On a Tolkien Diet

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

So we began (not today but one day end of last week) our new read aloud classic, The Hobbit.

Both boys were not at all enthusiastic about this book which was S6's Christmas pressie from us. Why? Because there were hardly any pictures. Just words. And lots of them. As I read the first pages, they could barely wait for me to stop. And when I go to get the book out to read some more, they would begin to protest. I began to wonder if I should abandon the reading of this book till S6 is much older.

I am glad I persevered. For we eventually got to the 14th page of Chapter 1:

"Will he do, do you think? It is all very well for Gandalf to talk about this hobbit being fierce, but one shriek like that in a moment of excitement would be enough to wake the dragon and all his relatives, and kill the lot of us."

At the mention of dragons, swords, and adventure, these guys are now hook, line and sinker. We are now up to Chapter 4, with them asking on several occasions today to be read from it, and then not wanting me to stop reading.

The Tolkien and Lewis books are truly books that ought to be read aloud. No wonder, as I discovered today, since these were among the best loved books of the last hundred years that were first read aloud in The Inklings - the name of a group of friends (including the aforementioned authors) that, beginning in the 1930s, gathered once or twice a week to read to each other (what they had written), and to discuss about what they have read/heard about.