The Hobbit

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this for the #HLOTR read-along happening at Brona's Books.

I hadn't read this before, I knew the story from movies, but realized when I began that I hadn't actually read the book before. Overall I found it charming and a good adventure. It seemed very much in company with other children's classics like The Wizard of Oz, the Narnia books, A Wrinkle in Time, etc. I especially liked the little bits of wisdom sprinkled into the story.

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”  

“There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” 

I felt like the section on Gollum was way to long and repetitive and detracted from the story. I realize it was needed to set up the books that came later, and other bloggers got a lot out of it. There were some excellent posts about the novel from other read-along participants who found significance in this section. The posts at One Catholic Life and Another Book Blog in particular were insightful. I did find the phrase "scrumptiously crunchable," which comes in that section, quite marvelous however.