The Hobbit, A Review

There are a good many books in the world that all literate people ought to read in a lifetime.  Having recently graduated and having ample leisure time, I have dedicated part of my existence to the pursuit of these books that are often called great.  Mark Twain once called a classic a book that everybody wants to have read, but nobody wants to read.  This turned out to be part of my problem with The Hobbit.  

I first experienced The Hobbit at around the age of eight, as a gold-leafed, leather bound book that my father owned, in which I was only allowed to read in one spot of the house, and I should take care to wash my hands prior.  Perhaps it was all of the precaution and inconvenience that surrounded the book that led me to never finish it the first time.  Even at eight I recognized that the book was something often talked about and that I should probably finish it eventually, but this never came to pass at the age of eight.
(This is much different than The Hobbit experiences of my significant other, who remembers staying up late into the night with a flashlight under his blankets.)

Recognizing the worth in reading this childhood classic, I tried again at the age of twelve, and again at fourteen.  Both times I came to the same halt--as soon as Bilbo escapes from Gollum with The Ring, the tale gets a bit dry, and I lost my patience for the novel on both occasions.

Now, at twenty-one, I have finally finished The Hobbit and am probably slightly better off because of it.  I can now properly read The Lord of the Rings and not feel at a total loss in Tolkien conversations.  Being the literary theologian that he was, he impacted my academic career significantly, although it would have been more so had I been well read in his works.

Much like my endeavors to reread the Harry Potter series before the final movie comes out, my reading of The Hobbit was a bit of a let down, at my current age.  I ate and drank every word that Rowling wrote when I was younger, but had I discovered Harry at my current age,  I probably wouldn't have finished the series.  Perhaps there is a disconnect when an adult tries to read children's literature.  The Hobbit is obviously very popular, but it's popularity lies in the realm of children's lit.

I keep track of notable quotes to chew on as I go throughout a work, and the fact that I only came up with two throughout the entirety of The Hobbit might have something to do with my lack of interest in the novel.  If you are curious as to what those quotes are, here you go:


"Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway," (46). 


"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world," (259).

Much like my younger self, I got bored at the same post-Gollum place in the novel.  This time, however, I pushed on.  The pacing of the novel after Bilbo's experience with Gollum becomes very slow until you encounter Smaug, near the last 70 or so pages of the book.  The good middle-half of the novel was quite tiresome, and verging on uninteresting to me.  

There is something about The Hobbit, nonetheless, that keeps it on everybody's "to read" list.  Perhaps it is the character growth that Bilbo undergoes.  Maybe young boys keep the novel popular simply for it's old-timey Anglo-Saxon swordplay.  Whatever it is that draws us to The Hobbit barely drew me in, but I am glad to have read it.  I can now critique Peter Jackson's cinematographic attempts properly, come 2012.