Why did you read the books?

[Ariana Undomiel]

This poll is just a little idea I had in order to see how people read the Lord of the Rings books.

[Talimon]

Cool poll, you should submit it to theonering.net. They have been lacking good poles as of late. :)

[Gloer]

Take into account that there has been a movie 20 years ago by Ralph Bakshi. It was animated and so grim in comparison to any Disney stuff that I really loved it. But the fellow never finished the story! So I had to find out what happened to Frodo and Sam and Aragorn etc...

That is why I read the book once I got my hands on it.

[Merry]

I read LOTR after years of people telling me how great it was. I was never a big reader so I never thought of picking it up and having a go. Then two cool Uni grads came to work in my office and they loved LOTR to bits, they also told me that I had to read it.

I was then sick and needed 3 weeks off work and I started to read it because I was bored, WOW! LOTR changed my life! Once I started I couldn't put it down.

I now love the book and the Sil and all Tolkien related publications.

The film came out a year after a read the book and I was delighted, you hard core fans who read it 10+ years ago must have been dying for the film to be made!! :D

I too saw the unfinished cartoon film, it was really scarey and dark! It is actually closer to the book that PJs adaptation! Pity he run out of money!

Ah, I appear to be waffling!

[Legolam]

My Dad bought me the books when i was a kid and I read them then. For about 10 years I've been waiting for a movie to be made about them and I was fairly impressed by it all. Roll on December (and August the 6th!!)

[Lady Legolas]

When I was younger my mom told me to read the books.So I did.When the movie came out my mom and I saw it together.And we are both looking forward to seeing the next two movies,

[Isilme]

Once I was really sick for about 3 months, and my mom read the hobbit to me (because it was one of her favourite series when she was a kid) after that I kept reading them.

[Rangerdave]

Originally posted by Merry


The film came out a year after a read the book and I was delighted, you hard core fans who read it 10+ years ago must have been dying for the film to be made!! :D



I first read the books a long long time ago, way back when Gerald Ford was still the President and dinosaurs roamed the Earth. I was given a copy by a friend of the family.

Unlike many, I was distressed when I learned they were making a live action movie. "This is going to bite, how can it possibly do justice to the books" I thought.

Happily, I was wrong

RD

[warrior of ice]

i decided to read the books becaus ´rhapsody´, a metal band i like,
has a guitar player who is crazy with lotr and creates a totally new story by his own really similar to lotr but the thing of power is a sword
and a warrior of ice most look for it before the black king finds it
so the steelgods of the last apocalypsis must dethorne akron using the power of the dragonflame and give a gloruis ending to the legendary tales


wery similar to my signature

[Boromir's Lady]

I read 'The Hobbit' in elementary school and I had also seen the cartoon of 'The Hobbit'. While in school I read constantly but never read 'TLotR' trilogy.

It wasn't until after I saw the movie that I started reading 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy. I went to get it a few days after seeing the movie! I have read 'The Fellowship' and 'The Two Towers' and I'm starting on RoTK

[mr underhill]

to be honest i read LOTR at christmas..... but i read the hobbit and sil ages ago..

[LadyGaladriel]

Well after about 7 years of my dad trying to persuade me to read them (I was into good old horror stories when I was younger) I decided to give them ago. My grandad gave me a copy and I read the hobbit and couldn't belive what I had been missing. I then read LOTR and absoultly adored it . I then heard about the movie and nearly died from a fit of excitement . That was one of he biggest anticipated things I have ever experianced . Fantastic.

[Eledhwen]

I don't know how to vote in a TTF poll.

[Eledhwen]

I can't be bothered to hunt down a poll just for the sake of it. This one looked like it could have produced useful marketing information for Tolkien Enterprises et al, so it does seem a waste to produce the information for free.

[Melian Le Fay]

I sort of knew about the book since i was a child, I guess hearing a lot about them, but i never read them. Then my friend gave me some fantasy literature to read, and i was thrilled! It's like a world i always imagined, it was like reading your dreams!!! And then he gave me LOTR, and said something like : "This is the Bible of Fantasy world". I tried to read it, but I just wasn't into it. I can't erxplain it, I guess I was overwhelmed with my exams at the time...Then I tried to read the Hobbit, but, it was the same thing... But I never doubted thet LOTR was boring! Then I saw the film...........I got the books the next day and read them in 3 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!with all my exams soon to come!!!!!!!!!!
I guess I would have read them even if I never saw the film...
But it definitely helped to make my mind much sooner!

[Eledhwen]

I feel that the best outcome of PJ making Lord of the Rings is that many more people have been inspired to read the books. You can now buy them on supermarket bookshelves at ridiculous prices, which is a sure sign that they are selling like hot cakes.

[LadyGaladriel]

Not neccesaryly true because if you weren't keen on the film then you wont be bothered to read the books .

