When did you first read Lord of the Rings?

[Erendis]

June 2003 in the island of Hydra,granny's house.I started with FOTR,read it at once in 5 hours-we are talking about serious crave to do so back then,my granny didn't dare even to talk to me-.

Then, when I went to the bookstore next day to buy TTT,the casier asked "Hey,I 'm thinking around starting it myself,does it worth reading?",I answered "Sure,and I'm eager to read the next one today" to his ultimate shock.
One week after,it was ROTK,and tehn came The Hobbit,Silmarilion,UT ...and the Downs.

Back to thet summer,I was already a dedicated moovie fan,but that night at granny's house was a real revelation.

Thanks,Galadriel,for the amazing thread!

And thank you,Professor,for giving me the love of my life.May you rest in peace.

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Ah, me. It's rather close to the time of year when I first read LotR -- it was June, as I recall, when I was 11, which means it's 45 years ago. It was just about the time when the book was being "discovered" on college campuses, but that wasn't where I first noticed it (obviously ). For a month or two prior to that, my second brother (who was all of 13) had been devoutly reading what looked like a prayer book during Sunday Mass. Now, I knew him well enough to know that there was no way he was really that pious, so after we got home one Sunday, I snuck a look under the embossed plastic cover he'd put on the book, and discovered that it was one of the volumes of LotR. I'd never seen that particular brother so engrossed in any reading, so I decided I'd give it try and see what was so interesting to him.

I admit, it took a little effort to get into it, but not that much. By the time the hobbits left Bree, I was hooked. (and I'll also admit that I would been hooked more easily if not for Tom Bombadil. I was not the kind of kid who went for silliness. Very long story, and beside the point.)

I reacted to it in many ways. The most powerful single reaction was that I found in the character of Gandalf the adult role model I lacked, having come from an extremely dysfunctional family in which one parent was horribly abusive and the other was not allowed to bond with us. Tolkien was also one of the first authors I'd read who made me want to tell stories of my own, though he was not the last. But I loved the detail in the world he built, and that has been a strong influence in my own writing.

[Loslote]

I first "read" it when my mom read it to me. I must have been either nine or ten, (because I was still dating things by where I lived, so I couldn't have gotten used to the idea of actually staying in one place yet, which means the first couple of years in Alaska). I totally loved it at the time, but I'd mostly forgotten it (although I still remebered vividly certain parts of it - Saruman's multi-colored cloak and the story of Aragorn's death in particular. I read it again as a "school" book when I was...um...I think thirteen, maybe twelve, and that time it stuck. I read Sil, the HoMEs, UT, etc, etc. I don't remember when The Hobbit came in. I think my mom read it to me, but I don't really remember it (although I know the story well enough to be able to fumble through the Spanish version, so I had to have read it sometime... )

I loved the sense of history behind everything. The idea that there was something before now, and before that, and even before that, and that it all affected what was happening now in such an important way. I also loved the languages, particularly elvish. That's what brought me online - I was looking for elvish resources. Through a very roundabout way, that ended up here. (Very, very roundabout - including my mom having tea with Nurumaiel's grandmother and mother, and happening to mention LotR. Ah, Lady Luck will have her say. ) Anyway, during my first read-through I was so engrossed, my mom wouldn't even know where I was for hours on end, because I would hole up somewhere and totally forget where I was (a common conversation was "Lottie, take out the garbage." "Okay." *an hour later* "Lottie, take out the garbage." "Okay." *an hour later* ... you get the idea, only with my real name instead of Lottie. )

[Isabellkya]

I first read LOTR in High School. I was prompted to read the series via my math/physics teacher, as he was absolutely obsessed and put an extra credit question - LOTR related on the end of each exam. If you stumped him, he would give you double EC points.

I can not even recall my initial reaction, other than I enjoyed it - and have reread routinely in the years following.

Thinking about it now, I wonder why my parents never had copies; as they are both huge book readers, fantasy included. Though I do recall my mother telling me about my uncle having copies of the books.

[Thinlómien]

I first read LotR when I was 7 or 8 years old. I remember spending a whole summer slowly on it and enjoying it tremendously even though the poor book got quite torn by me carrying it everywhere and I fell asleep on the book while reading thh chapter The Great River.

My LotR enthusiasm started earlier though. My dad *coughNogrodcough* showed me and my sister *coughALittleGreencough* the Bakshi cartoon and read the books to us too (first TH, the LotR, then Sil and then even the UT). It had a huge impact on me and I was basically half living in Middle-Earth the rest of my childhood (and admittedly even now ).

Anyway, although most of my memory is blurred, I remember some highlight s from dad reading the stuff, like getting incredibly angry when he stopped reading in the middle of the Voice of Saruman (I started shouting and crying and threatened to finish reading the chapter on my own if he doesn't read it and in the end he and mom gave up and we got the rest of the story ) and my little sister got scared and wanted dad to stop reading more or less exactly at the point when Frodo speculates that a kid would ask his/her daddy to close the book.

Ah, happy memories!

[Rumil]

My word, when did you first read when did you first read The Lord of the Rings?

Going back to the old thread tis strange to think that I've been a Downer nearly eight years!

[Beorn of Carrock]

My 1st Tolkien book was the FoTR when I was 10; It seems that Rumil was already registered here

Soonly, it was followed by the Hobbit and the Silmarillion, and I finished the HoME series a year or so ago.