LOTR

[Schlobin at aol.com]

They've motivated to try, yet 
> > again, to read the books. On at least three separate occassions 
> > I've picked up the first book in the trilogy and tried to read 
it. 
> > And have ended stopping because it just didn't interest me. I've 
> > always wondered what was *wrong* with me because I am a great 
lover
> > of the fantasy genre. And Tolkien is very much classic fantasy.
> 
> My friend Lee has been reading LOTR since she was an undergraduate 
(I 
> guess that means she first read it in 1961?) and is a missionary 
for 
> it. When people tell her that they just couldn't get into it, she 
> tells them to skip the first half of volume I (each volume is 
divided 
> into two "Books", so start with Book II of volume I) and go back to 
> it later. She said Tolkien liked to start VERY slowly.

Yes, I tried a few times to read the LOTR trilogy, but never got past 
Bilbo Baggin's birthday party.......The real story doesn't begin 
until the chapter entitled the Shadow of the Past...I didn't read it 
until I was 24!

Susan