My grade 6 teacher, Mr Glenn, read us The Hobbit and forever filled me with the love of Tolkien. Thank you! ( )

The story starts as Bilbo Baggins being asked to go on an adventure by Gandalf, also known as Gandalf the grey. Bilbo refuses at first, but then spends four hours talking over if he should go or not! The journey would not just be Bilbo and Gandalf, there is also 13 other Dwarves. Anyway, the whole point they are going on the journey is because they want Smaug’s stolen gold. Smaug is a dragon who is a threat to all. Bilbo meets and has a lot of strange problems in his adventure, but if you want to find out what they are, then read The Hobbit.

CLASSIC READ WITH KIAN ( )

This book was the first book that I read in English (instead of the German translations). As everyone can imagine, this can take a long time but this was time well spent. The Hobbit got me hooked to Tolkien, his prose is marvellous and the characters convincing. Highly recommended! ( )

This book was the first book that I read in English (instead of the German translations). As everyone can imagine, this can take a long time but this was time well spent. The Hobbit got me hooked to Tolkien, his prose is marvellous and the characters convincing. Highly recommended! ( )

I find that each time I reread The Hobbit, I like it more. Tolkien's fantasy world was never easy-access, at least not to someone who was weaned on sneak peeks of her dad's TSR gaming handbooks. The Silmarillion, especially, reads more like Herodotus than Robert Jordan. Which is not at all a bad thing - but it does mean that like almost anything else worthwhile, Tolkien improves with further acquaintance, and the more informed you come to him, the more you get out of any of his novels or stories. The Hobbit has a more straightforward story than his other works, and as such, is the most likely to be labeled a children's book. And after all, he wrote it for his children, and my own daughter loved it when I read it to her at the age of 5. The Hobbit is an excellent piece of foreshadowing, but also stands very well on its own merits. And I love the part where they get to the door, and the secret word turns out to be something that Gandalf can't beat, just because as a highly educated person, he completely overlooks the obvious answer. As a tangential side note - I think it's a shame they're remaking the Hobbit movie. I loved the '70s cartoon. Apparently it was the first movie I ever saw, though I don't remember that original viewing, having been only a month old, or so. But Gollum will always look to me, in the cave, like cartoon Gollum. They did a fine job making him more accurate in the Peter Jackson movies, but I still feel that he SHOULD look like cartoon Gollum, green and slimy and froglike. Everyone who has even a passing interest in fantasy should read The Hobbit. It is a wonderful story. It makes you want to read fantasy more, and it makes you want to learn about history, mythology and languages, also. Tolkien's work, more than any other fantasy series, makes you aware that real legends aren't just thought up - they come from somewhere - and he makes you want to find out where they came from. ( )

A very interesting book that make you what to keep on reading. It has a lot of thrilling adventure in it, but to calm it down, they put in nice poems and songs. It is a very good book anyways. ( )

"The Hobbit" is a modern fantasy about a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who goes on an unprecedented quest with a wizard called Gandalf the Gray and twelve dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield. The adventure takes place in Middle Earth, a land filled with magical creatures, elves, goblins, dwarves, wolves, wizards, and a creature called Gollum. The quest is a journey to the Lonely Mountain to slay the dragon Smaug and reclaim the dwarves’ treasure. Bilbo encounters many dangers on his journey including being separated from the dwarves and lost in a maze of underground caves. These caves are where Bilbo stumbles onto the creature Gollum. Unknown to Gollum, Bilbo discovers the Ring that Gollum has treasured many years. Bilbo wins his freedom from Gollum through an exchange of riddles. He later uses the magical power of the Ring to disappear, stealing treasure from the dragon Smaug. Smaug is killed, the treasure recovered and Bilbo returns to his hobbit hole in Hobbiton with his magical ring.

I enjoyed reading this tale about the hobbit that is waist high to a man and loves to eat, drink and be merry. Bilbo’s comical approach to his many predicaments keeps the story light hearted as is his character. Good versus evil is at every turn as they travel in their strange world called Middle Earth. It is difficult to call Bilbo a hero. However, Bilbo, under the protection of the wizard, Gandalf the Gray and with the magic of the Ring, is the means in which the dwarves are able to recover their treasure.

