Middle-earth

Even the good plans of wise wizards like Gandalf and of good friends like Elrond go astray sometimes when you are off on dangerous adventures over the Edge of the Wild; and Gandalf was a wise enough wizard to know it.
-The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

I have not visited Middle-earth in a while. Perhaps it was someone talking about the new movie coming out in a few months, The Hobbit, that caused me to desire another visit. And that reminded me of my beginnings with Middle Earth, years ago, when the first Lord of the Rings movie came out.

Back then, I had never read the books (odd, I know). The movie came out and there was so much buzz about it, so my brother Ryan and I decided to go see what it was all about. We left the movie in awe of an amazing story. As the days went by, we thought about the story more and more, and we kept talking about it. We decided we liked it a lot and wanted to learn more. So, that's when I picked up the book for the first time.

Flash forward several years and I own all the J.R.R. Tolkien books I can find, and read them all a few times, I visited Tolkien's home of Oxford university twice and seen many of his favourite spots, and in college I took a Tolkien literature class for fun. Yep. I said for fun. I actually needed to take another elective my Senior year, and I was granted the ability to take an elective on a "pass/fail" basis. So, I took the Tolkien class and I loved it. I don't think I realized how much I would love it. I didn't need to take it "pass/fail", but it took the pressure off. Reading stacks of Tolkien's writings and writing essays and papers for class was really enjoyable for me.

So now that The Hobbit is coming into theaters soon, I thought it would be appropriate to read the book again. I enjoyed it so much more this time than the other times I read it. I think the more I read the more I appreciate really good writing. Tolkien is an amazing writer, creator, artist (the cover of the book is his drawing). For me, it's not just about the action and the events that take places that makes a good piece of writing, it's very much about the descriptive, imaginative style, verbiage and imagery. And it's about the heart of the story. The deep-down, underlying theme and moral.

After finishing The Hobbit, I think I may need to just continue reading the three Lord of the Rings books again.