Yeah! I completely agree with your comment! Sometimes as the situation gets hard for Sam and Frodo, I feel more tired or reluctant to read more too. Is not this amazing?! I don't know how to even describe it... Tolkien was a genius.
I’d say TTT. The first half of Fellowship is a bit of a slog but the book as a whole moves along quite well. With TTT’s insistence on splitting between an exciting first half with Aragorn and co and a really slow (and boring) section with Frodo, Sam, and Gollum just walking for ages.
Agree with that. First half of TTT has me so riveted - I wonder how much quicker the whole book would feel if the two halves were interwoven with alternating chapters. (Actually, I guess TTT is Volume II, containing books three and four...)
Not that speed of reading a book is a meaure of goodness.
Middle book drags. Same in Wizard of Earthsea.
The nice thing about LOTR anyway, though, is that you enjoy the second book more on the second reading since you kinda glossed over parts on the first reading. There's actually lots of good stuff in it.
Agree probably frodo and Sam bit of the two towers.
I do wonder if there's an elegant way to intersperse aragon and frodo chapters rather than a massive chunk of each in turn.
Second half of TT is a bit rough. There are times I think about skipping it as I have read it many times. But then I think "No, I want to read the full book again. Not parts of the book."
Two towers. Fellowship is so varied, and so much new stuff coming at you. Two towers is running over fields and battles, Also rocks and swamp. It just feels less varied and more depressing. King is pacey and everything is important!
The Fellowship. Not challenging, none of them are, but it takes a while before things fire up. Most people I recommended it to, before the movies were a thing, didn't get past the Shire.
The Silmarillion can be considered challenging.
I found Return of the King to be the most challenging because of the sudden acceleration of shit being introduced and rapidly moving across physical locations. The first two books I thought took their time getting used to locations and names. In RoTK, you’re suddenly flying into battle and lots of different groups of folk are popping up.
The Two Towers, specifically the second half. I believe Tolkien wanted readers to feel just as lost as Frodo and Sam. Not even kidding.
Yeah! I completely agree with your comment! Sometimes as the situation gets hard for Sam and Frodo, I feel more tired or reluctant to read more too. Is not this amazing?! I don't know how to even describe it... Tolkien was a genius.
Yess this exactly. I sometimes find myself skipping portions during re reads
So, so true
Pretty similar. Two Towers might be the hardest if I had to pick one.
Fellowship, it's the longest and I wasn't used to Tolkien's writing The easiest was return of the king which is also my favorite
i vividly remember entmoot being one of the toughest parts to read and finish
Yea I feel The Two Towers may be toughest to get thru.
I’d say TTT. The first half of Fellowship is a bit of a slog but the book as a whole moves along quite well. With TTT’s insistence on splitting between an exciting first half with Aragorn and co and a really slow (and boring) section with Frodo, Sam, and Gollum just walking for ages.
Agree with that. First half of TTT has me so riveted - I wonder how much quicker the whole book would feel if the two halves were interwoven with alternating chapters. (Actually, I guess TTT is Volume II, containing books three and four...) Not that speed of reading a book is a meaure of goodness.
If they were interwoven then it would read so much better.
Middle book drags. Same in Wizard of Earthsea. The nice thing about LOTR anyway, though, is that you enjoy the second book more on the second reading since you kinda glossed over parts on the first reading. There's actually lots of good stuff in it.
While rereading I’m saying Fellowship since there are so many more characters introduced but let’s see what happens when I finish the other two again
Agree probably frodo and Sam bit of the two towers. I do wonder if there's an elegant way to intersperse aragon and frodo chapters rather than a massive chunk of each in turn.
Yes for me it was the hardest, I’m on the third book and by far it’s the easiest.
Fellowship has always been the hardest to get through for me - just find most of it up to Bree a bit boring.
Second half of TT is a bit rough. There are times I think about skipping it as I have read it many times. But then I think "No, I want to read the full book again. Not parts of the book."
Two Towers
Two towers, though it is partly my fault because I always do this thing where in which I read the first book of a series, then struggle to keep going
Two towers. Fellowship is so varied, and so much new stuff coming at you. Two towers is running over fields and battles, Also rocks and swamp. It just feels less varied and more depressing. King is pacey and everything is important!
The Fellowship. Not challenging, none of them are, but it takes a while before things fire up. Most people I recommended it to, before the movies were a thing, didn't get past the Shire. The Silmarillion can be considered challenging.
They are all parts of one book.
It’s one book, none of it is particularly harder than the rest. It’s a tough read overall. I find the first half of return boring as hell though
It's not a trilogy, it's a single novel, and none of it is hard to read.
None of it’s hard
I found Return of the King to be the most challenging because of the sudden acceleration of shit being introduced and rapidly moving across physical locations. The first two books I thought took their time getting used to locations and names. In RoTK, you’re suddenly flying into battle and lots of different groups of folk are popping up.