What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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What have you been reading or listening to lately?
Check Official Bingo Challenge Post and the accompanying Recommendations Post for our Bingo for 2026!
Finally reading The Lord of the Rings.
Almost at the end of Fellowship, but I must say it has been a bit of a drag.
I will most definitely finish it, but from all the hype I did have slighty higher expectations.
It’s also very likely that since I have already seen the movies and loved them, and already know what is going to happen, it has somewhat taken away from the book experience.
Although the whole Bombadil section was new, and I did not find it especially interesting.
Bear in mind that LOTR started out as a sequel to a children’s book, and changed into something else about halfway through FOTR. So you’re literally reading the epic fantasy genre being born on the page in front of you.
While technically true, I feel that this is a bit of a misnomer. Even though LotR is usually considered the archetypal example of “epic/high fantasy”, based on the other most popular works in the genre I think that LotR (and the rest of the non-Hobbit legendarium) is better described as “myth”, and I think that fans of epic/high fantasy coming to Tolkien are often disappointed for this reason.
For me the disappointment went the other direction - I read LotR first, and then I went on a fantasy reading binge and was repeatedly let down because I couldn’t understand why none of it felt like Tolkien.
I did read The Hobbit and enjoyed it quite a bit. It felt much smoother.
Also read his short stories “Farmer Giles of Ham” and “Leaf by Niggle”.
The first book is always a bit of s drag. Up until Moria at least. After that the pager picks up and the narrative gets split, which makes for better pacing and slow burn cliffhangers.