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The Hobbit

My father read The Hobbit to me when I was little, to help me fall asleep. Maybe that's a story I made up. As a teen I read through the book in one day. A great feat of reading but I don't remember much from that reading. I woke up and started it, read it through the day and then read into the night. I think I stayed up till 2 reading it. I remember wanting him to get home, I guess I really wanted the book to end. I read a third of it to my sons before they decided they didn't want to be read to any more. My daughter won't let me read to her, only books she chooses. 

I read through the Lord of the Rings trilogy recently. So I thought it was time to come around on the Hobbit again. It's a small paperback that I can take sometimes. I read it in spurts. I took it to read when I was flying and I read of Bard killing Smaug as I landed. 

I was horrified that Smaug attacked the river island city. I thought Thorin was pretty horrible to not give them some money for their woes. I thought it was cool the Hobbit gave the river people the coveted jewel that Thorin wanted. Then there was war and it all didn't matter, and the Hobbit could go home.

The language and descriptions are quite good. He created a world from his learning and it's a blueprint for many fantasy writers today. I love looking up words I don't know.

I'm going to start the Silmarillion soon.

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