Bilbo and the gang

[mellicious]

I picked up Lord of the Rings in a Kindle edition, because it was on sale, and I thought, well, that'd be a good thing to read again over the holidays. And I read maybe the first chapter, and I thought, hmm, maybe I should read The Hobbit too while I'm at it. (I've read them both many times but not in some years.) So I went looking for my copy of it and all I could find was my very ancient paperback copy - I read it for English class in, like, 1973 or 74 - cover price $1.50. But I'm pretty sure that one would just fall apart if I tried to read it - I kept it mostly because it's got that old cover that I love. (Ooh, it's the middle one here - so '74. But I also remember that one on the left with the drawing of The Hill.) I thought I had bought a new copy, a trade paperback, at some point, but I haven't been able to find it, if I did. (I found Unfinished Tales and Lost Tales and some stuff like that that I doubt I've ever read at all. But no Hobbit.)

So I was thinking, ok, I guess I'll skip it after all, and then lo and behold, Amazon had it on sale too yesterday. (Amazon is usually utterly terrible at recommending things for me to read, especially considering they've got 20 years of my book-buying history to draw on! Or maybe they recommend it to everybody, I don't know. - Then again, if Amazon was good at that, would Goodreads even exist?)

So anyway, I got The Hobbit, Kindle edition, and I'm reading it, and, well, I'm not really into it so far. I think, for one thing, that I've practically got chunks of it memorized, especially the Unexpected Party bits at the beginning. So that's not good for reading it and having it feel fresh! And also, since I've been an adult, the hobbits being cute is not really my favorite part of these books. I'm always happier when they get the hell out of The Shire. Anyway, I'm plowing through, and they're at Rivendell, and hopefully my interest will perk up from here.