Help me to love the Lord of the Rings

[Bernadette]

To be clear, I don't dislike The Lord of the Rings. I thought it was a good story. But I didn't love it, like so many people I see online seem to. I read it once, and listened to it once, and haven't been able to pick it up since. What am I missing?

[TerrorDæmonum]

To be clear, I don't dislike The Lord of the Rings. I thought it was a good story. But I didn't love it, like so many people I see online seem to. I read it once, and listened to it once, and haven't been able to pick it up since.

Whether you love something or not depends on what you want from it. My appreciation of The Lord of the Rings, as literature and as a movie, The X-Files, Charles Dickens, and H. P. Lovecraft are all a little different. I don't use one to replace the other: reading the works of Tolkien and Lovecraft and Dickens are not the same. Watching the films of The Lord of the Rings is not the same as reading the books. Watching The X-Files is not the same as watching those films.

So, if you are looking for something in particular, you might not "love" what others love, for they were looking for something else.

What am I missing?

Given what you do read, you might be too acclimated to lesser works in this genre.

Observe those who hate Dickens. For those of us who read his works and enjoy it, their views are quite odd. But I think we can see the same situation: what people are looking for and what they are used to are not fulfilled by the works.

For you, you probably need immersion. Read and study the books, including The Silmarillion, until you love them.

[Bernadette]

I'm thinking of ordering the reader's companion. Maybe knowing the background information will help.

[TerrorDæmonum]

I'm thinking of ordering the reader's companion. Maybe knowing the background information will help.

That is a rabbit hole. I wish you well, but be aware that this rabbit hole goes a lot further than I am willing to go...and most consider me to have gone pretty far (but I haven't).

Compared to other fiction, Tolkien's work is mostly background information for the stories he actually published. Maybe that is why they are so good: they are historical fiction.

Maybe this time next year you'll have all of it: an entire shelf with the History of Middle Earth, compendiums, linguistics, histories, etc.

[Bernadette]

I've just read some of the reviews of the Reader's Companion, and I think I'll skip it. It sounds more in depth than I thought.

[Bernadette]

Maybe this time next year you'll have all of it: an entire shelf with the History of Middle Earth, compendiums, linguistics, histories, etc.

I do have some empty space on my bookshelves. Right across from my Dickens shelf.

[TerrorDæmonum]

I've just read some of the reviews of the Reader's Companion, and I think I'll skip it. It sounds more in depth than I thought.

The Silmarillion is probably sufficient. It is for me.

I do have some empty space on my bookshelves. Right across from my Dickens shelf.

Do you have Tolkien's published works and The Silmarillion? If not, I know a guy...

[Bernadette]

I've just read some of the reviews of the Reader's Companion, and I think I'll skip it. It sounds more in depth than I thought.

The Silmarillion is probably sufficient. It is for me.

I do have some empty space on my bookshelves. Right across from my Dickens shelf.

Do you have Tolkien's published works and The Silmarillion? If not, I know a guy...

No, I was looking at the illustrated box set on Amazon. It seems to have a pretty large typeface, so I'm leaning toward it.

[Michael Wilson]

You don't have to love the L.O.T.R. Not all types of literature appeal to all. If you don't like it, that is O.K. I loved the books when I read them when I was in my teens; and I loved the movie versions. But they are not for everyone; there are people in my own family who couldn't stand the books, despite my pushing them. They prefer "The Bronte Sisters" eeewwwwwww!

[Jayne]

I don't know if an awareness of some the critical scholarship around Tolkien would enhance your appreciation.  You could get an overview of this from this Wikipedia article:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_hostility_to_J._R._R._Tolkien 

I found the concluding paragraph intriguing:

Summing up the attacks, Curry identified two consistent features: "a visceral hostility and emotional animus, and a plethora of mistakes showing that the books had not been read closely".[6] In his view, these derived from the critics' feeling that Tolkien threatened their "dominant ideology", modernism. Tolkien is, he wrote, modern but not modernist, at least as well-educated as the critics (another thing that made them feel threatened), and not ironic (especially about his writing). The Lord of the Rings is equally "a story told by a master story-teller; a story inspired by philology; a story suffused with Catholic values; and a mythic (or mythopoeic) story with a North European pagan inflection". In other words, Tolkien was about as anti-modernist as possible.

This idea that there is something essentially anti-modernist about Lord of the Rings might explain why it tends to be popular among traditional Catholics. 

[Melkor]

To be clear, I don't dislike The Lord of the Rings. I thought it was a good story. But I didn't love it, like so many people I see online seem to. I read it once, and listened to it once, and haven't been able to pick it up since. What am I missing?

Read the appendixes at the back of the 3rd book.

[TerrorDæmonum]

Read the appendixes at the back of the 3rd book.

Does this have anything to do with you being mentioned right at the beginning, Morgoth the Enemy?

[Melkor]

Read the appendixes at the back of the 3rd book.

Does this have anything to do with you being mentioned right at the beginning, Morgoth the Enemy?

Can you please stop letting everyone know? my cover is blown.

[Melkor]

I've just read some of the reviews of the Reader's Companion, and I think I'll skip it. It sounds more in depth than I thought.

Get this instead, it's extremely useful when diving into the mythos.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I1VX8T0/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

[TerrorDæmonum]

Can you please stop letting everyone know? my cover is blown.

Your cover is safe: everybody who knows knows immediately, and everybody else is willfully blind.

Speaking of cover, one might notice I just got rid of a bunch of my stuff. This is because I recently upgraded everything. I saw a nice hard cover edition and I said to myself that I wants it, and when my birthday came, I gots it. I also upgraded to the Extended Editions. The Silmarillion upgrade is on its way. I hope he-who-shall-not-be-named and Ungoliant don't steal it.