One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darknessbind them

In a sleepy village in the Shire, a young hobbit is entrusted with an immense task. He must make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ruling Ring of Power – the only thing prevents the Dark Lord Sauron’s evil domination.

Published: October 1955

Published Editions: 2012

Publishers: Harper Collins

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 1178

Goodreads Star Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Review

For years, I was very intimidated with picking up the trilogy. I kept believeing that I was not going to like it and after some consideration in the last couple of months, I decided to pick them up. I believe the reason why I never picked up the book was because of how my Dad explained it to me, it’s one of the things we talk about, he had difficulty in some places of the book many of the scenes he understood from watching the movies and being a fan for them. I think the reason why he has difficulty was because it is a fantasy book and he is more into Historical Ficiton and Crime books.

As for me, I felt like I was part of the journey. It was so much fun tagging along with Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippen, I enjoyed the songs and the interactions between the four of them. It was slow to begin with but once the hobbits reach towards The Prancing Pony and they meet Strider/Aragon, I knew it was going to be fun sailing from here. I really liked learning more about the world of Middle Earth, it felt very fun and interesting to see other bits throughout the book that were missed out in the movie. I think the notible ones would be the Bill the pony, I loved him, and learning more about the other Hobbits like Tom Bombadil who sings about everything although I can’t stop think of him as Marshall Erikson from How I Met Your Mother.

I would like to mention that I did read this book mostly on Audible and the reason why I did was because the amazing Andy Serkis who played Gollum and Smeagal narrated the trilogy and it was fantastic. It felt so immersive about listening to him read the book out loud, I did have many arguments from my family members about if audiobooks count as reading and I want to say this, they do count. Serkis has done a brilliant job in creating the voices for each character distictively close to his castmates, I can’t think of any other voice for The Hobbit, Legolas, Gimli and others that are not like the cast of The Lord of the Rings. It’s as if they reunited again to play their roles one more time. I ended up geeking out when Gollum was introduced in The Two Towers, I just sat on my bed listening and enjoying the moment.

When I had reached to The Return of the King, I put it off for a couple of days. I just didn’t want it to end but I had to finish it. It was very melancohly, especially when The Hobbits go to the Grey Havens to say goodbye to Frodo, Gandalf and Bilbo. One of the things I liked about the final book was seeing the journey back to The Shire and learning what had happened to it. You got to see it in The Hobbit but I really liked what Frodo and friends did to get the Shire back. And it felt very fitting for the final act of Sauraman.

I do have to mention how I prefer to read the trilogy as a whole instead of it being split that the publishers made, it was quite distracting to think that you’ve reached the end of The Fellowship of the Ring and end it feeling incomplete. It’s like watching the movies, you have no other choice but to watch all three consecutively to know the full story.

I have fallen into The Hobbit hole and I have devoured myself around things of Tolkien. I am even considering a tattoo which I want so desperately but now I am stuck on picking up my next book. I am currently reading The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde and I am enjoying it so much. I haven’t picked up another Fantasy book but I want to, especially with TomeTopple happing in the last two weeks of this month.

Have you read The Lord of the Rings? Tell me, did you love it?

Happy Reading xx