Tolkien: The author or the reader (No, this is not another canonicity thread)

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Ah, but there is a third way, at least for me. I first read LotR at age 11, and by then, many of what would become my lifelong interests were already begun, and no interests I developed later on were inspired by any one specific person or book. However, I can say beyond a doubt that reading Tolkien's work inspired what I might call the enhancement of my interests. I was already interested in illustrating stories before I read LotR, for instance; afterward, Tolkien's works inspired me to continue to develop this interest because it provided such a rich source of material to depict. I've been writing music most of my life; when I started composing symphonies in my more recent years, it was Tolkien's work that gave me the inspiration for the stories to tell with my music. I'd also been writing poems and prose since my early years of elementary school; Tolkien was definitely one of the authors who influenced and inspired me when I turned to writing novels. But only one of them; my style bears precious little resemblance to his. My interest in the medieval, alas, was largely inspired by Katherine Kurtz, not Tolkien, as well as a desire to participate in the local chapter of the SCA (because of other friends who were involved); botany became an interest long before, because I often hid out in the woods and fields to get away from my abusive family; my interest in languages came, I think, from being exposed to Polish at home and Latin at school, and so on.

I do think that the question of whether Tolkien inspires your interests or your interests draw you to Tolkien depends a lot on what age you are when you first read his work. But perhaps not.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Ibrîniðilpathânezel

I do think that the question of whether Tolkien inspires your interests or your interests draw you to Tolkien depends a lot on what age you are when you first read his work. But perhaps not.

I think that is indeed the key, at least for me. I also read LOTR for the first time when I was around 10 or 11, though I'd been read The Hobbit when I was even younger.
In my case, I think Tolkien sparked the Anglophilia that has been with me ever since, as well as an interest in languages. His style of writing made such an impression that I find myself sometimes unconsciously imitating it, both here on the Downs and elsewhere.

[mormegil]

I wasn't much of a reader in my youth, more into sports and video games. However when I was about 21 or 22 is when I first read LotR and I devoured it. Since then Tolkien really helped get me into reading in general and fantasy in particular.

[Hakon]

Before I read LOTR I was not into writing but I was into reading. After reading it I began to get more interested in writing. Before reading anything by Tolkien I had an interest in history mostly the middle ages and after reading LOTR my interest expanded to many more ares of history. Which is how I managed to learn more about South American history than anything else despite putting more effort into learning about other areas of history. Overall reading Tolkien expanded my few interests into many more.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

I was into reading and writing before Tolkien, and you could even call my attempts of writing "fantasy" to a large part. I actually became aware of Tolkien from large part only because of the word "Hobbit", as my first encounter with fantasy itself was in the form of one RPG, a Czech game akin to Dungeons and Dragons (a simplified copy of that), where among other races, there was "hobbit". Never encountering that before, you can imagine I found it quite surprising and funny that somebody wrote a book of that name. Of course only later I realised that it was the race that was taken from the book, and not vice versa.

I believe there was a similar thread (or more, actually) related to this topic, by the way, as I recall writing on them (certainly there was at least one like "how did you come to LotR" and then another one whose name I forgot, but its topic was a lot similar to this, something like how or whether did LotR affect the subjects you are interested in, like I recall for example people writing there that it nudged them to study English or old languages or literature or stuff like that).