In a classroom the story could be used as an example of how to overcome anxiety about going some where they are uncomfortable. Students could be given a project to think about a place they do not want to go such as the doctor’s office, the dentist, or to see a relative they do not like. They could be encouraged to write a story about how they imagine the visit would be if they were Bilbo and how they would conquer the imaginary “evil” that makes them not want to go. A teacher could also use the story of the hobbit, dwarves, elves and wizard in demonstrating that different types of people can work together and accomplish a task because of their different and special qualities. Several groups of students could each be given a project to construct a “castle” with blocks, paint, and glue. By putting them in very diverse groups they can be asked to discover what each of them is best at doing and work as a team to complete the project. ( )

Basically the intro of Lord of the Rings. How Bilbo got "The Ring", and the adventures along the way. ( )

The book that started a lifelong obsession for me. I've read everything by and about Tolkien (yes, including the entire History of Middle Earth) and still can't get enough. I dock this a half star only because it's not The Lord of the Rings. ( )

It was very imaginative and was written well. Story was interesting and the book was a good length. Grammer was well composed and flowed well. Contained a good amount of detail. Didnt drag on too long. Characters were in depth. ( )

This was read mostly out of obligation, while I liked the story and all, I can't help but feel no sympathy for hobbits. My neighbor first introduced me to [author: J.R.R. Tolkien]'s writing- I wanted to read Lord of The Rings, but he insisted (and with good reason) that in order to understand everything better I had to read The Hobbit first (or he wouldn't lend me LOTR... ) And so I did.The story and writing are excellent and it certainly cleared up questions I would've had reading LOTR without any background, but I felt little sympathy for the characters, so it doesn't get more than three stars. ( )

The Hobbit
Report by: Joey D’Addio

For my summer reading, I read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit takes place in a magical land called Middle Earth. In the land of Middle Earth there is a place called Hobbiton. In Hobbiton, there lived a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who like most of the other hobbits, hated the idea of embarking on an adventure. Bilbo took after his mother, Belladonna Took who was very adventuresome, which is considered a very unnatural characteristic for a hobbit. The Took side of the family was buried deep inside Bilbo waiting for just the right moment to come out.
A wizard known as Gandalf the Gray appears on Bilbo’s doorstep with twelve dwarves and the promise of adventure. The twelve dwarves are led by Thorin Oakenshield. Thorin is the ancestor of Thror Oakensheild who was the dwarf King that ruled on Lonely Mountain long ago. Now, Lonely Mountain is ruled by a dragon named Smaug who has taken the dwarf King’s treasure. It is up to Bilbo and the dwarves to recapture the treasure and make sure that Thorin can become the new King to rule Lonely Mountain.
Bilbo is reluctant to join on the quest at first, but soon the Took side awakens in him and he starts off on a long journey that will change his life forever. This journey takes them through the Misty Mountains were Bilbo and the dwarves must face Goblins, battle giant spiders, face flesh-eating wolves and must escape from the Wood Elf King’s imprisonment. Finally, after many months Bilbo and the dwarves arrive at Lonely Mountain. Bilbo has contributed greatly through out the story so far, but he has accomplished this with the help of a ring that he won in a riddle game form a lonesome creature called Gollum. He uses the ring to become invisible and steals treasure from the dragon, Smaug.
Smaug thinking that Bilbo is a man from Dale, a town built on the lake that lies in the shadow of Lonely Mountain, goes and attacks the peaceful town. In the town of Dale, there lives an archer named Bran who kills Smaug by shooting an arrow into Smaug’s weak spot, a missing scale on his chest, and he demands some of the treasure from Lonely Mountain as a reward for his brave deed. A great war brakes out between the men of Dale, the Wood Elves, who want their share of the treasure, and the dwarves, who want the treasure all to themselves. In the end, Thorin Oakenshield dies and Bilbo returns to his Hobbit hole with the magic ring still in his pocket.
I loved the characters and I just felt like I was there in the book. An author, like J.R.R Tolkien, will do that to the reader. There were some things that I did not seem to enjoy about the book though. The book could have been a little more descriptive on how Middle Earth began. The fictional setting of this story just seemed to appear and when the dwarves told the history of Lonely Mountain, it became very repetitive.
The one aspect that I loved about this book was Bilbo. Bilbo Baggins was always hiding from danger and would come out to save the dwarves when you least expect him to. When Bilbo does comes out in the story he would always show courage in such a way that anyone reading this book could tell that he was the main character. The dwarves were arrogant and funny all at the same time, which I thought was an interesting combination of traits that were displayed extremely well. Gandalf was always missing when Bilbo and the dwarves needed him most. I would highly recommend this book to any readers who love the classic and fictional pieces of literature.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1277884... ( )

It's been a while since I've read this one; still, I remember it being a fairly good adventure story. I have never been able to make it through the trilogy, but The Hobbit I adore. It's time for a re-read, though, since I don't remember much. I enjoy quest tales, with the character meeting/getting into trouble with various breeds of being - trolls, eagles, dwarves, a dragon. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1277884...