[Eledhwen]

Have you met anyone who hasn't read the books and didn't like the film? It would be good to do a poll, (but it wouldn't work on this forum!). I maintain that the film must have had some effect, otherwise the books wouldn't still be on sale in Asda(UK)/Walmart. They weren't there before PJ's film, and the "pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap" shops won't stock what doesn't sell.

[Melian Le Fay]

Wow!
Books are so cheap overthere, Eledhwen? Here, the film was a big hit, and book started selling more than usual (you could buy them in most book-shops, before the film came out), but the price didn't drop. Actually, I think they went even higher. I don't know... For example, LOTR costs 25 EURO, paper back edition... And, of course, our strandard isn't as high as in Western Europe... What's the price in your country?


But, after the film, EVERYBODY started buying LOTR!!! Except, we have some morons who bought only TTT (I guess they couldn't wait for the film)!!!!!!!! I wanted to buy LOTR in English, but I can only find FOTR and ROTK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How STUPID!!!:mad:

[Eledhwen]

Harper Collins Publishers do the three separate volumes at £6.99 each, but the same edition in Asda/Walmart is £3.99 (pounds sterling). I don't know the price of the all-in-one volume. I don't do Euros (I haven't been across the channel since last November when it was still old money) - I think they're about the same value as the US$.

[Carantalath]

I got the books in the fifth grade and started to read the Fellowship of the Ring but I couldn't get into the story. So I waited and waited and then, when the movie came out, I decided that I didn't want to see it. But, I decided to read the books, which I kept in my room for like four years and never opened them, and I loved the trilogy. So, I dragged my dad with me and we went to the movies. So I read the books after the movie came out but before seeing it.

[Eledhwen]

I just noticed that you're writing from Yugoslavia. Do you have Euros too? If you want to buy an English edition, try online from www.Amazon.co.uk - they've probably got every edition.

[Melian Le Fay]

Thanks Eledhwen! No, we don't use Euros, but we can always exchange them...But as for Amazon, I'm not sure, but I think all purchase goes through credit-cards...And I haven't got one...I guess they're not very popular here just yet :(
I wanted to buy LOTR in English, because I read The Sil in original. And I was so impressed! I read plenty of books in English, but this one was something...very special. Tolkien's English is so beautiful, so rich, some times archaic (I loved that!), and totally epical... Beautifull, so beautifull, I must have every one of his books in English!!! It's not that they didn't translate it well in my language, but I'd like to "practise" English a little bit, and is there a better way?!!!;) :D

[fersganjh]

when I had read "The Hobbit" it became my all-time favorite. I never really read the LOTR books b4 the movie came out b/c I wasn't as so much interested in Frodo's adventure (plus I have seen the animated version of ROTK @ age 6 & it confused me...) When I heard the movie was going to come out, I began to read the book... one word: phenomenal. <- everyone knows what I'm talking about...

[Eledhwen]

If you don't know why he's "Frodo of the nine fingers" then you haven't read all the books yet. Enjoy finding out! "Ring of Doom"? Tolkien's writings give a richer meaning to the word "doom" than modern usage. The following is copied from lecture notes by Erik Tracey posted on http://members.cts.com/king/e/erikt/tolkien/

The doom of the individual life is the normal tone of classic "myths" and usually full of it. The Sil. is patterned on this mode.

wyrd = fate (future unknown events)

Oedipus - the epitomy of the "classic" hero who faces pride and fate. What chance did he have of changing his fate? appearently none - he was "doomed" from the start.

The Vow of Oedipus starts the wheels of fate moving towards his doom.

Danger of pride can cause the hero mistakes. [Turin is perfect example]

It was Frodo's doom to take the ring to Mordor, but so many lives are wrapped up in the One Ring that it deserves the title "Ring of Doom".

[In Flames]

I got into it for the same reason as Isilme, my mother read the first book for me when i was sick. That was sometime in the beginning of the 80's.
And i had to find out what happened!:) So i read the other two after that, and then The Hobbit. I didn't read the sil until several years later.

And now who knows how many times i have read the books.. I just can't get enough.:cool:

[Diamond Took]

I read the books because when I was very little my mother read the hobbit to me- when I heard that there would be a movie being filmed in my country, I asked my mum what it was all about. She said it was a movie adaption of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I asked her who lord of the rings was written by, and she answered JRR Tolkien.
'JRR tolkien?' I said. 'Was he the bloke that wrote the hobbit?'

