You already know this is a fabulous story. It's even more fabulous with Michael Hague's incredible drawings. I look at them and the whole world around disappears... I am frantically setting the table for voracious dwarves. ( )

I read this book about over 20 years ago and finally decided to give it a second reading. I loved the book back then and have found that I still enjoy it now. After having watching the LOTR movies I actually imagine Gandalfs voice when I read his words as well as Bilbo Baggins. Even though the story is short and to the point it reads like a fairy tale that hints at other stories (which of course you get later in the series) which is really great for younger kids. I cannot wait until my daughter is old enough to enjoy this book! A must have in the fantasy library and an excellent Young Adult starter book to get the kiddies hooked on reading. ( )

Bordowed book from Roy Duncan ( )

Six out of ten.Bilbo Baggins is an unassuming and humble Hobbit who finds himself whisked away from the Shire in a plot to raid the treasure of Smaug - a dragon. Although reluctant, Bilbo surprises himself by his bravery and resourcefulness on his adventures. Written as a children's book, it doesn't match the scale of Tolkien's other work but is a must read as it begins the series of events which lead to Lord of the Rings. ( )

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Edition: 0-618-00221-9
Pages: 272
Synopsis: Bilbo the Hobbit sets out on an adventure, very much unlike a Hobbit, to win treasure from Smaug the dragon. In the employ of thirteen Dwarves and the wizard Gandalf, Bilbo explores the world of Middle-earth and has a number of close calls that don't stop with trolls, goblins, and deadly wolves.
Review: (In the following paragraphs I may mention details from the books of Lord of the Rings, which, while I don't think are specific enough to qualify as spoilerish, I do want to announce.)

This is not my first reading of The Hobbit, although it's been more than a decade since my last encounter with it. First of all, I haven't revisited this one nearly as often as I have the Lord of the Rings trilogy because I've never liked it as much. That said I do love this book: Tolkien has a way of speaking to us, as his readers, about our need for adventure as well as our need for familiarity. His attention to detail is what makes him so famous as an author, his ability to create cultures for his characters that draw inspiration from mythology and history, and all these cultures highlight some aspect of human nature in whole. In reading Bilbo's adventure, my love for this type of tale sparked back to life, my love for high adventure and epic quests, beautiful elves, hardy dwarves, mysterious forests, bold dragons, treasure, distant lands...and I found myself sad to turn the last page after such an absorbing adventure with Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves.

I remember in my first reading, I hadn't been terribly fond of Bilbo because he sometimes comes across as slightly arrogant (if this is the right way to describe it?), but I really found him appealing this time around. And even if LotR is such a serious set of books itself, The Hobbit has a bit of odd humor in it at during certain points and is, in general, more light-hearted. (For instance, think of how much trouble a single dwarf leader has caused...Thorin really brings about quite a lot of trouble in his rather straight-forward way.)

If the meat of the story is in battles with trolls and goblins, riddle games with Gollum, outwitting Wood-elves; then certainly the heart of this story is how adventure changes us. I know this is a theme that was important to Tolkien, and he wrote in some ways to show how war affects people, but as one of his earlier and more young adult-friendly stories The Hobbit feels more about an allegory for change in general since, after all, Bilbo is so cheerful and well-adjusted by the end and his adventure lets him acquire a new type of maturity and appreciation for his creature comforts. This is such a stark difference between what happens to Frodo in the LotR, whose own adventure changes him far more thoroughly and more seriously.

Also this re-reading made The Hobbit feel somewhat like a totally new book, since I had completely forgotten a lot of chapters and even that there was much story after Smaug's demise---even though the events after Smaug's death actually give the entire book a new shape. With the introduction of the War, it takes on a different scope and moves from being mostly light-hearted and focused on single characters into something more serious and widespread, although never as heavy as LotR as a whole. Still, I'm surprised at myself for having forgotten so much!

I'm definitely satisfied with my re-read, and I feel like I got a lot out of it this time around---maybe even more than from my earlier time(s), since now that I'm older (...I think I was barely a teenager when I actually read this the entire way through for the first time?) I feel I have more appreciation for Tolkien's world and his great care for detail, especially since I've taken both a folklore course and an ancient Celtic literature course since that time. (Back in the days when I had time to take arts classes for my electives.) His particular style of writing is descriptive in the way oral tales often are:
To hunt the whole mountain till he had caught the thief and had torn and tramped him was his one thought. He issued from the Gate, the waters rose in fierce whistling steam, and up he soared blazing into the air and settled on the mountain-top in a spout of green and scarlet flame. The dwarves heard the awful rumour of his flgiht, and they crouched against the walls of the grassy terrace cringing under boulders, hoping somehow to escape the frightful eyes of the hunting dragon.
It has a really sweeping feeling that fits very well to the form of an epic adventure. Despite events being relatively predictable, and the fact that so much of what's written of in this book is rehashed by fantasy authors so frequently that nothing is surprising anymore, everything has a fresh and and engaging pull to it due to Tolkien's talent as a story-teller.
Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known. ( )