At the urging of
Bêthberry I'm starting this thread on a topic was broached in the CbC Discussion of
The Taming of Sméagol a couple weeks ago (finally got around to posting this). Several people had been commenting on how they found the switch over from the storyline with Aragorn, Gandalf, Merry and Pippin, etc. to that of Frodo and Sam to be a let down. I then responded:
Quote:
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Hmm. Interesting how other people feel a let down after leaving the other story line - particularly on my first reading, I experienced a very different reaction. Upon my first reading, I was very much into Frodo (still my favorite character, but I appreciate others more as well now) - after leaving Frodo and Sam at Amon Hen, they were the only two characters I really wanted to know about. Admittedly, I did not get a whole lot out of Book 3 that first reading with the exception of a few notable passages. So eager was I to find out when I was getting on to Frodo that in name-scanning the proceding chapters I accidently found out Gandalf came back... oops. So, anyway, suffice it to say that I was thrilled to reach this chapter.
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Let it be said that I have come to enjoy these chapters in Book 3 of LotR much more by now.
There are bound to be particular sections of LotR (and Tolkien's other books) that you particularly dislike or find boring, as Tolkien himself stated in the Foreward to LotR: "It is perhaps not possible in a long tale to please everybody at all points, nor to displease everybody at the same points; for I find from the letters that I have received that the passages or chapters that are to some a blemish are all by others specially approved."
So, what particular passages/chapters/groups of chapters have you been known to skip, or just skim through for content? Particularly on first readings, were there parts that you found incapable of holding your attention, and has this changed on subsequent readings? And, of course, why?