How has your reading changed?

[Eonwe]

when i first read LOTR, i was about twenvle i'd say. i read it very quickly (i think i read fellowship and tt in less than two days, but had to wait a week or so for the return of teh king to come back to the library; it killed me) and was primarily interested in the plot. i thourowly enjoyed the read and it prompted me on to the hobbit, silmarillion and i just started unfinished tales. and here, i guess.

anyway, as i said, when i first read the books i was primarily interested in the plot of LOTR in particular. now that i've read some backround information, when i go back to LOTR, different things make more sense. like when aragorn says whatever about bilbo having the cheak to make rymes about earindil in the house of elrond, that's his own business.

also, when i first read it, i went very quickly and just started recognizing names for their letters, and didn't sound them out. (if you know what i mean). so someone might be "that guy who's name has starts with and a", or whatever. and allot of the names i pronounce with english pronounciagiont (seerdan for cairdan, etc.) now that i go back and read them again, i love going to the appendixes and sounding out the names and re-learning them. and i have a better appreciation for different names. especially love osgiliath. i sometimes find myself repeating the names just cause they sound so beautiful.

anyway, all that to say: how have you started reading differently.

(if there is a thread like this already, my apologies)

[Folwren]

I, too, first read the books when I was twelve. It took me more time to read them...but I always read things slower, to take stuff in more.

However, I've read the LotR several times since then, and the Silm. half way through (got stuck and died out on the Realms of Beleriand...I feel really dumb saying that here on the Downs), and I've also read the Lays of Beleriand. Those two books didn't really change my reading of the LotR too terribly much, it was just the more times I read the trilogy, the more I could get from it.

For instance, Sam's character, for one, I loved from the very first time I read it. The second time, I got to see more and more of that character. The third time I read it, my love for Sam spread to Frodo, who Sam loved so well, and I got to peek a bit into Frodo's character, and the farther I read on and the more I saw of Frodo, the more I loved him, too.

So, I guess you could say, that the way my reading has changed is, I've been able to delve more into the characters. Also, I've read the appendixes, and some history on Tolkien himself, and I will say that those things have shown me a lot more in the books. Like the story of Aragorn and Arwen...and then the bit of Tolkien's parents dying, and all that sort of stuff. It's very intriguing, really, what all he put into his books.

I like this thread. I don't know myself if there's been one like it before.

-- Folwren

[Estelyn Telcontar]

This is a good thread topic! As it's more about personal experience than actual book discussion, I'm moving it to the Novices and Newcomers forum. Please continue reading and posting there - thanks!

[Bêthberry]

I am an inveterate underliner of paperbacks--not of hardcovers but of paperbacks. What I find intriguing is coming upon an underlined or starred passage, for which I have made no other comment, and not being able to see what prompted me to mark the passage in the first place. Or, seeing how it relates to things which my subsequent reading doesn't really place a premium on.

[Eorl of Rohan]

Hm. When I first started reading it, it was -I shall admit it- after the movie came out. Except for the fact that I didn't know that the movie was out. My mother found this book sold on the market, marveled at LOTR's size and bulkiness, bought it, brought it home, forced me to read it despite my resistance, I read it at 15, decided I didn't understand a word (Hey, I couldn't speak English then!), studied some more English, read it again at 16 because my mother hauled away my whole selection of books because I wouldn't study for the midterm exam, fell in love with it, read it and read it and loved it and memorized it, the love went on for two years, and then I went to high school, I forgot about LOTR, and a week ago I found the book beneath my bed while I was cleaning, read it, fell in love with it, came here.

0_0 If this isn't the superfluous diary of a madman, what is?

[Eonwe]

the best thing about lotr rings is no matter how many times you read it, you always find something new. or work out some puzzle.

i always love working out the kingship of aragorn. it is so confuseing to me (i don't know why). every six months or so i forget exactly what happened and "have to" go look it up again. and i love reading through the book while refering to the timelines and stuff. it makes for a much more holistic view of teh offten confuluted plot.

another thing is that after you have read it a number of times through, you (or at least i do) start picking it up and reading parts you especailly love. so you get stuck in a rut. sometimes i pick it up and read a part i loved and had forgotten about. i love it when that happens!

so i guess my reading changes cause i find new things all the time.