03-05-2002, 09:27 AM | #1 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: OK, USA
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What got you started?
Just wondering, how did you get into Tolkien?
For me, it started when I was pretty young listening to an tape versioin of the Hobbit. I don't really remember that much about it, just that the goblin door in the pass freaked me out completely. Then in probably '98 I read the Hobbit and the next year LOTR.
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03-05-2002, 10:05 AM | #2 |
'Sober' Mullet Frosh
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When I was in grade 5 (7 years ago) for whatever reason my parents bought me the 1st two books of Lord of the Rings, I read them, while never getting the sequel. I do remember finally finding a copy of ROTK in the library. I read the silmarillion in around Grade 7 or so but it was way over my head. As the movie was coming out I bought a bouth a new FOTR and ROTK (my TT from grade 5 was still around), bought the Silmarillion to take a new stab at it and now I'm a firm addict. I also bought the hobbit and read it for the first time. A mistake IMHO, that I read it after the Silmarillion, to big a transition.
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03-05-2002, 10:20 AM | #3 |
Peer of the realm of Sanguine
Join Date: Jan 2002
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I was in my early twenties (nineteen-seventy something) and working in a medical lab. Several people in my department had read it or were reading it at the time and they were always talking about it. I wasn't too anxious to get into a 1,000+ page book, but someone suggested I start with the Hobbit. Soon after I started reading The Hobbit, the Rankin-Bass animated feature appeared on television, so my first impression of Gollum was that of a mutated frog.
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03-05-2002, 10:53 AM | #4 |
Bard of Mangled Songs
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My beginnings with the collection are quite fuzzy, to say the least. I first saw the Rankin-Bass version of The Hobbit on beta format in the early 80's in 4th or 5th grade (same first impressions as barrelrider110's of Gullum) at a friends house and then the Bakshi animation after about a week later. I was surprised then to see Gollum again since I thought the two were not related and they didn't look alike. I kept hearing about the books in high school while playing D&D with some friends when I get the time.
I kept seeing a copy of FOTR in my dad's collection of books but kept putting of reading it after get reminded that it's part of a series of 3 vols and the other two were no where to be found. I finally got my own full (Hobbit to ROTK) set in college but had to put off reading them since I had to finish my degree. I finally remembered them after graduation when suddenly I had nothing else to do. I finished them in a week and got The Silmarillion a few months later after scouring the bookstores. I would like to think that I'm at least lucky enought to be able to read them in that order. I read them again from time to time but had to start over at least last year and now because of the film.
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03-05-2002, 10:56 AM | #5 |
Elf Lord
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My dad is a big Tolkien Fan, and he read me the Hobbit when I was five ( I used to demand a story before I went to bed, and he ran out of ideas, so he got out the Hobbit). I read it on my own when I was 6 1/2, and then later, in the third grade, I read LotR. I read the Silmarillion shortly after seeing PJ's movie (6th grade) and I'm currently working on the Unfinished Tales and H.o.M.E.
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03-05-2002, 11:00 AM | #6 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Wilmore, KY
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I also had the hobbit read to me as a child. I wasn't much of a reader when I was small. I think lord of the rings was the first book that I have ever voluntarily read. That must have been in fifth grade when I first read it, and I read the sil soon after.
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03-05-2002, 12:20 PM | #7 |
Sapling
Join Date: Jan 2002
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Nine years ago, me and couple of friends started playing roleplaying games. One of the games we played was Lord of the Rings adventure game... so I went to my parents bookshelf and picked up Lord of the Rings book (which my mom had got for present and never read it, although she reads a lot... Why she hasn't still read LotR is something I can't undertand) and read it.
I first read the Fellowship -part, and it was a year or so when I had to do a book review at school so I read the Two Towers. After that I finished the whole book.
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03-05-2002, 02:14 PM | #8 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Orillia, Ontario
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When I was a teenager (back in the seventies), I became interested in LotR because I was reading a lot of fantasy fiction.
( Thomas Covanent books, Dune, Ursula le Guin etc.) I read it a few times back then and even bought the Silmarillion when it first came out. But the Sil. didn't hold my interest, and the next year I was off to University and didn't have much time for recreational reading. My interests changed over the years. Fast forward to 2000. I started playing an adventure game called Riven and then became hooked on the computer fantasy worlds of Myst and Riven. I had read somewhere that the maker of these games was an avid Tolkien fan. Rediscovered the books then, read the Sil., and now can share the wonder with all of you at the Moot.
