What do you feel when you read the book?

[Lyta_Underhill]

I think the fact that I remembered certain parts of LOTR through images many years later underscored the feelings they gave me when I first read it. Somehow, the 'feel' of Fangorn Forest stayed with me so much that I found myself subconsciously seeking communion with certain forested places. I think I sought Ents for many years without realizing I was doing so. The essential darkness that many of the characters sense in the story seemed less apparent to me than the complete enfolding of Merry and Pippin into their world. (Always looking at the world through hobbit eyes, I suppose!) I remember wishing I could always live in Fangorn and talk to the Ents forever! I also remember a sense of a full spirit when Sam comes back after Frodo's departure West and how unassumingly and prosaicly Sam takes up his regular life again, how much I envied him and loved him for being able to remain simple and enjoy the benefits of a cleaner and purer world. There's more, I'm sure, but those remain the parts that stuck around for years in images that underlay life for the last decade or so...

Cheers,
Lyta