From which we come to another point. How the hell are you
gonna read? I�m not joking. Some writers on the Internet do not
know how to read properly, thus they cannot write properly. Not
just because the English language is beyond them, they don�t
know what makes a story even if they�ve read one a thousand
times.

    Supplimenting Aerol's point (with which I quite agree) with a bit of personal experience ...

    I first read J.R.R. Tolkein's "The Hobbit" when I was nine years old, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. There were hobbits and dwarves and orcs and wizards and a big wopping dragon and all sorts of fun stuff. And so when I found out that there was more of the same in "The Lord of the Rings", I eagerly sought it out.

    And I started to read it.

    Note "started". I couldn't get through "The Fellowship of the Ring". I couldn't get through the first *half* of "The Fellowship of the Ring."

    I finally decided that Tolkein was just writing too high and sophisticated for a kid like me, and figured I'd come back later.

    I came back when I was fourteen and my best friend at the time had just read "The Silmarillion" and was raving about it to me. I read "The Silmarillion", went gosh-wow, figured I was ready for the rings this time, and picked up all three books.

    Almost got through the first part of "The Two Towers". Almost.

    This time I, with a high opinion of my own intelligence, decided that the blending of the "highness" of "The Silmarillion" and the "earthiness" of "The Hobbit" made "The Lord of the Rings" unreadable, for me at least.

    The next time I read "The Lord of the Rings" was when I was in high school, and I decided that I had to read this. So I forced my way through to the end of "The Return of the King", and said to myself "Well thank God that's over." If anything, what I'd gone through this time only confirmed my opinion of the work.

    A lot of water went under the bridge.

    I happened to read bits and pieces of Christopher Tolkein's study of "The History of Middle Earth", which reawakened an interest in the story behind all those words. Earlier this year, I found my old copy of the Hobbit -- the same one that started it all -- and reread it. I got a copy of "The Silmarillion" from a used bookstore and reread it.

    And earlier this week, I picked up all three volumes of "The Lord of the Rings" from a library. I'd read a lot of fantasy in the years in between; Guy Gavriel Kay's "Fionavar Tapestry", Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time", the "Thieves World" books, and much of Howard, Lovecraft, Carter and Lackey. And now, fifteen years later, I finally *read* "The Lord of the Rings".

    Some things are *worth* waiting for.

Chris Davies.
(Could have done without the insights he got from hearing about "Frodo/Sam" slash fanfiction, but so it goes.)
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