Book #2: The Fellowship of the Ring (Book 1 of The Lord of the Rings) by J. R. R. Tolkien

I loved The Hobbit when I was in high school, but when I started The Lord of the Rings at that age, I just couldn't get through them. I was so bored by all the description and couldn't remember who all the characters were. I had seen the movie maybe once, and I just didn't know enough about the books to stay invested. I did finish The Fellowship, but got stuck somewhere in The Two Towers. However, I'm working my way through them again. I decided it was high time that I actually read them, since I love the movies (a lot) and I feel like a hypocrite saying that I love LOTR without having finishing the trilogy.

I feel like knowing the movies so well has helped me to appreciate the books a lot more. An almost-universal rule is that the book is always better than the movie, which I still think is true in this case, but not by the usual margins. I really like the extra background and detail that get left out of the movie by necessity. In The Fellowship, for example, you learn much more about Strider/Aragorn, more about hobbits and the Shire, and more about the elves. I'm glad they left out the part about Tom Bombadil out of the movie (it really feels so random and dream-like) but I really liked the chapters about Lorien and Moria in the book. One reason why Tolkien was so hard for me when I was a teenager was how descriptive and detailed it was, but I honestly don't even notice it now. I actually like it--it helps paint a bigger picture than was available in the movie, and I love how the movie was so true to the books that I can see the places that Tolkien described so specifically in my mind as I read.