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Kalainis
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Post How were you.......?
on: April 23, 2003 08:22

OK, I thought it would be nice to discuss, how you where first introduced to the works of J.R.R.Tolkien.

My first experience was at a friends sleep-over, where I watched the FOTR video. That got me interested in the books and web-sites. To be honest, I had never heard of Tolkien or LOTR before that :blush:

What was yours?
k
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 23, 2003 09:04
well i decided that i should start reading the "classics" and borrowed a copy of hte hobbit to take on my flight to LA, but i couldnt get into it- and that put me off LotR.

a year or so later i found out the films were coming out, it was christmas and i was talking to my aunt about what books to buy for myself, she said LotR- i told her i couldnt read the hobbit and things and she talked me into buying LotR as it was a very differnt style. so i read it... and loved it and then leant the book to a friend- so i had to find something to read in the meantime and read the hobbit and the silmarillion while i was waiting for her to finish with my copy of LotR...

those times feel wrong to me- im convinced i read LotR before christmas but then i cant see how i could have done.... :dizzy:
~Witch_Queen_of_Angmar~
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 23, 2003 10:38
I first bought the LOTR books three years ago, in Norwegian, and tried to read it.. Read about 5 pages before it got waaay too boring to continue, so i put it in my shelf and forgot it.

A month before christmas 2001, i watched the Harry Potter movie for the...5th time (I was and is a hooked HP fan ) and they showed the trailer for FOTR before the HP movie. I thought it looked really great, but the music was actually what caught my attention. The next time I watched HP, i was really looking forward to see the FOTR trailer
Anyway, I never got around watching LOTR before February 2002! (belive it or not! ) but after that I was totaly taken, and ran to the nearest bookstore to get an english copy of the books (the norwegian one was the crappiest translation ever!!!), read it in two days, went to see the movie again, then read the book again then I saw the movie about 7 more times, and the rest you know!
Veaglarwen
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 23, 2003 10:43
When I was 12, my first "boyfriend" ever introduced me to the concept of the Hobbit when we role played in Hawaii all across the area that we lived in. I didnt' actually experience it for myself until after the fellowship of the ring movie was released..which i fell in love with immediately!
Fíriel
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 23, 2003 03:17
Read The Hobbit when I was young - disliked it intensely. Okay, I won't mince words here - I detested it. It soured my expectations of LOTR and it was almost a year later, when I was almost 13, when I read LOTR - never regretted it! However, I've always wondered why I loved LOTR yet hated the Hobbit...
SadisticYoda
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 23, 2003 03:52
It was not too long ago for me. At the time of the release of the FotR dvd, I began to read them, now obsessed with the movie. From there on, I just continued to read all the books!
Estal
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 23, 2003 05:14
my mum has all the organal books and i started to read them at the age of 8(five years ago) and loved them ever scine.


Estal: long blound hair, blue eyes and is always sad. Always lonley and left out and the only friends she has are the moon the sun Dello her hourse and her shadow.
Sony
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 23, 2003 06:08

Estal: long blound hair, blue eyes and is always sad. Always lonley and left out and the only friends she has are the moon the sun Dello her hourse and her shadow.


awwwww don't be sad estal!!

ummmmmm, well I homeschool and go to a tutor for math and science. the ppl I was in Algebra with were BIG fans, and they would mention it every now and then. I had no idea what it was about, and for some reason I thought hobbits were eagle-like creatures, with feathers and everything. [when I was little I saw a commercial for the hobbit cartoon and they showed and eagle like thing when they said hobbit... yeah] anyway, the people in my class were mentioning it more than ever because FoTR was coming out. I ended up getting the Hobbit for Christmas. at first I was a little leary, "what now? I was thinking the LORD OF THE RINGS... not the HOBBIT!" but as is the usual tradition, I was sick over Christmas and I read it and loved it. I later decided that LotR was a heck of a lot better. the reason some of you may hate the hobbit is because the elves were rather undignified, it had a "fairy tale-ish" style, and it didn't go into much detail. but the Hobbit IS a children's story, so it's pretty much justified with this. obviously LotR was intended for an older audience. but you must admit, the "riddles in the dark" chapter was the greatest!
pippinsscarf
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 24, 2003 03:08
When I was about 12 my mom gave me the Hobbit on my b-day and i read it then and then she told me about LoTR!!!! I LOVE THEM
Alaghelediel
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 24, 2003 04:51
Don't feel bad - I honestly hadn't heard of Tolkien before the movies either.

