So how did you first come across the books?

Kafria

Following on from the discussion about character name pronnuciation, it set me wondering. Myself, I was blessed with a headteacher at primary who felt reading was so important that she had a book club running (not bad with 30 pupils only). We used to take 50p a week and get stamps to save for books that were on display shelves in the hall. In addition to this we were all given a book from the shelves for our bithday (in which she always wrote a personal message). I still have the copy I got for my 10th birthday. This prompted an aunt to give me LOTRs two years later and I have never looked back. The only problem is that very little fantasy has measured up since, I get two thirds into a story and then become annoyed at the obvious or easy way things are resolved. Perhaps why as I get older why I read more sci fi than fantasy, (I'll not mention the other very girlie reading I do!

Eldorion

My dad was a big LOTR and D&D fan back in the late '70s. I was just starting to read long books at around the same time that the LOTR films came out, so my dad bought me a box set of [i:7t2dlt91]The Hobbit[/i:7t2dlt91] and [i:7t2dlt91]The Lord of the Rings[/i:7t2dlt91] one birthday or Christmas and encouraged me to read them. I have to confess that I really wasn't interested in them at the time and that they sat on my shelf collecting dust for several months. It wasn't until a boy I knew at the time got the video game based on the ROTK film and let me play it with him that I became interested in Middle-earth and decided to give the books a try. I flew through all four volumes and haven't looked back since

Ringdrotten

Sounds like a great teacher in my opinion, exactly the sort that's needed in primary schools! Now, how did I first come across the books? :? I honestly can't remember. I only know I read the Hobbit first, must've been 7 or 8. Started reading LotR at 9. Was rather pleased with myself when I was finished, what a huge book it seemed back then (still does)

Chris63

My dad had a copy hanging around the house, so i picked it up and read it. Been hooked ever since.

Kafria

Yes it does, still the book I judge others by, unfortunately some authors seem to think that a book needs to be that long and write for too long. And yes my primary headteacher was great in many ways. And the first of the many happy coincidences that lead to many of my favourite authors.

Gandalfs Beard

Gran sent me the Narnia books when I was about 7. I read those and Mum got me the Hobbit when I was about 8 and I read that. Picked up LotR about 11ish. Mum had those laying about the house and I was ready for it. I took a Fantasy Lit class my second semester in high school; I was about 13ish at the time (I started school a year early in England before we moved to the US, and my birthday is at the end of the school year). The rest of the class read LotR but I was ready to move on and so the teacher let me read the Silmarillion which I had got as a present for doing well in my first semester from Mum. I started playing RPG's like D&D and Runequest shortly after that.

Tinuviel

I didn't know LOTR were books until a few years after seeing FOTR I was shocked! So my mom had some pretty old versions lying around, and I've been trying to read them all start to finish, but I've been skipping and re-reading. I think I've read every bit though...

I got The Hobbit from my primary school library when I was about eight. I had no idea it was part of anything bigger and remained oblivous to LotR until I was eleven or twelve. I was introduced to them through an American friend, whose family were stationed at the US naval base in the village where I grew up. It was called Site One because in the event of a nuclear war we were the first target on the Soviet list for nuclear strikes. So if the Cold War had turned hot we would be the first to know- just not for very long.The USS Hunley in the Holy Loch. I've been on that one! To start with I only had a copy of FotR, it was the only one my friend had, which I must have read four of five times before I got TT. So hard as it is to say, thankyou USA for introducing me to LotR! But I could have done without growing up with the knowledge I could be vaporised at any moment.

Gandalfs Beard

Actually, I'm very happy I live just across the bay from a number of key military installations sure to be hit in a first strike should the US have a nuclear war with China. I'd rather be vaporized than live in the Nuclear Aftermath.

Eldorion

I live fairly close to D.C., close enough to be somewhat affected, but probably not close enough to be instantly vaporized. Er ... yay?

It wasn't so much the vaporising moment that bothered me so much as the general background knowledge it could be any day at any time. We even had 'three minute warning' drills in our primary school, in which we made barracades out of desks and covered ourselves in white blankets (the school was within one mile of the target, so pretty sure a blanket wasn't going to stop a nuclear blast at ground zero!) I've always thought the three minute warning was the scientifically worked out amount of time it takes to completely evacutate your bowels. In some ways an odd way to grow up, the ship and drydock could be seen from almost anywhere, dominating the loch and when out of view there was the hum of the boats and the tannoys which were 24/7. It was part of the physical background, and at the same time potentailly lethal to everyone I'd ever known, and me, within three minutes.