LOTR

May 20th, 2006 ~ Posted in: General

What the hell is it with people and LOTR? I was over at Amazon, looking through various peoples’ list of fantasy books… almost every single one of them mentioned LOTR. Was it ever this popular before the movie came out?

I don’t get the deal– I couldn’t even read the first book in the series, much less finish the entire boring epic. And the movies were better only because you didn’t have to make a sustained effort to pay attention; you could space out for a while out of sheer boredom or confusion, and the movie would have proceeded on without you. That’s how I spent way too much time watching them.

What is so special about LOTR? I would much rather read the Prydain Chronicles, or The Dark is Rising sequence… something with bite.

General ~

5 Responses to “LOTR”

  • 1. AnonEcon
    May 20th, 2006 at 10:14 pm

    What surprises me even more is the popularity of LOTR among scientific/technical people given the strong romanticist slant of the books. I feel very little enthusiasm for a plot where the only people using technology are the bad guys (remember Saruman’s underground complex) while the good guys are leaf-chewing elves or walking trees.

    [BTW, the new blog-design looks very good. One request: a preview button for comments.]

  • 2. tpc
    May 22nd, 2006 at 8:25 pm

    I beg to differ. The LOTR is in my opinion the best fantasy book ever. I believe most of the older fantasy writers grew up reading LOTR and had their first impressions of elves and dwarves influenced by Tolkien. And these guys influenced the current crop. But I’m really no expert.

    To me LOTR is like algebra. The initial going is really tough. I also gave up. But once you plough through the hobbit history and the birthday party bit, i.e. when Aragorn appears, it gets terribly exciting.

  • 3. Alex
    May 23rd, 2006 at 12:07 pm

    I have noticed some authors cite LOTR as a source of inspiration, but I like the inspired works much more than the source of the inspiration.

    ‘LOTR is like algebra’? :)

  • 4. Zeno
    June 1st, 2006 at 1:38 am

    So what’s wrong with algebra, eh?

  • 5. LOTR
    July 19th, 2006 at 9:32 am

    I don’t think it was that popular but it was the most popular of all the fantasy books.

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