Read "The Hobbit" on Saturday. It wasn't the first time I read it, but it will probably be the last. I hate to say it, but it's just not a very good book. Perhaps I should preface this post by saying that I recently purchased "The Lord of the Rings" books with a Half Price Books gift card, and look forward immensely to finally reading one of the most important books of the 20th Century.

But yeah, "The Hobbit" isn't a very good book. I've read that it's geared more towards kids, and if that's the case, I shouldn't be too harsh on it.

One of the more annoying aspects of the book is when Tolkien periodically jumps into a very lazy shorthand when describing characters. He'll say something like, "This person is the king and he's been really bad. You'll have to take my word on this." I kept shaking my head and wondering why Tolkien would treat this seemingly important piece of information with an air disdain.

But if there's one thing I know without having ever read "The Lord of the Rings," it's that Tolkien goes into exhaustive elaboration on each little detail of that epic, so maybe I should be careful what I ask for.

"The Hobbit" had some really nice moments though. I particularly liked the chapters about Bilbo trying to find his way out of Gollum's caves. All of the interplay between Gollum and Bilbo was fantastic. I of course, expect a lot more of this type of stuff in the following books.

But as great as the Gollum/Bilbo stuff was, I couldn't help but wonder what "The Hobbit" would have been like had Tolkien wrote it after "The Lord of the Rings." I think he would have changed a few things. I could be wrong and mistaken about this, but it seems to me that the final battle in "The Hobbit" could have been tied to "the ring" had Tolkien written it after his more epic pieces.

I also didn't like how there didn't seem to be much motivation for Bilbo to take off on this adventure. Sure Tolkien wrote about how Bilbo's ancestors, the Tooks, were an adventurous folk, and treasure is typically a pretty recognizable thing to set out on an adventure for, but Bilbo basically went from "Get out of my hobbit hole" to "Hey, wait up" in not very much time.

I used to be really into Peter Jackson going back to Middle Earth and making a film version of "The Hobbit," but I honestly don't know if there's enough good stuff in the book to make for an interesting movie. For one thing, the heroes of the story don't even end up killing Maug the Dragon. That seems almost anticlimactic. And I'd be interested to see how a movie version of "The Hobbit" would deal with the almost inexplicable departure of Gandalf from the quest. In another instance of Tolkien breaking the fourth wall and engaging the reader, he mentions "what Gandalf did will be explained in a different book."

One of the better parts of the book revolved around the growing mistrust between humans, elves, and dwarves. I know that's a central theme of "The Lord of the Rings" so it was nice to see it get some due in this story.

I also liked the concept that Hobbits end up making the greatest of heroes, in both adventure and brains. I rather like the theme of the smallest creatures making the greatest contributions and sacrifices. Coupled with "The Lord of the Rings" the hobbits are really making quite the name for themselves.

Perhaps the best part of the book for me is how I interpret what happens in "The Lord of the Rings" as having come directly from "The Hobbit." As I've said, I haven't read the books yet, but in the movies, Sam and Frodo talk about how the stories of adventures, carried out by previous generations of Hobbits, keep them going forward in their journeys. It was really cool reading about one said adventure, and knowing that Bilbo Baggins set forward a chain of events which would ultimately bring his own family and friends back into danger, all the while showing that even when things got really tough, a Hobbit was the best type of person to have on your side. One things I'll definitely be looking for when I read "The Lord of the Rings" is to see if Gandalf uses Bilbo's success on his adventure as a catalyst for helping pick Frodo as the ring bearer in the Fellowship.

Any thoughts? :-)

matt out