This has been a Tolkien Summer at my house.
My boys (six and eight years old) are finally old enough to appreciate good fantasy, or so I believe, so we started the long vacation with a family reading of The Hobbit out loud. They loved it, I loved it, and now we're well into The Fellowship of the Ring. This series of blog posts is to offer a few thoughts on Tolkien and on fantasy and perhaps on reading out loud.
But first, the very important issue: do you believe it's permissible to criticize good old Professor T.? This isn't a rhetorical question. There are people who would be genuinely offended at any complaints about the books of Middle-earth, as (or even more so than) if one had criticized the Bible or Joss Whedon. I know; I have at times been one of them.
But not so now. I plan to offer some thoughts and make some digs at dear old JRRT where I believe they are deserved. I hope you understand that I'm doing so only out of love, the kind of love that could lead someone to commit to reading almost 1,500 pages aloud without skipping a word.
Or skipping no more than Tom Bombadil, anyway.
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