The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fourth time through, and more enjoyable than the first three times. I enjoyed . . .

1. The Shire. Having read a good bit of Wendell Berry since my last time through, I appreciate Tolkien's sense of place. The Shire is a lot like Port Royal, Kentucky. I love the quirkiness of the people, their rootedness in localities, the beauty of the landscape (in my imagination), its local history, its smallness, its lack of machinery ... It's a lot like I think heaven will be after a few hundred years. When you see the adventure as framed by the quietness of the Shire, you see the beauty and worth of quiet, decent, ordinary life.

2. Echoes of Shakespeare. I noted three or four when the Hobbits first meet Strider. This may have been unconscious, but Tolkien knew his Shakespeare.

3. I'm enjoying the poetry of Tolkien much more this time. In readings past, I honestly found the poetry a little annoying. Now I'm able to surrender to the mood of the book a bit more. Maybe it's because I'm in my late thirties. I also noticed that Tolkien loved iambic tetrameter.

View all my reviews