I actually just started a sort of weird "project" - I was feeling like reading some LotR chapters, on their own, simply because I felt like it. Originally, I wanted to read "Scouring of the Shire" (which is pretty normal for me - see above). Then I decided that I wanted to read a bit of the stuff before it, especially since "Homeward Bound" is a sort of prelude, in "Many Partings" there is Saruman, but I rarely read the other parts of the chapter (which I felt a bit of deficit on my part, especially since I had not noticed for
years the "telepathy" part until somebody mentioned it here on the 'downs). So I read second half of "The Steward and the King" (starting from Beregond's trial) and the two following chapters. The day after that, I suddenly felt the urge to read In the House of Tom Bombadil, because I think I never do, or never considered the chapter so interesting by itself (whereas now I have discovered it has really beautiful descriptions, some of which I knew, but never actually realised it is almost
fully composed of them). Then I continued naturally to the Fog on the Barrow-Downs.
And then I got that funny idea about reading the whole of LotR, not in order, but in the order I pick, depending on my momentary mood. It will be an interesting experiment, to say the least. I think it can be done, since I know the book by heart (mostly), and the random order makes it a bit different, so that you are not just "oh, I know what comes next". Here, it doesn't matter.
So far, it has worked perfectly
