Five Years in the Finishing

Look what book I finished this afternoon, right down to Appendix F!

Mama started reading "The Fellowship of the Ring" as a family read-aloud when Emmi was a baby, but Tori and I were the only ones interested at the time, so after that first book, she told us to just go ahead and enjoy them at our own pace. Which I have finally done. Haha! It's not that I don't read -although I don't read as much as I would like. And it's not that I'm terribly slow, though I might be slower than Tori or Mama. I just have this really weird thing, where, if I wait more than two months to read the sequel to a book, I feel like I have to read the first book over first. It doesn't work out well for a book like one of Tolkien's works. I think at this point I have heard or read "The Fellowship of the Ring" three times ;). And at the same time, I find reading fiction and history books very addicting once I start in, so I try to only read them when I know I have time to enjoy them to my heart's content, which also makes getting through something as thick as this a challenge ;).

But I decided last year that I was going to get through the series. This was partly because Tori has been very firm about the fact that all people who want to call themselves human must read Tolkien (I'm joking... kind of ;) )... and partly due to the fact that when I asked if I could read her "Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien" book, she told me that it was not a book to be read before Lord of the Rings, as he gives plenty of spoilers. I was surprised at how much of the book she had NOT recited to me, given how many late night hours she has spent giving me "must-know" details, haha :).  I liked Théoden and Faramir better in the book, and the hobbits' sass at the end of the book was a highlight, haha! Aragorn's background that wasn't given in the movie was also very important to his character, I think, though I understand it would have taken a lot to get it in. I will say, the series was a wonderful read... but after five years on my reading list, I'm glad to have finished it ;).

Have you heard the term "secondary obsession"? Tori and I heard it a few months ago, and it's gotten frequent use between us since then, haha! This is supposedly where *you* are not obsessed with something because you found it and loved it, but because someone you love found it and loved it and made you love it with them, and now whenever you see something connected with that, you have to comment on/get it, maybe not because you love it, per say, but just because it reminds you of your friend/family and all the good times you've had discussing this thing they love, haha :). I've kind of had that on my mind as I was reading the appendices of this book, haha. If Tori hadn't read it first, and told me some if the neat details he slipped into them, I probably wouldn't have read through them ;).