Yeah, I was at the theater with a friend and saw the trailer for FotR and we knew we had to see it. I got hooked from that, and finally after TTT came out I decided to buy the books and I'm now in the middle of TTT.
Orosarniel
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 24, 2003 05:34
I think it was two years ago, when I joined a reading class. People were allowed to pick their own books and write a paper on it, and a lot of them were going to read FotR. I went to the library, because everyone else was reading it, and borrowed it. I began reading it, and there was this whole introduction thing in the beginning, and as I read, I was like, "What the heck is a *Hobbit*?! What is this guy talking about.. hairy feet and pipeweed?!" I decided it was not exactly to my interests, so I switched to another book.

Then later I saw the commercials for the FotR DVD.. it was actually a certain Man and Elf that intrigued me to buy it After watching it, I was instantly addicted. A few days later I went back to the library and borrowed FotR again, and this time I loved everything. I ended up going to Amazon and ordering practically all of Tolkien's works. Shortly after that I joined CoE.
sepdet
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 24, 2003 09:13
In college, right when the first paperback editions were coming out as a boxed set, my Mother was provided one by a fellow known as Bombadil who said, "read this. I will not speak to you again until you do." Since Bombadil was a dear friend (I've met him once, and the nickname suits him well), she complied.

That boxed set lived in the guestroom of my house. I think she started reading me The Hobbit when I was four; I know I was reading it in first grade on my own. Second grade (age 7) I started, with lots of help from Mom, on LOTR. I had a physical handicap which made it hard to get around, so I learned to read a little sooner than most of my peers.

Alas, I wore out her set when I was a kid, and have worn out two more sets since, as I read them at least once a year. I've gotten her replacements, and I've now found myself archival copies of the insane, goofy, beautiful original edition with the emus on it.

Emus, you say?

Yes. Emus.

I like to joke that I started reading LOTR about the year Orlando Bloom was born. But it's true!

However, ten years ago I finally discovered I was old enough to enjoy the Silmarillion, so I've expanded my Tolkien horizons, and last winter I finally found out that there were more books like HOME that I'd never heard of. I had The Road Goes Ever On (and can now read some of the Elvish, thanks to CoE, Naneth, and Gildor Inglorion!) but I had no idea there were others.
WoodlandGuard
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 26, 2003 07:11
When I was just a toddler I used to watch the animated Hobbit movie all the time, so when I could read I started reading The Hobbit, then LOTR, and I finished the Sil bout' a year ago, and I'm currently read'n The Book of Lost Tales, so I guess Tolkien has been apart of my life for as long as I can remember.
Dawn-maiden
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 26, 2003 07:47
Some 15 years ago i saw the Bakshi animated film on TV and liked it because I liked the story. I know most people hate the Bakshi film, but I liked it at the time. A year or two later I saw that a friend of mine had the book on her shelf (it was a present from someone. She still hasn't read it). I borrowed it from her and was completely captivated.......
AragornsLove22
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 26, 2003 06:22
Well, last year I was talking to a friend about needing a new book to read for shool. And we were talking about fantasy books. She was reading LOTRs and recommended it to me, so I decided to give them a try. I startedo ut with the Hobbit, and after reading taht, I have been hooked!! I absolutely love LOTRs and I am going to reread them trilogy over again as soon as I finish The Silm.
~Lady_lothlorien~
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: April 27, 2003 02:07
what got me interested in lotrs is when after watching the first movie i got into trying to find the books, and of course my brother recommended me to read the books cos he knew how much of a fan of books i am.
right now i have started to read the return of the king, and i havent put the book down since.
Tinu
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: May 26, 2003 10:31
I think I already told this tale somewhere.

