Book #4: The Return of the King (Book 3 of The Lord of the Rings) by J. R. R. Tolkien

I finally finished this (yesterday or two days ago) and it was so good. I really can't believe I didn't like the books the first time I read them. . . . just tells you what type of reader I was when I was a teenager.

Some of the things that surprised me about this book: the whole section about the Shire and having to fix everything there, and having Saruman end up in the Shire and all--wow! (Side note: Tommy and I are watching the extended version of this book right now and there's a scene where Grima kills Saruman on the top of his tower, instead of in the Shire--it's pretty gruesome. I always wondered what happened to Saruman in the movie, and now I know.) Also, it's so funny that Frodo destroys the Ring and then there's still like 100 pages more after it. It seems like it's the climax of the whole series (well, it is) and it's funny that there's so much story to follow afterwards. But it's all really good stuff--I didn't even really want it to end.

Frodo is so much cooler in the books than in the movies. I'd say more, but the babe is awake. The end.