The Lord of the Rings

This will not be a typical review; most people should be familiar with the basic premise of the story by now, due to, if not the book, someone talking/arguing about the book, or the films, or someone talking/arguing about the films.

I have read The Lord of the Rings several times over the years, my first time being when I was twelve—about a year before the first of the film trilogy came out in theater. I know it is a cliché by now, but this is the book that beat, bound, and dragged me into the fantasy fandom. I fell in love with the world, Sam, the language, Sam, the larger-than-life characters, and Sam. I tore through the entire thousand-page epic in three days, staying up reading long past midnight, finishing each volume with only enough time to get one or two hours of sleep before catching the bus to school. I'd suffer through the hours heavy-lidded and half-dead, but be perfectly lucid by the time I got home, fueled by eager anticipation of the next chapter.

I read it again after watching the first of Peter Jackson's films. And then again after the second film. And yet again after the third film.

But it's been awhile since then.

I've been noticing recently a lot of negative comments about the novel; about how it is boring, or about how Tolkien's prose sucks, or about some recent authors are better than he. And I thought, “Well now, that can't be right. Are they really reading the same book that I did?”

And so I set about to reading it again.

And unlike the first, second, or third times, this read took me quite a long while. Nearly a month, in fact. At first, that might not sound very promising; that maybe I realized how boring his prose is, or couldn't understand the characters, or some other negative thing. But the truth isn't anything like that. The real reason it took me so long to read it is this: I am older.

An older person (or rather, a wiser person) will read it the way it was meant to be read; and it was meant to be read aloud. This is a story that needs to be told. The way in which it is written is akin to an ancient myth, the kind of story passed down orally from person to person. Grandiosity, events and people larger-than-life—these are things conducive to story-telling.

The downside to this is reading aloud takes longer than silently, and the voice tires. And so I had to take long breaks often. But it was entirely worth it.

When you read the languages of the Elves, Dwarves, Rohirrim, and Men of Gondor, and sing the songs as well, it breathes more life to the world. When you speak the way the characters speak, you (or at least I) subconsciously give each of them their own unique voice. When you describe unmuted the landscapes, and the cities, and the structures, the fact that this is a world of great wonder, masterfully crafted in one man's mind, becomes all the more apparent, and the mental images become all the more vivid. There is magic here, and glory, and power, and beauty, and love, all in the words. The words become music, and music is meant to be heard.

At least, this is what I experienced.

It is not boring. It is not badly written. The characters are not flat. If this is what you take from The Lord of the Rings, a particular internet meme is suitable to quote here: “You're doing it wrong.”

This story is a tribute to the old ways. A world that once was, now lost: a theme that is carried throughout the entire novel.

If you are a naysayer, I urge you to give it one more shot. Don't treat it like your average page-turner. Read it aloud, slowly, passionately, chapter by chapter. Make love to it (metaphorically of course; I don't condone sex with inanimate objects), and it will make love to you (also metaphorically).

Rating: Awesome