The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️
We sang a lot of songs and spun many a riddle. Alas, another adventure through Middle Earth comes to an end.
Picking this up, I couldn’t recall 100% if I had read it before. After reading the first two chapters though, I definitely believe I have; most likely as a tween.
I had fun revisiting Bilbo’s life and adventures. Some of the aspects were very familiar, while others, not so much. I’m happy I reread it via audio, because the narration by Rob Inglis was so perfect for this story.
He has such a classic storyteller voice. It was easy to get swept up and away into everything that was going on, and there is A LOT going on.
The assignment of Bilbo as a burglar was funny, because that was definitely not a position he ever saw himself falling into. He had certainly never had an adventure like this before and I liked watching him grow and change during his time with the Dwarves and Gandalf.
I will say, for me personally, this doesn’t hit quite like the main LOTR trilogy. This one is a bit choppy, and my word, the songs. Why must we have so many songs?
Actually, the audiobook, the songs were so off-key it was absolutely hilarious. I did feel bad for my dog though, who was forced to listen to this on a 5-hour road trip. He must have been thinking, what the fluff are we listening too?
The story itself, after the opening bits, which I thought were grand, does get a little clunky as our traveling group is going about their mission.
It also felt like a lot of the major events were just sort of glossed over. Nevertheless, it’s a classic for a reason. It’s a wonderful story and a great intro to this world. I’m looking forward to rereading the full LOTR trilogy this year!