An old favourite, of course; but it must be a very long time since last I read it. I anticipated correctly that the lack of female characters would now seem an obvious gap; I had forgotten that there were so many sapient animals - the wolves, the birds, Beorn's friends. It is well-paced, and generally fair to the reader. I was surprised by how little page space Smaug gets.

Bilbo is a much more interesting character than I had remembered. His moments of heroism are not through violence but through moral strength: in particular, his attempts to prevent the Elves and Dwarves from fighting. That said, the Gollum business and the Arkenstone incident both show certain ambiguities in his heroism.

Gandalf, somewhat to my surprise, comes over as an arch-manipulator. He pulls Bilbo onto the adventure very much against his will, and the battle with Smaug and then the Goblins is almost a proxy conflict for the ongoing Cold War against Sauron/the Necromancer, the point being to consolidate the northeastern corner of the map. But it looks rather like the Battle of the Five Armies is a deliberate rehearsal for the War of the Ring, orchestrated by Gandalf.

I've been reading the edition with Tolkien's own sketches. Let's be honest: they are not very good - studies of perspective, really, with the humanoid figures barely recognisable as such. The trolls in the picture hide behind the trees, in clear contradiction to the text. Providing the author's own drawings gives some extra authenticity, but I think they could have been saved for one of the spinoff volumes. ( )

It was hard to get into this book after reading Twilight. But the story was pretty good, and more exciting than I thought. I wish Gandalf would have been in it more. Not a fan of the songs/poems within the story... ( )

For me this book has it all ... a journey, a secret, danger, safety, small non human peoples, wizards, orcs and a dragon ... another bedtime reading favourite which gave me a love of the work of JRR Tolkien for life. ( )

One of my all time favourite books and a great book to read aloud to children at bed-time. Escape to the world of hobbits, elves, dwarves and wicked goblins and be entertained by riddles in the dark with nasty Gollum. ( )

The fun bed time story that Tolkien wrote for his kids. Little did he know that he would revisit this world later in the epic 'Lord of the Rings'. ( )

The Hobbit is a classic work of fantasy literature, which does not get old. Although, I have read it at least twice in the past, this audio version brought it to life and renewed my appreciation for the story. Inglis is a terrific reader. I could tell that an incoming voice belonged to Gandalf, though he had not been introduced. ( )

This is a fantastic thriller book which is enticing to read. It carries many unsuspected events with thrills which run up your spine. Don’t judge this book by its cover as it is an amazing book to read. It centers around a hobbit (Hobbits are sized around the waists of average men.) named Bilbo Baggins. He lives in a little and comfortable hobbit hole which is a hole in Hobbiton, The Shire. He has 2 breakfasts everyday but loves to have a nice smoke on his pipe every now and then.

He has perfect little days with visitors coming in and out of his hobbit hole but this all changed when one day, when an old man knocked on his front door. Through the man’s friendly soul, he forces Bilbo Baggins on a once in a lifetime adventure, even though Bilbo’s family background is a more elegant and non – adventuring one. Through this journey Bilbo has to take vital decisions just to stay alive. To me, this is a descriptive book which sucks you in to an entirely different world. I recommend this book for ages 10 and over as it would be harder and longer to read for those under that age. It is also the case as some readers may be intimidated by some parts of the book. I think this is an awesome book to read which entices our reading personality.

By Samuel.V ( )

Though not the first tale Tolkien wrote about Middle-Earth, The Hobbit was the first to be published, and so the words “In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit” served as most people’s introduction to the author’s mythopoeia. It is, of course, the story of Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit who dwells in that hole. With both respectable Baggins blood and more adventurous, unpredictable Took blood running through his veins, he has lived a quiet fifty years in his hole under the Hill but when adventure comes quite literally knocking on his door, he finds himself unexpectedly taking it. It comes in the form of the wise old wizard Gandalf and thirteen hardy dwarves (led by the august and most loquacious Thorin Oakenshield) who seek to reclaim their treasure from the dragon Smaug. A long journey lies between them and the Lonely Mountain, however, and along the way Bilbo finds his way in and out of many escapades, while encountering elves, goblins, trolls, men, eagles, skin-changers, a strange creature named Gollum, and finally the dragon himself.

