The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkein
For those of you who had gone to Dr. Howard in elementary school, you may remember that every Friday, the school would set out a ton of old and used books in one of the school’s hallways. Here, you could buy a book that they set out, but since most of the books were very boring and worn out, literally no one did this. However, if you behaved well enough, your teacher might reward you a slip that you could use to exchange for a book at this weekly book bar event. It just so happens that I received one of these slips at one point and when I went to exchange it, I was mostly disappointed with the selection, but in the end I somehow found The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. I was actually pretty happy with finding the book as I had seen The Lord of the Rings movies, but somehow, I wound up losing it. Only recently did I find it again, and finally get a chance to read it.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is a classic novel that almost everyone knows or has at least heard of. Because of this, I’ll try to keep the summary pretty short. Bilbo Baggins lives a quiet, peaceful life in his comfortable hole at Bag End. Bilbo is a hobbit—a race of small, plump people about half the size of humans, with furry toes and a love of good food and drink. Bilbo is quite content at Bag End, near the hobbit village of Hobbiton, but one day his comfort is ruined by the arrival of the old wizard Gandalf, who persuades Bilbo to set out on an adventure with a group of thirteen dwarves. The dwarves are on a quest to reclaim their treasure from the greedy dragon Smaug, and Bilbo is to act as their “burglar.” The dwarves are very skeptical about Gandalf’s choice for a burglar, and Bilbo is terrified to leave Bag End to seek adventure. However, Gandalf assures both Bilbo and the dwarves that there is more to the hobbit than meets the eye and soon they are off on their adventure.
There are obviously other parts of the plot that I didn’t mention. For instance, Bilbo finding the ring, which is a pretty big aspect of Tolkien's world, but this summary should provide a basic reminder or summary of what occurred in the book.
Overall, I thought The Hobbit was a really great book. As one of the most famous fantasy books, I thought that the overall plot, setting, and pool of characters were really unique. It’s no wonder that it’s a pioneer for books of this genre. Throughout the book, you get to encounter the many races of Tolkien's world and experience the toils and hardships of the group’s big quest. Although I initially thought that The Hobbit would be a very serious book, it actually felt quite lighthearted, especially when compared to The Lord of the Rings. However, the one problem that I had with this book was Tolkien's writing. Although the book had beautiful description, the writing felt very boring at times; the language Tolkien used can sometimes feel old and almost unnecessary. In addition, I’ve heard many complain that a lot of the book seems to feel stretched out, but I somewhat enjoy this aspect as it really lets you feel the length and duration of the quest.
Even though the writing itself wasn’t the most captivating at times, the ideas, fantasies and descriptions throughout the book make it the classic that it is. If I were to rate it, I would give it 10/13 bologna slices.
Nice review! I liked you included the story about how you first read this book, since it was a really nice transition/hook and made your review seem more 'real'. I agree with you that the writing can seem very boring and unnecessary at times (I stopped reading halfway through), but I thought it was interesting how this aspect almost added to the story for you. I think one reason why this book seems slow to a lot of people is because the movies are much more fast-paced and gives a prospective reader the wrong idea of what the book is actually like.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you have now read The Hobbit! It's one of those books that everyone should read at some point in their lives. I do agree that Tolkien could have sped things up a bit in his writing, although the slow descriptions were quite vivid. While I enjoyed The Hobbit when I read it, I enjoyed the LOTR trilogy more. Potential blog post in comparing the two works? Anyways, this was a great and fair review of The Hobbit. Somewhere between 10 and 13 bolognas could possibly fall on you today!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job introducing and describing the Hobbit, and I like how you started off with that interesting bit about Dr. Howard (I still remember). I like your description of Tolkien's writing style as old and often boring, but also including beautiful and detailed descriptions. It sure can drag on sometimes, but a lot of people miss the the way it also helps readers feel the length of the story. Nice review!
ReplyDeleteI recently reread The Hobbit, so it was fresh in my mind while reading your review. Your summary does a great job of hitting the major points of the story without spoiling it too much. I definitely agree that the characters and setting are unique (at least for the book's time), and even though it seemed a bit cliché when I reread it, it still was an engaging read. I also like how you introduced your review with the story of how you came across the book, and like Benjamin said I think it makes your review seem more real. Overall, a great review of a great book.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I liked your backstory behind how you came to read The Hobbit. It was unique and interesting to see something like that in a review. Secondly, its very impressive how you got all of your points across so efficiently. It was easy to read an understand your summary and analysis, and I have a good idea of the premise and style of this book. A few years back, I tried to read the Hobbit, but I stopped a few chapters in because I was bored. However, I may give it another try after reading this review. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI love how you introduced the book with how you found it, in grade school of all places. Your review was well organized and each part of review flowed very well into the next and was easy to read. Also I found your rating scale very interesting. All of these things made your review stand out from the rest and made it more than just a summary and review. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI remember watching the movie a few years back and being captivated by the plot and world. Though I haven’t read the book, it sounds like it does good job of conveying those two things, even if the style of writing is a bit hard to get through. I think I might want to check it out, even if only to compare it with its film adaptation. Your review described the book and stated your opinions clearly. Nice job!
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