I was a bookworm all through school and one late summer afternoon I was prowling the stacks in a nearly empty library, as I was oft prone to do.

Sitting between the stacks, dust motes dancing about on the beam of light slicing into the shadows, I came upon these beautiful, black, cloth bound tomes embossed with arcane metallic symbols.

Pulling them out and perusing the maps and appendices I felt I'd come across something rare and mysterious and checked out all three. Over the weekend I devoured the entire trilogy, I only read 'The Hobbit' afterwards as I was starved for more. Alas, this was 1970 something and there wasn't much to be found.

Many times I reread them, never ever anticipating they'd be made into film, nor that so good a job would be done when they were. At the time of my discovery it was difficult to find anyone else who had heard of the books among the teen set, now the story is is pretty much known by everyone.
Nazgulsbane
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: May 26, 2003 12:22
well, it was at my grnadparent's lakehouse. My uncle had FOTR with him, and so we watched it. I have read FOTR and TTT, and I'll read ROtK after I see the movie(I know, it's weird, but hey.) I actually had never even heard of Tolkein before that!
shenarwin
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: May 26, 2003 03:03
I was introduced to J.R.R. Tolkien when I was about 12 years old, that is about.....hum......15 years ago. My dad was already into it, he had read the books and love them so he bought us the Hobbit and Lotr cartoons. Even though I had watched the cartoons several times, I never read the books and I never really got into Lotr until Fotr came out.
Emerita
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: May 27, 2003 03:11
I was five years old and my grandmother read the first book to me. I have never sat down and read them through myself, though, but I feel after 47 years that it is a part of me. I would roam the back woods of my family's property and pretend I was actually there. My cousins and I would put flowers in our hair and pretend to be the Elves.....
AlatarielofRivendell
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: May 27, 2003 11:00
When I was pretty young my mom read the Hobbit out loud to my sister and me. We loved it. We would play The Hobbit for hours. She would be Bilbo, I would be one of the dwarves and we'de make my mom be the goblins. We had soooo much fun. A little while later my mom started reading LOTR to us. About 1/2 way through fellowship my sister got scared of the Black Riders so we stopped. My friend then got really into them and kept pesterring me to read the books. I tried a few times but could never get into it. The movie came out and I didn't see it. Then that summer my sister read the books and fell in love. She saw Fellowship and was raving about. She finally convinced me to watch, which I hadn''t been doing because I wanted to read the book first. But wouldn't you know, after I watched the movie I had no problems getting through the book. Well, that's my story. I am now a confirmed LOTR freak
Lorien_Greenleaf
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: May 27, 2003 12:56
My experience was pretty much like yours, Kalainis, except that my husband and I went to FotR in the theatre because he had read the books as a child. After 20 minutes into the movie I was completely hooked and read all the books, even the Silmarillion, within a month afterwards! :love:
LadyCeleborn
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: May 27, 2003 04:13
As a kid I was always hanging out in the library...I've been a bookworm since the first day I learned how to read. I found the trilogy in the library on the Army base we were currently stationed at in Germany. I was the first person to "ever" check them out....It took me the weekend to read them but that was only the beginning.:love: I checked those books out time and time again until my parents gave me my own set.
RangerNorlin
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: May 28, 2003 03:12
My hat is off to PJ!!! It took his vison of the saga to hook many into what for a few of us has been a life long love. I first read the Hobbit in 1969, it was a rage. I went for the Triogy right after and read it, in parts, everyday. Now a teacher I have taught the books my whole career. It's not just the charactures, the themes, the geography, it is all of it. The tale is so thick, so easy to get wonderfully lost in. My only regret is that the retail price of books now that The Professor is popular, again, have gone up and up. Still, it pleases this ole Ranger to no end that a younger generation travels the road east to Mordor and back again to the Shire, finally to the Havens to depart for Valinor - Namarie

