Parts We Skip and Why

[Essex]

I also don't skip parts of the book. I tried to start lotr the other week to tie in with the chapter by chapter reviews the site is running, but I couldnt do it. I needed to read the whole book again, so have started from the beginning.

The films have helped me concentrate on various parts or themes of the books that I have missed on prior readings. For example, after the fotr movie, I reread the books and for the first time noticed the real animosity between boromir and aragorn, and also I was able to see boromir's character much better.

the last time I read the books after the rotk movie, I 'concentrated' on frodo and sam's journey, something that I've never been able to keep exactly in my mind what happened step by step (as I could for other story strands).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the thing that jumped out for me last time was the passage below, a few days out from sam and frodo's escape from the orcs near the black gate, and their trip towards mount doom.....

Now as the blackness of night returned Frodo sat, his head between his knees, his arms hanging wearily to the ground where his hands lay feebly twitching. Sam watched him, till night covered them both and hid them from one another. He could no longer find any words to say; and he turned to his own dark thoughts. As for himself, though weary and under a shadow of fear, he still had some strength left. The lembas had a virtue without which they would long ago have lain down to die. It did not satisfy desire, and at times Sam's mind was filled with the memories of food, and the longing for simple bread and meats. And yet this waybread of the Elves had a potency that increased as travellers relied on it alone and did not mingle it with other foods. It fed the will, and it gave strength to endure, and to master sinew and limb beyond the measure of mortal kind.

The line in bold just struck me when I read it. I had never really noticed or took in this line before! I just didn't realise how close to death the hobbits had got. Just to imagine the hobbits giving up and lying down to die fills me with sadness in what they must be going through.

Now, without the context of all of their trip from the emyn muil, this scene would not have the same effect. This is why I can never skip parts in the books.