A Hobbits Tale

I've never read J. RR Tolken. Why? Because everyone I've ever met, who has read Tolken has told me his books were crock and extremely boring. I should have never listened. I couldn't stop once I started! The way Tolken tells a story is like he's telling it to me personally, like an old friend has stopped by and decided to have tea and talk about his adventures. I simply loved the omniscient narrator, he was funny when e needed to be, but serious when the time called for it. It made it all the more enjoyable simply for that reason!

At first I was rather annoyed by the number of characters, at first it was a pretty simple read, but I quickly figured out this was no kids book. Maybe I'm wrong, but a kid might no be able to keep up with his book. There are loads of characters, I lost track after awhile. But, regardless, I was still able to follow some how. I still can't figure it out. With so many characters, thirteen dwarves I believe? I was still able to semi figure them out and follow without getting too confused about who is where and when and what they are doing and how they are important to the story. I think this was achieved by Tolken's amazing ability to give every character a distinct attitude and personality. I was simply able to recognize characters at times by the tone of voice or how the narrator described their actions.

One thing that Tolken does that made the book a little boring to me was that the race of each creature ultamatly determined if they were "good" or "bad". This left little room for interesting character development in my opinion. There are not going to be any surprises if everyone is "good" no matter what, or "bad" regardless, no change of heart. The main characters do have a mind of their own, but Dwarfs love gold, Elves are good, trolls are bad, no matter what, that's just the way things are. Bilbo is really the only character that tests his race. The simple fact that he goes on an adventure for one thing, when all other hobbits would want nothing to do with an adventure. He also fools Gollum in a game of riddles by actually cheating, giving him a "riddle" that is not a riddle at all. Not very nice.

Bilbo's evoltuion throughout the book is evident in a number of clever ways. When we first begin, he is simply running away from "nasty adventures" but as the book progresses he becomes the Bilbo that Gandolf tells him he will find. His first encounter with trolls is clumsy and he is still in his early stages. He untimatly fails and his whole party is taken, (except him), and of course they are saved by Gandolf. They do find some weapons out of it, some of them named already (they find out in Rivendell) except Bilbo's whom he names after he kills the spider, "Sting". This was interesting to me since in a lot of heroic tales, the swords have names, like in King Arther; Excalibur. But they have names becuase they are linked with heroic deeds or epic quests, thus Bilbo does not name his sword until he feels he has done something worthy enough to name the sword.

I need to read the ring series now, but a hobbit's tale was great! Tolken was able to write something that anyone could enjoy without making it too childish or too adult. In fact, the idea of an adult in a child form is such a brilliant idea. It doesn't exclude anyone and allows a reader of any age to enjoy this story.