[Edited on 28/5/2003 by RangerNorlin]

[Edited on 28/5/2003 by RangerNorlin]
Mithrodwen
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: May 28, 2003 04:46
It all started in 2001 with a deep hatered for Harry Potter. I 'spose I should explain this. You see even though being a matture 16yr old at the time I compulsively watch my cartoon channels non-stop (cartoon network how we adore thee!). Now if anyone else was watching these channels around X-mas 2001 you would how the ad time was utterly over run with Harry Potter merchandise... Ladies & Gents I will not repeat what came out of my mouth after the 1000th time I saw the 'no batteries included lavitation kit' advert.

Anyways as we all now know FotR came out shortly after. Now I didn't exactly know this but it seems all my very closest males buddies are complete Tolkien freaks and when the movies came out it's all I bleedin heard about! I hate being told what movies I HAVE to see and I casted it along side with Mr.Potter. Eventually I made a deal with one of my good buddies that I would see the movie once I read the book.
Now let's skip to May 2002 I go on holiday to Germany for 3weeks I read through a Buffy novel, MM's boi and I NEED a new book and it so happend at Dusseldorf trainstation they sell english books and the night before I had finished MM's book. My nan was offering to buy me any book I wanted so I bought a cool looking version of a 1 Vol. version of LotR. And I've been hooked ( thats the mild way of putting it) ever sinice it was about a month or 2 later that I joined Coe.

You may also be glad to hear that this very sunday just gone I watched both Harry Potter movies and I'm hoping now to the read the books. I thought the movies were sweet and cute. But not better than FotR and TTT
Carandra
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: May 28, 2003 11:23
Lets see..... It all began with my Grandmother and the love for Tolkien and other fantasy stories, she then installed that love in me and the second I was old enough to read spmething more than Dr. Suess, she gave me a copy of the hoobit and I was hooked (I was 9, I am now on my 7th year and counting)
Mon coeur est genre, mais je suis un monster. (My heart is kind, but I am a monster.)
elrine_rose
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: May 31, 2003 11:57
A guy who I look to as an older brother and mentor first introduced me to JRRT. He told me about it on a trip to Iceland we took with a bunch of people oddly enough. We were driving around the coast (which is practically the only place you can drive in Iceland) and to pass the time he told me about ME. He told me how addictive it was and how brilliant Tolkien was.

Of course since I looked up to this person so much I went out and bought the full LOTR trilogy and read it in 3 months. I've been hooked ever since just like he said I would be.
Becki
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: June 30, 2003 08:06
Okay, this may be a long story, but i'll try and shorten it a 'lil!

Right, I first heard about Tolkien hwen I was in year 5, when I was about 9 or 10. Then my teacher in year 6, when I was 10 or 11, use to talk about it and how good it was and that the hobbit was in our class libary,(this was all before the movies came out BTW). So, i dieced to read it! I didn't understand ANY of it! I thought the language was too old! But there was this lad in my class reading LotR, so I was denfinately going to finish it, mainly becuase I hated him,(and still do actually!)

So i'd read the hobbit, but was a HUGE Harry Potter fan, and was looking foward to the coming out of the first movie more than anything! So the first movie of HP came out, and watched it about 3 times, and also realised that the LotR trailer was now showing, but thought nothing of it! Then when it came out it was winning all the awards and beating HP at boxoffice and everything! So, I deiced I hated it! I know, I know, I DO regret it now, but I was only about 11 then so. So, I decied I'd get it out on video when that came out to watch it then.

So, the video came out, and we were about to get it, when we heard that a better extended one would be coming out soon, so we deiced to wait and get it for my dad for Christmas.

So, we waited for New Years Eve/Day to watch it, because I like staying up and we knew how long it was on for! So, we started watching it, and I thought as it started:
'I will not like this as much as HP, I will not like this as much as HP'
Well, that plan failed miserabely!

