Rating: 
Summary: The Fellowship of the Ring
Review: J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the novel The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as an exercise for his profession in linguistics. The beautifully written adventure is about a man and an important task that befell him.
The tale begins in a small hill in Hobbiton called Bag End where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins dwell. Frodo receives and heirloom from Bilbo that will put him on an adventure of a life time. He leaves Hobbiton with only one companion but ends up with eight, also meeting friends along the way. As Frodo passes through the land of Middle Earth, he meets great evil, but he also has his friends to help him through.
As I read this book, I kept thinking about how the story was an epic battle between good and evil. Every day Americans face bad situations with drugs and violence. This is a great book for the adventurous at heart and people who want to travel to a distant land with out actually going anywhere. Tolkien uses great feeling and emotion when writing the elvish songs and chants. He also describes the landscape so well you can visualize it in your mind. In one of the songs, it talks about an elvish queen, Galadriel, and the land she rules, Lothlorien. "An elven-maid there was of old, a shining star by day: Her mantle white was hemmed with gold, her shoes of silver grey. A star was bound upon her brow, a light was on her hair, as sun upon the golden boughs, in fair Lorien the fair". I highly recommend this book to any one who loves adventures and I also would recommend that you would wait to read the series until about seventh grade. Over all on a scale from 1-10, I'd give it a 15!
In conclusion, this story about a man and his adventure was excellently written and well thought out and a wonderful story for all who might take the time to read it. I think that you should definitely read this series starting with The Hobbit so you will fully understand the series.
Rating:
Summary: The Fellowship of The Ring
Review: In the book The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, the One Ring of the Dark Lord is found; so a fellowship of nine people set out to destroy it. This book is very well written but a little confusing to understand.
The main character, the Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, inherits the One Ring from his uncle Bilbo Baggins. In the book Gandalf the Grey, a wizard, discovers that the ring is that of the enemy. So Frodo sets out for the Elf city, Rivendell, with his best friend Samwise Gamgee and his two cousins Merry and Pippin. Along the way they meet the Aragorn, the Man, who helps them to get to their destination. In Rivendell the Elf Lord Elrond makes a fellowship of nine people consisting of the four hobbits, Gandalf, and Aragorn, with the new members, Gimli the Dwarf, Boromir the Man, and Legolas the Elf. They set off to destroy the Ring. Since this book is part one of the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings books, the rest of the story is continued in The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The characters struggle through many injuries and problems but somehow the manage to get through them.
This book, although a little confusing to understand, is very well written. By "well written" I mean that it was very well thought-out and because Tolkien had a very big imagination he wrote a good story, for example he made up all the languages and places in the book. It also pulls you in making you think that you are there. The weaknesses are the book being a little confusing a pretty long. For example some of the words are hard to pronounce, like the names of people and places. Another example of it being confusing is it is a little hard to follow, you really have to pay attention to the book so you know what is going on. As long as you do this you can be sure to understand and enjoy this book.
In conclusion this book was outstanding, probably the best book I've ever read. Tolkien is very imaginative and writes well. If you read this book I would recommend the other two books and the three movies that are based upon the book. If you've seen the movies I recommend the books to you. I think the best part about this book is when I finished it because I knew that there were always two more books to look forward to reading.
Rating: 
Summary: If you don't like this one, stop now
Review: I'm not going to tell you not to read _The Lord of the Rings_ just because it bored me stiff; too many people have loved it for you to take my advice instead of theirs. I _am_ going to tell you it doesn't get more interesting as it goes on. If you didn't like Part One, don't waste any more precious time on Part Two.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Idea- But Way Too Detailed
Review: I began to read this book thinking that with all the praise I had heard it received it would be great, filled with action and adventure. However, the book is so detailed that it gets boring very fast. The extensive descriptions of the places that are being traveled through become work to read. The 360 something pages (I think) of this book could easily be condensed to a little over 250. Great plot and interesting at times but it ends up boring and tedious to read with all the details.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: I've read the Lord of the Rings twice, and each time, I have a hard time putting it down. I've got my son reading it now.
Rating:
Summary: The Hobbit
Review: I recommend this book to anyone that enjoyed the movie Lord of the Rings. This book takes you back and tells you in detail how Bilbo found the ring. You will laugh, you will cry, and best of all you will fall in love with the wee little ones known as Hobbits.
Rating:
Summary: Too much mundane detail makes for a boring read
Review: Obviously a creative story, but the movie is 10 times better than the book. This book moves very slow and more than half of the entire book is spent on explaining the mundane details of your surroundings. Everytime the characters in the book move from one place to another, the author has to stop the action and spend the next 3 or 4 pages telling you how many branches are on each tree and which types of leaves are on each branch. The other half of the book is filled with these long and grueling elf chants. This book lacks any real action and I wasn't able to read it for more than 15 minutes at a time without being bored to tears.
Rating: 
Summary: Sorta Good, but tires me
Review: Okay, I saw the movie first, and then I bought the book. It's nice, but too detailed when you just wanna continue with the plot. Some events are not needed in the book, either.
Rating:
Summary: Not All Classics Are Good
Review: Get this into your head, all you detail-loving syphilis infected fiends: NOT ALL CLASSICS ARE GOOD. Just because this is a "timeless classic", doesn't mean you have to enjoy it. I started this book, and I couldn't stand it. I stopped on about page forty...which, in my version, was about page 10. Way too much detail. This book is lugubrious and boring. I can't stand it; I tried to enjoy it. I even started reading it again a few months ago. But it's just too damn detailed. I can't stand it. Remember: NOT ALL CLASSICS ARE GOOD. I can't believe this was rated with 4.5 stars. NO disrepected to JRR, but...too much detail. This book could have easily been 100 pages long.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I guess a little over two years ago I saw the Fellowship movie, and I was blown away and went out the next day to buy the boxed set...I mean, if the movie was that good, the book must be ten times better right? WRONG! The Hobbit was pretty decent; I finished that in a few days. Then I started Fellowship. After 150 pages I couldn't take it anymore! I put it back in the box and forgot about it. I made a second attempt a year later, but only made it to page 50. I am now on my third attempt and I am GOING to finish it this time because it's driving me MAD. Now, it's not that it's not a good story. I respect Tolkien for his imagination and creativity. You can tell that he put his whole soul into this book and you can't bash someone's soul (reason for the 3 stars...), but clearly, not everybody's souls match up, so to speak. Personally, I like to feel a certain degree of empathy for characters in a story. I don't care how many leaves the 52nd tree to the north has, but I would like care about the characters. This book leaves you identifying more with topography and three page long descriptions of sunsets and such than with the characters. And I don't understand what the deal with the songs are. I hope they aren't that important because I just skip them. Derry dol, Merry dol, who cares? Jeez. Obviously, there are people who like this book, and if you're the type of person who likes to be given vast descriptions of things for the neurons in your brain to construct, then you should get this. Maybe you will even feel something for the characters. Everyone's different, otherwise this book would be as beloved as it is. If you would rather read something that moves you and stirs empathy, then go for something else. I haven't said anything new, but I need to suggestion this: I made assumptions and wasted $30 on a boxed set that I will probably never finish. PLEASE don't buy the boxed set! Just buy the first book to see if you like it, and then if you don't, you won't feel OBLIGED to read them like I do. (I guess I just have OCD or something. LOL I feel like I can't buy any other books til I read these.)
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