A Brief Update On My Lord of the Rings Reread

Earlier this month, I began my reread of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. It has been going slower than I hoped, for two reasons. First my time to read has been limited. Second, I have been reading slowly and carefully, since it has been close to 30 years since I last read the books.

At present, I am halfway through Chapter 2 of Book 2, “The Council of Elrond.” I must say that I am amazed at how much I don’t remember from my original read–almost as if I’d never read the books before, although I know I have–and how much is different from the movies. Indeed, one thing that I’ve noticed is that while entire events have been wiped from the movies (I’m thinking of Tom Bombadil, for instance), many of the lines of dialog spoken by the characters have still found their way into the movies.

My image of the characters has been greatly influenced by the actors who played them in the movies, and when they speak, it is their voices that I hear, not some voice I conjure in my imagination. And yet I am enjoying the book immensely. Indeed, my favorite parts so far are those parts that I must have found dreadfully boring when I was ten years old–the back histories of Middle-Earth.

I have been taking quite a bit of notes along the way and I’m sure I’ll have much more to say when I’ve finished the book. In the meantime, I just wanted to report on my progress thus far, in case anyone was wondering.