I REALLY enjoyed it! Then my mum and dad wanted to see TTT at the cinema, 'cause it had just come out. I LOVED that even more! Then we were watching the extras on the DVD and I decied to get the book out the school libary on Monday. So I did! I read that, saw it again a couple of times, read the hobbit again, found it much simpiler to read, becasue after getting used to LotR, it WAS easy! Plus I was a couple of years older!

Then one day I was looking around for a LotR site, and found this little gem, and i've been coming here ever since!

So, that's my story about how I found out about Tolkien and LotR! I may have panned it out a little, but anyway, I DON'T CARE!!!!!!!!!!

Right, I've got to go a finish Order of the Phoniex now,(yes I still love HP, but not as much as LotR now!)

Bye-Bye!

~Becki
Dream_Elf
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: June 30, 2003 11:38
I read The Hobbit in first grade and loved it immediately. My dad was reading LotR, and I tried to read it too, but couldn't get through it till fifth grade. Then, when the movies came out, well you know the rest...
Adanethian
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: July 01, 2003 12:29
About 3 years ago, my sister's friend gave her a hard-bound copy of the hobbit ...she liked it, and went on with the trilogy. she recommended the books to me. i was curious, so i tried starting with the hobbit...but i was too lazy at that time :cry:. then, come the 4th of january, 2002...i saw FOTR with her. i fell in love with it instantly :love:, and then i've been obsessed with Arda/Tolkien's works ever since. :blush:
Frodo_Ringbearer
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: July 01, 2003 12:51
well,around this time last summer, i watched FOTR and i loved it,so my dad got me the boxed set(which had the hobbit) for my birthday.i didnt like the hobbit thatmuch, but i read the whole thing. now im in the middle of TTT......for the third time
Emerita
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: July 01, 2003 01:01
Isn't it cool how no matter how many times you read the books or see the movies, it never gets old.......
AEvenstar
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: July 01, 2003 03:17
I was read the Hobbit by my father when I was 5 years old and loved it. When I was 11 my Dad introduced me to Lord of the Rings as he knew I loved the Hobbit so much! And the rest, they say, is history!
Remmirath
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: July 01, 2003 09:56
In grade 10, my class read the Hobbit. I loved it and wanted to read more Tolkien, but got sidetracked with basketball and rugby (plus other sports) and kinda forgot about LOTR. I got back into it when the first movie came out and have been obsessed ever since!

This just made me remember that when my class did the Hobbit we (of course) had to write an essay on it. All that I can remember was that we had to compare and contrast the Hobbit to Star Wars.:dizzy: Isn't that bizzare? I don't remember what I wrote specifically, hmm maybe I'll try to hunt it down on the weekend. . .

Happy Canada Day everyone!
Gil-galad_of_Lindon
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Post RE: How were you.......?
on: July 01, 2003 10:19
In about 3rd or 4th grade, or maybe it was 2nd, my class saw the play The Hobbit at a nearby college. I absolutey loved the play, and it just so happened that my mom had the book. A little while later I started reading The Hobbit . . . and hated it. Yup, it was a bit too slow and below my reading level. (I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I was reading upside down in 1st grade so . . . .) I barely got past the first chapter and eventually gave it up. A couple years later I tried it again, and still hated it. Then the movies came out and I fell in love from only the trailer. When I saw the movie an obsession was born! (lol) I bought the VHS as soon as it came out, but kept hearing about how so much was left out from the books. After watching it at a friend's house and hearing her dad and her mentioning what was missing, I decided to read the books. I read them in the three weeks before school started (mostly on Saturdays, weekdays are soooo busy just befor school) and absolutely fell in love with them. Now they are my Bible (along with Unfinished Tales, Silmarillion, and all the others). And then I read The Hobbit again (just recently), and found that I still hate it. I forced my way through it though, but I'm most certainly not reading it again! I dunno why I don't like it, but it's the only one of Tolkien's works that I really can't stand to read. Actually, it's one of the few books ever that I cant stand to read. Funny how the author of my very fav books can also be the author of my least fav book. Go figure! (lol)
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