2015 Reading Challenge: Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring

2015 Reading Challenge: A Trilogy

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
J.R.R. Tolkien
458 pages

CHARACTERS:
Frodo Baggins (hobbit)
Sam Gamgee (hobbit)
Merry (hobbit)
Pippin (hobbit)
Gandalf the Grey (wizard)
Aragorn/Strider (man)
Gimli (dwarf)
Legolas (elf)
Borimir (man)

We again enter the world of Hobbits and the Shire in the next story by J.R.R. Tolkien. Meet Frodo Baggins, the sort-of nephew of Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit. After Bilbo leaves the Shire, Frodo becomes the keeper of a mysterious and magical ring. It turns out the ring is evil. It belongs to Sauron... the evil eye guy. Who forged it a long time ago and did some really bad stuff and made other people do bad things too. So... he's a bad guy.

Frodo must leave the Shire with the ring so that the Shire and the ring can be kept safe from Sauron. On his journey, he meets many exciting people from elves, dwarves, Tom Bombadil, evil trees. After a council with a variety of people, Frodo becomes the official ring-bearer and the Fellowship is formed with four Hobbits, one wizard, two men, a dwarf, and an elf. The journey begins. It is fraught with peril. Orcs, terrible fire creature things inside the mountains, more orcs, hypothermia (not in that order either). But they press on and we are left at the end, nowhere near a conclusion.

I like the book and I find the characters very interesting. However, my biggest complaint is that sometimes the author takes an entire paragraph long sentence to describe... a hill. And the songs/poems that are sprinkled throughout the text are long and truthfully,  I skipped them a lot. But his use of language is beautiful and quite refreshing to read after the dull drudgery of language found today. I'm excited to read the remainder of the trilogy.