LOTR sans Hobbit

[Vivienne at caersidi.demon.co.uk]

I recall vividly my first encounter with 'The Hobbit' as a child and 
there was that tempting line at the end that said if you were 
interested in hobbits there was LotR. If it was available at the time 
(and this was many moons ago) it was in the adult section and as a 
result I didn't read LotR until High School. I strongly favour LotR 
over the Hobbit but it was still a lovely book to read at that age. 

As Amy has indicated, The Hobbit is a children's book. If you do 
read it first - keep that in mind. You do met important characters in 
it including Gandalf and Gollum both who feature large in LotR.

If you elect to skip, JRRT does give summary of the events in the 
prelude and opening chapters of Fellowship of the Ring which explains 
the circumstances of Bilbo's acquisition of the Ring/Gollum and the 
like so as far as plot goes and characters you are introduced to them.


Vivienne

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> Cindy wrote:
>  
> > Amy, can I or should I just skip the Hobbit and head straight for 
> > LOTR?  Or is that kind of tacky?
> 
> Hmm, now that's a controversial question.    
> 
> I much prefer LOTR, so I'm tempted to say yes.  The Hobbit seems 
kind 
> of childish to me--very much written to children.  I'm afraid if 
that 
> isn't what you're looking for, you'll give up on Tolkien after 
> reading The Hobbit.  On the other hand, you meet Gollum, who's very 
 
> important, and you meet Bilbo, who figures in the background of 
LOTR, 
> and the riddle scene is sooooooooooooo good.  So I would say:  read 
> The Hobbit but don't stop there, and don't think what you like (or 
> dislike) about it will be in LOTR.
> 
> Of course, I did recommend Prydain to you and it is very much for 
> children.  It just doesn't have that cutesy tone that JRRT can get 
> now and then in The Hobbit (I can give him a break, he was writing 
> for his kids).
> 
> Any thoughts, you other JRRT fans out there?
> 
> Amy