Strider, you handled that well. 

Anyways, I have to say...

The Plotline?

Brilliant! I want to know, however, a bit more about WHY they wanted the Rings, although Power is great, how did they get the idea to make them? How did they get the potent magic?

The books?

It depends on what type of reader you are. Personally, i cannot get through Tolkien's lavish descriptions. Bleh. 

The movies?

I don't really watch that many movies with blood, but I loved them! Also, big confession..

Lean in close so I can tell you this, very quietly....VERY quietly...I'm still a little embarassed.. I love to play this game called Lego Lord of the Rings on my DSI. It's quite poorly made...but I can't stop playing it... 

Many thanks, Strider, for creating this thread! Hopefully it will have more success than mine have in the past.

My favorite Tolkienien book is impossible to determine. They are all so beautiful and different.

In regard to the details-- this is not the first time I've heard that there are too many of them.

I heartily disagree.

I'm at a point where I don't read books soley for the action scenes, the force drawing you onward-- I want to be completely, eternally immersed in the world and its story. 

I want to watch the sun and moon in their seasons, hear the song of the elves, feel the hidden dread of Moria, smell the new-crushed scent of athelas, taste a broken slab of lembas.

Now, in our day of screnn-centered media, everyone expects all good things to arrive instantly--if one has to wait for it, than, obviously, its not worth waiting for. 

But there was a time when books were what people had. They didnt have all the gore and film-scores and action and flashing lights to entertain them, and distract them from their own world. They had only the written word-- if only is even the right term.

They had sheaves of paper stamped all over with inked symbols and slashes. No blinking or rumbling or pounding or anything-- just a stack of pages.

But they didn't need the noise and motion and fanfare-- because the deep and exquisite detail provided them with all they needed to become absorbed in a new world or time or place. Rather then a jumble of half-linked film-scenes to embrace and control their minds, they had a scource of entertainment in which their imaginations were actually engaged.

Having grown up in a television-era myself, I concur that screen-based story-telling certainly provides an audience with a good deal of fun. But that doesn't mean that all books now need to shape themselves around the same principles as television.  

Another thing-- when I was younger, I liked The Hobbit but found The Lord of the Rings slow-paced, heavy and difficult-- in a word, boring. So, I stuck it on a shelf somewhere and didn't open it for years. Then, after all that time, I opened it up again- and here I am typing this right now.  If you don't like it just yet, that's normal and to be expected. Just don't toss it away and condemn it as boring or too difficult-- wait until you've aged a bit. There are plenty of books that I can't enjoy properly now-- but just because I am not personally ready for them doesn't mean they are bad in themselves.

Kay, I'd better quit now. Thank you for your perseverance!