So, there are surprisingly few topics in this sub-forum, and none of them are general. What did you think of the book overall?

Honestly, while I have read all of Tolkien's other works extensively, I have not re-read The Hobbit since I was ten. It was fun to read once, but the style was geared so much to younger readers that after I read The Lord of the Rings I never went back. It's just so....lighthearted. Reading about the Elves gaily singing is positively bizarre after reading of their tragic misfortunes in The Silmarillion, for example. Does anyone else experience this issue?

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The Hobbit is my favourite book by Tolkien. Because it actually IS very lightharted and always put a smile on my face. I feel like I found fairytales from childhood and brought them to real world. I don't have such impression with Lord of the Rings.

I think that The Hobbit MAY seem childish but who really cares? I love it!

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Ah, yes. It is a very light-hearted book and thus fun to read, but I have a hard time enjoying the seeming "false" perspective of Middle-earth which it shows.

I will be re-reading it before the film premiere this winter, though. ^_^

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It's seems pretty impressive and I can't really wait til desember 14. But, i regret I was looking on behide the scenes. (I really wish Rivendell exist, not beeing a plasticcity).

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From the ashes, a fire shall be woken. A light from the shadow shall spring. Renewed shall be blade that was broken. The crownless again shall be king.

i like the hobbit for its lightheartedness because in a way it makes the lord of the rings even better, you can see how mutch middle earth has changed and how saurons darkness affects it.

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Similarly, of all the basic books of Tolkien, The Hobbit is the one I have re-read the least, it is a children's story, unlike LotR, which is a complex, deep, thrilling one. For this reason I tell my friends to start with LotR, not with TH, when they come to me for counsel on which Tolkien book to read first!

But I will be reading The Hobbit once again before the movie comes out, for sure!

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http://tolkien-inspiration.blogspot.com/

BUt for younger people The Hobbit is great introduce to Middle-Earth stories. I guess it's better to start with something more happy story and later dwell into darker

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Then it depends on who are you recommending Tolkien to, I guess.

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http://tolkien-inspiration.blogspot.com/

I like that point you made....as LOTR is my most favorite story ever but i never thought about this angle to the stories, in that the Hobbit shows a "nicer" Middle Earth & then you see such a darkness that Sauron has brought to Middle Earth in LOTR....Thanks, I really liked that!

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Cold be heart hand and bone cold be travellers far from home
They do not see what lies ahead when sun has faded and moon is dead

But you see, the darkness of Sauron has pervaded Middle-earth for far longer than just the few years since the events of The Hobbit. So the reason that I do not enjoy The Hobbit as much is because it actually glosses over the evil which is already present and known. Reading The Silmarillion kind of puts things into perspective.

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Hm, I don't think exactly. The danger was there, but at the time of The Hobbit it was still ignorable. (Though not quite, as Gandalf occasionally makes sort of ominous statements about how wild the paths have become and so on, if I remember correctly.)

Personally, The Hobbit is my favorite Tolkien book because although it is a children's story, it has, I think, a hidden depth and moral ambiguity. For instance, the deal Bilbo makes with the elves by giving them the Arkenstone as leverage against the dwarves. He has to betray his friends in order to do what he feels is right. And the dwarves, who have been the protagonists through the whole story, suddenly become very antagonistic and the Mirkwood elves, who were an antagonist suddenly become the more reasonable protagonists. It's not all black and white, good vs. evil, right vs. wrong like in LotR.
I won't lie, though, the sing-songy tone does annoy me sometimes, too. Still, I feel because its so layered its one of those books you can grow up with and glean new things from every time you read it.

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yes i agree, the hobbit does have a hidden depth

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What I really like about the Hobbit was how Tolkien made references to what would happen later without really telling you what is going to happen. For example, when Bilbo thinkgs longingly about his nice, cose Hobbit hole, Tolkien mentions that it will not be the last time that Bilbo has a thought similar to that one. It kind of makes you wonder what other problems he will encounter.

And Bilbo is one of my favourite characters ever. He is so down to earth, always longing for the simple pleasures in life (food, dry clothes, bit of tobacco) while stumbling through some horrible situations. Cute little guy

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I love the Hobbit, but I dislike how it seems to contradict LotR. For instance, in The Hobbit, there are "stone giants" (which are never mentioned again anywhere), and things like "pop guns" (which supposedly shouldn't exist in Middle Earth). Also, it says that Gollum was calling himself "precious" instead of the ring. You could explain all this by saying Bilbo messed up or Tolkien mistranslated, but it detracts from the story that way. Before I read LotR, I thought The Hobbit was just as good as Narnia, but now I ave trouble reading it without constantly comparing it to LotR.

I like this. I loved The Hobbit, and never really realized how much more lighthearted it was than LotR until recently. I think the Hobbit is just not about Sauron. It has a different idea than LotR. LotR is about Frodo destroying the ring, and tH is about Bilbo going on an adventure. Even when you sum it up like that, you can tell how much happier the Hobbit is going to be than LotR.

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There is only one Lord of the Ring, only one who can bend it to his will. And he does not share power.
-Gandalf

Although I liked it better when I was younger, I still find The Hobbit a nice, easy read for a day when one is upset. It was always such an easy-to-follow book that I put it up with all my other rainy-day books.

Smeagol called both himself and the Ring precious in the story, if I'm not mistaken (It's been a few months since I last read it). This could be explained by the Ring's addictive power. Smeagol could've worn it so many times that he thought of the Ring and himself as almost one thing, kind of like (on a much lighter view) friends that finish one another's sentences or sometimes say "we" instead of "I".

Remember that The Hobbit was originally written to be a single stand-alone story. Tolkien only wrote The Lord of the Rings after rabid fans asking for another hobbit story for some time. He was originally going to write another children's story. Be thankful The Lord of the Rings was written at all, regardless of the contradictions.

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Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Luke 6:20-26