Um excuse me where did my life go? Memories of weekends full of going to the arcade, getting froyo and dancing to ABBA have very quickly disappeared in quarantine and have been replaced with my entire life revolving around waiting for my next meal. I saw The Bookie Trials Royal Weekender was happening, so I thought, 'why not?'
First things first, I took the personality quiz and I am on team scribe! (Thank God, otherwise I would not have been able to read these...)
Scribe prompts:
Read a book within a book: The Hobbit
Read a book with calligraphy on the cover: The Fellowship of the Ring Read an underrated book: The Two Towers
Bake something....
After completing this challenge the plan was to then read The Return of the King, but frankly if I read about one more elf, wizard, orc or hobbit, I was going to lose it. So I settled with watching the movie instead. Let's all pretend it counts. Starting with The Hobbit - I loved this book growing up. It's certainly more humorous and lighthearted than the rest. It's also considerably shorter which helped protect my sanity when going on with the rest of the challenges. Next, The Fellowship of the Ring - this was my least favourite. Part one of this book ended with Frodo getting stabbed (rather anticlimactically I might add) so the initial journey before the fellowship is even made is drastically drawn out and my tired eyes were not having it. Finally, The Two Towers - it's always been my favourite and I refuse to hear any arguments otherwise. Rohan was just my jam. The pace is better, there is more action, there is more heart. End of.
What I've learnt from this reread is that the books are actually quite plain in comparison to the films. I worshipped anything LOTR related growing up, so that included the books. But the descriptions are just no where to be seen. I have no idea what anything looked like, no setting of the scene, no world building. It actually puts me in awe of the cast and crew of the films, as they essentially thought the entire thing up themselves. The personalities, the costumes, the sets - none of it is described!
Did I enjoy myself? Some of the time. If you are as much of a super fan of the films as I am and always will be, I'd say there isn't a great need to bother reading these books. We must have a huge amount of respect for Tolkien, as he has created something truly magnificent. However, we cannot underestimate the amount of things that go into the films that the book will never have; the unbelievable soundtrack for one.
I am watching The Return of the King as I write this and am enjoying myself far more (book enthusiast who?) and maybe this experiment will finally explain to me once and for all why fantasy books are just not for me: there are too many characters, too complex worlds, too many rules and reading it is something my simpleton brain does not enjoy. Fantasy movie recommendations? Hit me up!
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