The Hobbit

J. R. R. Tolkien

I had read The Hobbit in high school a couple of times. I think my mom bought it for me when she used to bring me used books from her shopping trips to Rio Piedras. I wasn't aware of the Lord Of The Rings, but I liked The Hobbit fine as it was.

Reading it now (after watching the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and almost finishing the books) it feels like a very rushed book. There are big battle scenes that flash by, and there's world building chapters that screech to a halt. Contrast the description of the Halls in the Lonely Mountain which go on and on in detail, with the really quick resolution to the Smaug problem. It's a similar situation with the characters, some you really get to know and others you forget are there. I forgot about half the Dwarves in the company of Thorin.

The Hobbit is more filmable than the Lord of The Rings trilogy so I'm not worried about the movie. What I'm very curious about is how the Ring will work. They really built it up as a sinister force in LOTR and in the Hobbit the Ring is just another magical object. When Frodo puts the Ring on it's a direct line to Sauron (because he was looking for it), but when Bilbo puts on the Ring it means harmless invisibility (and he exploits a lot). Since Bilbo loves to hide in times of trouble, and since in Fellowship of The Ring we never see Bilbo's point of view while wearing the Ring, I'm almost afraid that Bilbo won't be seen for a whole movie!