EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion

Welcome everyone to our July-September 2020 Quarterly-Long Group Read; we'll be reading through The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Friendly reminder that this is our spoiler-free thread. If you're ready to talk spoilers, feel free to head on over to the spoilers thread.

Who is joining in this read? Will it be your first time reading or Is this a reread? How long have you been meaning to read this trilogy?

Hello, I am joining in to read The Lord of the Rings. I read The Hobbit several years ago and am finally getting around to this series. Looking forward to reading it with the group.

I've read the Hobbit and LOTR has been on my TBR list forever. I hope I'll be able to finally tackle it.

I read and reread all these books they all have special meomories for me

I've read the first two, but haven't gotten around to reading The Return of the King, so I'm going to just be reading the last book of the trilogy with all of you.

I wish I had time to reread the first two, I loved them!

I’m so excited for this. I watched the movies years ago (without reading the books—i know 😭) and I’m currently working on the Hobbit.

I’m joining today

I'll be joining. This will be my first time reading the series. I've only watched the movies.

I've just read the first book and would like to hear what everything thinks about Tom Bombadil (over in the spoiler section of course...)!

I’m super excited to reread these. I love LOTR. Led Zeppelin’s Ramble on makes a great accompaniment to the final book. And Betsy, Tom Bombadil is easily one of my favorite characters and one of my top reasons for dismissing the movie franchise all together 😂

reading it for the first tym! I'm so excited!! I watched the movies long ago and I really wanted to read the books! finally!!

It's a re-read for me... Wanted to do this for a long while. It doesn't matter if I read only bits and pieces this time, like many other times I did long long ago, but I really hoped I could do a full re-read some day... We'll see.

The book, wherever I started, somehow lured me in and kept me glued to the pages. Everytime. Tolkien really had a way with words.

I saw the movies, but I’ve never read the books! I hope to join in...

I‘ve started twice, got stuck at Elrond‘s council every time, and made to the end of book 2 only once...it‘s time to tame the beast. Especially since I‘ve com to love Tolkien‘s way of writing. We had to translate parts of the „About Hobbits“ section at university (from English to my mother language German) and I only realized then what a magician with words he was.

I have had this series of books in my library for YEARS and haven't tackled them! I am excited to read these with others! Also I just recently found The Silmarillion, which is the about the First Age of Middle Earth! I plan on reading this series plus The Hobbit and The Silmarillion !

Jaclyn wrote: "I’m super excited to reread these. I love LOTR. Led Zeppelin’s Ramble on makes a great accompaniment to the final book...."

I think Led Zeppelin makes a great accompaniment to ANY book. ;-) Their songs "Battle of Evermore" and "Misty Mountain Hop" also have LOTR references.

And so do a whole bunch of other bands. Check out this article from Rolling Stone magazine for more details:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/mu...

Reading the Hobbit first and then getting to this one. Curious if you guys will consider this 3 books finished or 1 book finished once you read the whole thing!?

Cassandra wrote: "I have had this series of books in my library for YEARS and haven't tackled them! I am excited to read these with others! Also I just recently found The Silmarillion, which is the about the First A..."

My suggestion would be to read the Silmarillion after the LotR and The Hobbit. It's written more in an Encyclopedia-style, it spans several eras, and it has a ton of names. I was using the appendix of this one a lot when I read it. It's super interesting and well thought-out and an amazing addition to the world of Tolkien's works, but it's not the easiest to digest.

Yes to reading and listening to Led Zeppelin, RJ! But Ramble On is a perfect accompaniment Jaclyn, you're right.

Tiana, personally I'm going to count them as three books when finished. A trilogy is a trilogy right? You can read one of them and still gain something of value.

It's been years since I read this. (I think I was in high school circa 1980s.) Looking forward to it.

I’ve been wanting to read this but it’s so daunting and I’ve heard it’s a hard read so I’m not sure

Melanie, don't let what people say put you off giving it a go. MANY times what is considered hard for one person is completely different to another's sense of difficulty.