Boring
 

The first chapter of the book is so boring. The party for Bilbo's 111 birthday. It's so long too. But I'm almost finished it!

It annoys me when people say this. You're entitled to your own opinion but I see this as one of the highlights of the book. Congratulations on nearly finishing one chapter though, I think.

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Please name for me one book whose first chapter is completely and utterly fascinating. No, seriously. If you don't start a book with the idea that the first bits will be boring, you'll probably end up not finishing the book at all.

Sorry, but you did ask.

"The Named" by Marianne Curley has a really good first chapter that gets you hooked within seconds. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

i know ill get killed for saying this, but i find just about all of the hobbit related parts either in the book or the movies pretty darn boring

they certainly dont measure up to the battle scenes, but yes, I will kill you. How would you like to go? [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I think the first chapter is meant to be 'boring' or at least uneventful because it portrays the peaceful life of the hobbits in the shire (to which the rest of the book is such a contrast). Just wait till you get to the next chapter, that's when it really kicks off.
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When you're reading a second time (or nth time in my case!) the first chapter is a good relaxing chapter, full of interesting hobbit-lore snippets and connects LoTR to the Hobbit too. Keep on reading!

one good point is that tolkien was originaly writing the book for children. So it is no wonder that it seems a bit boring.

I don't think its boring at all. If you read it (with a positive mindset) you will find a lot of humour.

Its not action packed, but there are entire books out there that are not action-packed. Great ones like 'Catcher in the Rye'.

As noted above, uneventful does not have to mean boring.

He has a point, for younger people it is quite boring. When I first read the books, I put FotR down for a year after I got bored through the first chapter.

well when I read LotR for the first time i liked it very much until the hobbits left hobbiton, then i stopped reading it for about half a year. the first chapter was a very nice and funny one in my opinion.....it began to be incredebly boring in the thrird chapter. but when i read it now it's much better then it was the first time....i think you just have to read it some times, like someone else already said.

i thought the first chapter in the book was boring but the books were great and in most books the fitrst part is very boring.

I found all of Book 1 to be kind of boring, but I still thought it was really good! I like reading it over now, because I know that it will get more exciting later on, kind of like the calm before the storm.... [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[ February 14, 2003: Message edited by: Galadrie1 ]

[img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] I love the hobbits!!! Oh well it is your opinion and you can't be grudged that! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Personally when I first began to read FOTR, I found the continual references in the first chapter a bit confusing but I re-read the parts I found a bit confusing over slowly and they made perfect sense! The humor started flowing and I couldn't put it down. One warning though: If you find the 111 birthday chapter boring, I don't know how you will get through The Council of Elrond! I hope it gets better for you because LOTR is truly a piece of magnificence!

[ February 14, 2003: Message edited by: hobbit punk ]

is the council of elrond sposed to be a boring chapter then? cos its one of the best parts of the whole of lotr!

I find I like the first chapters the best! Every thing is so simple! So happy! The rest of the book can be sad and depressing, more exciting maybe, but you know that they will never return to that same state of complete inocence. There is also a lot of humour in the first bit. Esp Bilbo's tags for his stuff. And then when you get to conspiracy unmasked, can't you just picture the look on Frodo's face when he discovers what his friends know?

I agree that the first part of FOTR was a bit boring, but after my second read I began to admire him JRRT for that.

Tolkien is a writer who doesn't just write anything and leave it as it is. He is a writer of meticulous details.

In LOTR, it is important to note that he was trying (and has succeeded in) conveying the background of everything that was to be known about the Shire at that present time.

With all courtesies, I formally welcome patriarch_nova7 the BD [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

When I first read the Lord of the Rings, I adored the first chapter. I read it straight after reading the Hobbit, and, finding such a familiar writing-style etc., I was very happy. I always loved the bits with hobbits in them, and actually got bored when it came to the Big People and their doings... A now amended view, I can assure you.
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I suppose I can see why some people might find it boring, if hobbits and their unhurried lifestyles aren't their particular cup of tea, but if you can persevere then I'm very sure that you'll get at least something worthwhile out of the book.

(Just don't try reading the Prologue first: it's enough to put people off for life!)

Hmm...I don't know. I rather liked that chapter. I thought it was a great way to begin the story. Not boring at all. I loved Bilbo's B-day speech.

Better boring than confusing, I say.

The Fellowship of the Ring (or indeed, the first "book") was written as a sequel to The Hobbit. You have to admit though, that the plotlines are completely unrelated, and the connection between the books is tenuously thin. In "The Hobbit", the magic ring is not a thing of power, evil, or anything of that sort--it's just a trinket. For Tolkien to make this a true sequel and morph this non-central aspect of "The Hobbit" (a ring of invisibility) into the central theme of his great epic (the One Ring of the Dark Lord), Tolkien quite frankly had a lot of explaining to do. To both establish this link to "The Hobbit" and to develop the hobbits and their background, the first chapter is, if nothing else, very necessary.