The Hobbit

I'll just come right out and say it. I love J.R.R. Tolkien. I loved the books when I was in fourth grade, and I still think they're great. I got the whole way through The Hobbit in about a week, and most nights, Matt had to force me to put down the book because I likely would have stayed up all night reading it. His mode of story telling is so descriptive that its easy to envision the hobbit's journey exactly. And, it's easy to identify with each of the characters in some way or other... The hobbit's humility and fear of leaving home, the dwarves love of song and treasure, the elves and their magical grace, and even the eagles and their unwillingness to get involved in the petty battles of the land creatures.
That being said, its hard for me to read the book without thinking about how it translates to film... something I'm not normally fond of doing, but is difficult to avoid, considering that our next Lord of the Rings Day is only 337 days away. And I'm not sure that it will make as good of a movie as the Lord of the Rings trilogy did. Mostly because, in the trilogy, the demarcation between good and evil is blatantly clear. But in The Hobbit, there are points when the main characters (a troop of 13 dwarves) acts stubborn enough that even I get a little tired of them. And the dragon (the main foe in the book) is killed by a character that we meet about three paragraphs before and know very little about. So, even if it does make a decent film, I'm not sure we'll be willing to extend LOTR day from 12 to 16 hours for it.... that remains to be seen.
Along those lines, though, the contrast between my reading of the book this time and last time (fourth grade) is also interesting, because I can now put the book in the context of the Lord of the Rings trilogies, whereas last time I read it as an isolated tale. It gives a little more weight to when Bilbo acquires the ring. And, there is a great story about when Bilbo names his sword Sting in a fight with a giant spider. Although the ring itself plays a pretty big role in the book, it acts more as a trinket that allows Bilbo to escape from some nasty situations due to being invisible. Getting the ring from Gollum is really more interesting because of the riddles the two pass back and forth rather than the monumental event that it ended up being for the people of Middle Earth.
And with that exceptionally dorky comment, I am going to end this post... But, I'll say that the book is an excellent little escape from reality, particularly when you're looking for themes of gathering the courage (and luck) to leave home, and the joy of returning to it after a long journey. Or, if you just want to laugh at some funny dwarf songs.