This was one of my favorite books when I was a child, and perhaps that has some bearing on why I still love it so much today. However, I still think that much of the criticism surrounding its “kiddiness” is completely off the mark. Of course it is juvenile! It is a children’s book, after all, written by the author to tell his own sons and daughters at bed-time; moreover, it is, as W. H. Auden so wonderfully put it, “One of the best children’s stories of the century.” I have always felt sorry for those who cannot recognize that tales written for younger audiences are not necessarily inferior, and hope that maybe one day they will, to quote C. S. Lewis, “be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”

I will say that because of the book’s relative simplicity, it is best read when one does not have The Silmarillion or The Lord of the Rings fresh in one’s mind. It can be rather aggravating to see Sauron referred to as “the Necromancer,” or Valinor “Faerië.” On the other hand, it is interesting to see how the originally whimsical tone changes and develops over the course of the book; the narrator seems to grow up right alongside Bilbo. Of the characters, he is the best developed, changing over the course of the narrative from a rather reluctant adventurer who forgets his pocket-handkerchiefs at home to a resourceful hero, although he always maintains his sense of humor and lovably “squeaky” voice. Aside from Thorin, Balin, Fili, Kili, and Bombur, the dwarves are rather interchangeable, and Gandalf is much more vague and mysterious here than he is in LotR. The cameos, on the other hand, are quite fascinating. Chapter V, “Riddles in the Dark” may be one of my favorite chapters in all literature, introducing as it does the unforgettable Gollum and his “precious” Ring; this, of all the episodes in the book, would have the most impact on the rest of Tolkien’s writings, and it features not only excitement and suspense but also a jolly good riddle game. Smaug, of course, is literature’s quintessential dragon, and Bard, in spite of his dourness (or perhaps because of it), makes for an enigmatic and fascinating Hero.

Magical, exciting, and thoroughly charming, The Hobbit is a fantasy adventure to warm the coldest hearts. ( )

an amazingly clever book for children, written directly to them ( )

I began The Hobbit in the hot Caribbean a few weeks ago and just finished it in my cozy home while snow was falling outside. Unless a book is oddly entertaining, I can rarely push myself to finish it. It's also rare for me to read a book for pleasure during the school year, a time when reading is heavy enough (this semester especially, what with the added pressure of college shenanigans). There's something to be said for a book I completed regardless of many distractions. Nevertheless, I can't say The Hobbit is all that great.

I'll try not to give much away (most people already know the plot). The story follows Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit of comfort, as he journeys on an adventure away from his snug hole with Gandalf and thirteen dwarves. Along the way, Bilbo and his friends encounter many dangers and hardships. In the end, Bilbo realizes he is, "only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!"

Tolkien was a talented writer; his prose is rich with cleverness and wit. The only reason I got through this book was because it was so light, easy, and comforting to read. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit to tell to his children at bedtime (or at least that's how he tested whether it was a decent book). It has the tone of a story you'd fall asleep to (which I did).

The Hobbit is also the quintessential story of its kind, and is rightfully considered a classic. It has everything most fantasies should have, from cool swords to mythical beasts. With all of its jazz, it never takes itself too seriously, for the protagonist Bilbo Baggins would not care for it. But while it creates a strong foundation for writers of fantasy to expand on, it's not the best example of fantasy. I can't say I'm a fantasy nerd, so let me just get to the flaws.

First off, much of the story feels like it's suited for a video game (ha, I'm serious). I often pictured Bilbo as an older and funnier Link from Zelda (my mind isn't usually fixated on video games). Tolkien supposedly wrote it this way on purpose (of course, he preceded video games). Each chapter introduces a new "boss" or conflict the group must overcome. This makes for a somewhat contrived book.

In the beginning, the dwarves, no matter how hard they try, end up getting themselves into many crises. After some time, the excitement and mystery of each predicament diminishes. We know Gandalf or Bilbo will end up saving the day in the end (resembling an old cartoon or something). Sure, it's sometimes fun to see how the group manages to get out of such tight ruts, but it can get old. This simplicity extends to many other places in the book.

For instance, there is little character depth. Tolkien focuses so much on the events that he forgets to flesh out who these people we're taking a journey with are, resulting in little spice or dialogue among the group. I only remembered that Bombur was the fat dwarf, there were two young dwarves, one dwarf had decent eyesight, and Thorin was the head of them all.

Toward the end, I wanted to finish The Hobbit so I could start a book that might be more complex and easier to relate to. I pat myself on the back for finally completing The Hobbit, yet I wouldn't recommend it to everyone.

The first chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring is in my version, so I might read that and decide whether reading the rest of the series is worth it (I probably won't because I've already seen and enjoyed the movies). It's worth noting that The Hobbit is being made into a movie, and I'm sure it'll do well. ( )