The Tolkien Coming of Age Club

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Thank you so much, Estelyn, for leading me to this thread, it's wonderful.
(Just read your post yesterday.)

Greetings all! Thanks everyone, for sharing your stories with us.
It has brought back a lot of memories. Unfortunately, though,
I have been puzzling over how old I was when I read LoTR...I believe I
was around 12 or so. My copy of it is the gold Ballantine boxed set with
Tolkien's heraldry on it. The books say 1977, but I think I received them
as a gift after reading it. I'm currently 39.

It's easier to recall, the 2 chairs I was glued to that summer,
and my dissapointment upon finishing them. Sign of my cresting the hill
I suppose.

The mentions of D&D made me smile too. I have a lot of memories of my
brother, a serious historical wargamer to this day, disparing over how
the D&Dr's have taken over the clubs & conventions. Then we had this
delightful D&Dr living with our family for a few years. He used to make
us laugh so hard, with his stories! Good memories.

At anyrate, though LoTR was lodged in my heart I avoided reading it for
fear that I wouldn't like it as well a second time around.
After seeing the the movie last winter and finding that I didn't remember
it quite like that, I decided to read the tale to my 9 yr old. I fell
in love with the story all over again, (and my daughter fell asleep).
Actually, my daughter liked the Hobbit, but I think the attention to detail in LoTR
made her eyes glaze over. I will try again in a year or two.

The purity of spirit and vivid descriptions...sigh....

As a youth I had read:
The Hobbit
LoTR
Farmer Giles
Sir Gawain
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
The Father Christmas Stories
Silmarillion

Lately I have read:
Roverandom

Now Reading UT and think it's amazing! Next on to HoME.

But I've rambled on long enough. And I'm much more comfortable reading than writing!

Life is what happens when you're making other plans.

[ January 10, 2003: Message edited by: Hilde Bracegirdle ]

[ January 10, 2003: Message edited by: Hilde Bracegirdle ]

[ January 10, 2003: Message edited by: Hilde Bracegirdle ]