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03-05-2002, 02:41 PM | #9 |
Enting
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: israel
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I read the Hobbit because my uncle (that read the LOTR) bought it to my birthday. then when I asked him who was Aragorn he told me in short the Silmarilon and told me that Aragorn is a mortle and his father of father......(I don't know how to write it in other way) came from Nominor. I was curios and started to read the LOTR.
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03-05-2002, 02:55 PM | #10 |
Queen of Nargothrond
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I was introduced to the Hobbit and the LotRs by my older brother when I was a teenager about 16. I went on to read the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and some of the HoMe series on my own. Unfortunately my brother lost interest after reading the Silmarillion, and never read LotRs or Tolkien again. I still try to talk to him about it and hope to spark his interest again someday.
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03-05-2002, 03:03 PM | #11 |
Lurker
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Awhile ago I got a full set for my birthday, and what could I do but read them?
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03-05-2002, 03:07 PM | #12 |
Bard of Mangled Songs
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Well in that case, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Elf Girl!
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Power attracts the corruptible. Absolute power attracts the absolutely corruptible. -Missionaria Protectiva, Frank Herbert Accio, Ash Nazg! Elennuru s?*la lúmenn' omentielvo (The Death Star shines on the hour of our meeting) - Darth Arathorn Put aside the ranger... Start looking for Mumakil action figures... |
03-05-2002, 03:37 PM | #13 |
King of Nargothrond
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When I was like, eight years old, my dad read me the Hobbit, then the LoTR. After that I read them again and read the Silmarillion and other Tolkien stuff. What can I say? I'm addicted.
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03-05-2002, 03:48 PM | #14 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 435
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i read the hobbit ages ago but never got around to reading lotr. then when the movie came out it inspired me to read it. from then on i've been hooked, have finished lotr and the sil, and am currently trying unfinished tales.
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03-05-2002, 05:08 PM | #15 | |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Valinor, right next to Telperion . . . what did you expect, Michigan?
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Quote:
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03-05-2002, 05:16 PM | #16 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Feb 2002
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Well I read the hobbit iin Year 6 but I really got into it when I saw the movie.
I'd always been around it though cos my dad has read it so many times he cant remember but its in doublr figures!
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03-05-2002, 06:18 PM | #17 |
Elf Lord
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When I was little I saw rankin-bass 'Hobbit' and Bakshi Lotr.
Over the years these fused in my mind and I could barely remember them. Ironicly, I only remebered it because of the roto-scoping in Bakshi. When I was 20 (in 2000) I came across reference to the Hobbit online and was intrigued. I found the Hobbit at the library and began reading it. I was surprised to discover LoTR and I read the Prologue when I was half way through the Hobbit. The migratory history of the Hobbits hooked me. I thought it was so cool that Tolkien would get that into the 'history'. That's when I saw it. The footnote. Footnote!?! I innocently flipped open RoTK to the appendices and was completely blown away. I knew that I HAD to read this book; just so I could read the appendices! Of course the I did, and the story was so good I forgot about the appendices!
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03-05-2002, 07:39 PM | #18 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Aug 2001
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I was in a bookstore and just picked up a curiously named book from the shelf. It was the Lord of the Rings, by someone named J.R.R.Tolkien. I knew nothing about the book or the writer so, out of curiosity, I opened it and started to read a description of Hobbits. What a mistake! I found myself compelled to keep reading it, so I bought it and took it home.
Just as I finished reading the LotR, I found myself wanting to know more about Middle-Earth and it’s inhabitants. I looked in all bookstores for the Silmarillion, but to no avail. Then, when I was nearly giving up, I actually found it, a lost, nearly forgotten copy, in a dusty old bookstore. To my great joy I found it even more compelling that I had expected.
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03-05-2002, 11:08 PM | #19 |
Elf Lord
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About three years ago (when I was in fifth grade) my neighbors borrowed my copy of The Hobbit. I decided I wanted to read it, and I did. I drove my friends crazy for the rest of the year. That summer, I read LOTR, and I was totally hooked.
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03-06-2002, 12:06 AM | #20 |
Elven Lady of Speed-posting
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I got my first set of the books when I was in fifth grade. I tried, but I just could not get into them without putting them down all the time. FINALLY, when I was in 7th grade, I finished the books and begged for more. I read the Hobbit and then did a horrible first read through of the Silm. in which I had to keep returning it to the library because I never had a second to read it! Now I'm in 9th grade, and I'm more than(?) half way through Unfinished Tales. I can't wait...HOMES, here I come!
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