After that I decided to read Lord of The Rings. I'd read the hobbit several times and it was my favourite book.:)

[fersganjh]

I see you have not seen the animated versions of LOTR. In the ROTK (which was the only movie I remember seeing of LOTR in my childhood) my 2nd quote is part of the song that the minstrel sings in the celebration at Gondor.And when the glad shout had swelled up and died away again, to Sam's final and complete satisfaction and pure joy, a minstrel of Gondor stood forth, and knelt, and begged leave to sing. And behold! he said: 'Lo! lords and knights and men of valor unashamed, kings and princes, and fair people of Gondor, and Riders of Rohan, and ye sons of Elrond, and Dúnedain of the North, and Elf and Dwarf, and greathearts of the Shire, and all free folk of the West, now listen to my lay. For I will sing to you of Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom.' of course, my quote is a piece of the animated version of the song sung, but stil... there is your answer:) - fersganjh

[Grond]

Poll is reopened. Anyone who hasn't voted but wanted to may now do so. :)

[Ithrynluin]

Originally posted by Gloer
Take into account that there has been a movie 20 years ago by Ralph Bakshi. It was animated and so grim in comparison to any Disney stuff that I really loved it. But the fellow never finished the story! So I had to find out what happened to Frodo and Sam and Aragorn etc...

That is why I read the book once I got my hands on it.

Same thing here,Gloer. I read LOTR about 6 years ago. I loved
Bakshi's animated version when I was a kid!

[Eledhwen]

From Fersganjh I see you have not seen the animated versions of LOTR. In the ROTK (which was the only movie I remember seeing of LOTR in my childhood) my 2nd quote is part of the song that the minstrel sings in the celebration at Gondor.

I have seen the Ralph Bakshi (LotR) version (the one with rotoscoping, which finishes at Helm's Deep), but not the Rankin-Bass (RotK). The Hollywood Jesus review of the RB version contains the following: What was particularly stunning about their latest production was that it made very little attempt to cover for the fact that it began the story of The Lord of the Rings with the Muster of Rohan, and with Frodo already captured by the Orcs at Cirith Ungol. Worse, the adaptation tried to get away with this narrative affront through the device of "The Minstrel of Gondor," warblingly vocalized by Glen Yarborough. This invented minstrel opens the show with a rendering (did I mean to say rendition?) of the Lay of "Frodo of the Nine Fingers," sung as part of a further-invented birthday party for Bilbo at Rivendell sometime after the War of the Ring. Considering that the running time of the Rankin/Bass Return is 97 minutes, better than half of which is consumed by further Glen-warbling, it is rather shocking that the adaptation had the gall of inventing this scene at the expense of chopping so many others. On top if it all, the program got so many stinking things -- like their visualization of the Ringwraiths -- flat-out wrong. Stern stuff! Do I really want to see this video?

[Talimon]

You really do not. See thier version of the Hobbit for a better view on things. And see Bakshi's version if only to criticize it. But the animated 'Return of the King' is particularly stale. The minstrel bit takes out all the drama. You know Frodo survived from the begginning, yet the movie tries to hide it. Kind of a odd story telling.

[Goldberry]

Originally posted by Talimon
You really do not. See thier version of the Hobbit for a better view on things. And see Bakshi's version if only to criticize it. But the animated 'Return of the King' is particularly stale. The minstrel bit takes out all the drama. You know Frodo survived from the begginning, yet the movie tries to hide it. Kind of a odd story telling.

I agree that the animated ROTK is not good, and Bakshi's version has a lot of flaws.
I read LoTR for the first time in 1979. I never thought they'd be able to do a great production of it. I was on cloud 9 after seeing PJ's FoTR.

[gate7ole]

I read the books when I heard somewhere that a great book was going to be filmed and I got curious

[Eledhwen]

Your reply, gate7ole, shows that, in spite of criticism, Peter Jackson's film has brought a whole new audience to Tolkien's work.

[LadyGaladriel]

He certainly has. Many people have read it agaon and rediscovered its greatness

[Melian Le Fay]

I was going to read the books, but somehow never found time for reading... And when I saw the film, I thought : "Wow, if the film is this good, the book has to be even better!" And I borrowed them from a friend and read them in three days or so.
I definitely agree that PJ film convinced many people to read or re-read the books, and Tolkien's other work too. Like me and my sister...and my boyfriend...and my mom...
Flms represent mass culture, and maybe that's the best about them. Tolkien was popular before, but a big Holliwood block-buster made it even more popular... I do not appreciate Holliwood, nor some other aspects of pop-culture, but, like I said, they make things more available to many people... for example, LOTR books can be bought in almost every book-store, for a very good price!

[Flame of Anor]

I personally had never heard of Lord of the Rings, until my friend said that he was waiting for some friends to come over from the Seattle area to see it. He had read the books and could not wait for the movie to be released. So I went with him, my dad, and his friends the last Wednesday of December. After that, I was hooked. I read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings Trillogy, and the Silmarillion. To say the least, I voted "I read the books after I saw the Fellowship of the Ring."

-Flame