Read or Listen?

[Nogrod]

Even if it has been said here already, I think the difference between a "dramatisation" or an "adaption" should be clearly differentiated from "reading the book aloud".

Dramatisations etc. are another thing; they are artistic products made by someone and should be assessed with different standards - as not the real thing but versions or interpretations of it, like the movies or other adaptations.

But reading the book aloud, word by word, being present in the situation (or listening them on a CD / mp3 / whatever - where it is read but not "acted" by someone) is a different thing.

Tolkien's books are stories to be read aloud like the stories of old he was imitating - even if they are clearly products of the twentieth century prose. But nevertheless. They are stories to be read by a campfire, as bedtime-stories... Reading them alone and quietly by oneself is just a poor substitute for the real thing.