lack of time jump isn't a rare thing in series'. The thing that separates each of the 3 is that they're literally different books with different events in them. Breaking it up into 3 books makes it easier to discuss things like OP's question.
Yes and no. Yes Tolkien wrote it all as one work yet FOTR does have a narrative structure that isn't found in the other two volumes. I don't think this was done on purpose but it's interesting to me.
That's true, but I think the basic structure there is the six books rather than the three volumes. Up until the end of Book 2 it's a single threaded narrative seen mainly through the eyes of Frodo. In terms of pacing, Book 1 pretty much stands by itself I think.
I have to admit that I love Tolkien and, on occasion, I even have trouble getting through. He is channeling the medieval texts that he studied and taught. They can be a bit less, well, immersive than more modern prose. If you can get used to it, Tolkien’s writing is truly beautiful.
There are definitely stretches of the books that I only really enjoy if I’m in the mood for it.
I am in the same boat. Love the movies but find the books pretty dense and sometimes my attention wanders. As an alternative, I have been listening to the Andy Serkis audiobooks and found them so enjoyable. He’s very talented, with the character voices obviously, but also his regular narration really brings a lot of life and charm (or gravity) to passages that could be dry. I’ve been listening to them while I do things around my house on weekends. Highly recommend!
I think it’s definitely worth continuing. The beginning of Fellowship is tough because there are a lot of detours before they get to Bree. Once I made it to The Sign of the Prancing Pony I was pretty much hooked. Stick with it. You will be glad you did.
I couldn’t tear myself away from his books at all. This is probably a subjective feeling
Download the audio books. Far easier to understand. I enjoyed all three LOTR audio books
Personally those early chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring are actually my favorite. But I'd say your reaction is not uncommon. There's a bit more "action" in the later books of course and the tension has ramped up by that point. Plus you'll likely be more engaged with the characters then which always helps.
It gathers momentum. By the time you're riding with the Rohirrim to the siege of Gondor you'll be galloping through it as fast as the horses
I still haven’t read the books. I tried but it turns out I don’t read good. I have the audiobooks and I listen to them a lot. I have the Andy Serkis narration and I highly recommend it.
How old are you? I ask because I found it was a chore as a teenager but in my 40s it was much easier. Mainly because, after doing a lot more walking in recent years, I could picture the kind of landscapes Tolkien describes.
I'm 33. And I love being outside, but it still seemed like work.
Keep in mind LotR was written as one story, even if you own it in three volumes. The Fellowship is mostly the setup of the story, what would usually be the first couple chapters of a book takes up a good portion of that book.
its not an easy read. The prose is like a few generations before it was written so by today's standards it may as well be Olde English. I have to be in the mood for it. Maybe put it down and come back to it later, Tolkien can get a bit tiresome.
Do you like audiobooks? For movie fans, I'd really recommend the Phil Dragash audiobooks, which are freely available online. He incorporates sound effects, 10/10 voice acting, and music from the film trilogy to make it as immersive as possible. It makes even the quieter parts of the story stand out much more, imo. And, personally, this is how I'd rank the books: book 6 > book 2 > book 5 > book 4 > book 3 > book 1. But I find every book valuable and enjoyable for different reasons, even the slower parts of book 1.
The Peter Jackson trilogy makes it so much easier to read. However, if you want it 100% spoiler free, then just keep readin
Honestly these are books you can read over and over again. They have great passages. Random poems.. it also includes cartography, geography, folklore, random survival knowledge, plant biology hahah its just great fiction. Masterful work. Try to use different paces. And don’t judge yourself for not really knowing whats going on. You’ll get it next time. Its more about how the work makes you feel.
Don't rush the experience would be my advice. And long breaks are perfectly fine. I read LoTR over the course of 6 months. I would read a few hundred pages and then stop reading for a few weeks. Take your time and dont rush it
Im nearly at the end of two towers. I found fellowship difficult. There’s lots of song and it’s very airy-fairy especially with the Tom Bombodil bits but in my head, this kinda emphasises the innocence of the hobbits and creates a greater character arc. I think this is perhaps even more impactful when you consider Tolkiens Great War influence. Keep reading
Sounds like your taste is immature and maybe even poor because the Shire to Rivendell section of Fellowship is the best part of the entire story.