{"id":14513,"date":"2020-09-15T21:53:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T21:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=14513"},"modified":"2020-09-15T21:53:44","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T21:53:44","slug":"reading-report-the-hobbit-by-j-r-r-tolkien-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=14513","title":{"rendered":"Reading report: ‘The Hobbit,’ by J.R.R. Tolkien"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was a terrible battle. The most dreadful of all Bilbo\u2019s experiences, and the one which at the time he hated most\u2014which is to say it was the one he was the most proud of, and most fond of recalling long afterwards, although he was quite unimportant in it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Recently I watched<\/strong> the Lord of the Rings <\/em>movies (extended versions, of course; not the Hobbit <\/em>films). And whenever I do that, it comes into my mind that I need to read the books again. Christopher Lee read them once a year, after all. I\u2019m far behind that tally. So I pulled out The Hobbit<\/a><\/em>, to begin the journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll confess that at first I thought it kind of elementary. It is a children\u2019s book, after all, and sometimes the author talks down to his audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it grew on my mind as I read that this book (along with the Trilogy) can be viewed from the perspective of veteran\u2019s literature (I\u2019m not a veteran, I hasten to note; but it\u2019s something I can be aware of). When Tolkien tells us, again and again, that Bilbo wished himself back in his cozy hobbit hole, \u201cnot for the last time,\u201d he\u2019s conveying the feelings of the soldier at war. Not long ago, he was comfortable in his rooms at Oxford, eating well, cared for by servants, keeping regular hours. Now he\u2019s slogging through mud or crouched in a flooded trench, struggling with boredom or dreading going \u201cover the top.\u201d Thoughts of home flood in; they are a torment and a comfort all at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And by the end of the book, I must confess, I had to blink back manly tears. I was moved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hobbit <\/em>is a great book. But you knew that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a terrible battle. The most dreadful of all Bilbo\u2019s experiences, and the one which at the time he hated most\u2014which is to say it was the one he was the most proud of, and most fond of recalling long afterwards, although he was quite unimportant in it. Recently I watched the Lord of … Continue reading Reading report: ‘The Hobbit,’ by J.R.R. Tolkien<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[1345,2898],"class_list":["post-14513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-j-r-r-tolkien","tag-the-hobbit"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14513"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14515,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14513\/revisions\/14515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}