Rating: 
Summary: A Classic Indeed
Review: The Hobbit is an exciting adventure story about Bilbo Boggins, a peaceful hobbit who lived a long time ago in a far away place. This book rarely mentions humans, but wizards, dwarves, elves, dragons, monsters, goblins, and many other interesting creatures. Bilbo's type of people, hobbits, are short, chubby, food-loving, non-adventurous beings who enjoy being continuously comfortable. But, one day the wizard Gandolf brought a band of dwarves to Bilbo's home, and it changed his life. On a mission for their lost treasure which was stolen from their ancestors by the dragon Smaug, they all encounter amazing monsters and ;mind-opening adventures. Bilbo finds out a lot about himself, and the rest of the world. This book was wonderful. The way in which Tolkien writes is as if he is actually sitting in front of you telling a story. The characters and the settings are completely new to any human being. It is like an entire new world to learn about. The plot was exciting and always introducing something new. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Adventure
Review: This is the work of a genius. Only a pure brilliant mind could think of such a grand adventure. I love the beggining.
Rating:
Summary: In the beginning
Review: This is truly the starting place for Tolkien fans, and my portal to the world of Fantasy. A great book for children. A book of adventure and friendship, of bravery and cruelty. Poor Bilbo Baggins just wants to live a nice, comfortable life in his warm, snug hobbit hole like any other hobbit, but comes Gandalf, the magician who makes lovely fireworks displays, bringing a horde of dwarves with him, and from there it only goes downhill. They need a quiet, sneaky hobbit to help them recover their lost gold from the evil, fire-breathing dragon Smaug. Many dangers lie along their path, but courage and heart win them through. In the end, Bilbo realizes that there are much more important things in life than being comfortable and a world full of beauty beyond the Shire. After reading the Lord of the Rings, the Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales, re-reading the Hobbit reveals a whole new world and a much darker side to this simple quest.
Rating:
Summary: Introduction to Literature, 101
Review: Read aloud to the girls. An enchanting classic ~ i find it casts a spell over me each time i read it. I am able to enter into the story, suffer along with the characters, feel with them, be sorry for their travails, be saddened by their foolishness, and mourn as Thorin Oakenshield, Kili and Fili die in battle. It is difficult to read this book and not see foreshadowing of "The Lord of the Rings," though that is not the best way to read it. It does not tie perfectly with the latter book, there are a couple of points which don't link, quite. But for the most part i see the trilogy in the book, and had to be careful not to push it too much to the girls ~ apart from anything else, it is probably a little above them right now, and it would certainly be a major commitment to read. Standing by itself, "The Hobbit" is a wonderful story, with a well-wrought plot, characters that are near enough human for us to relate to them, yet far enough from us for the enchantment to work, and enough stylistic ties to legend, myth, and saga that it is familiar to me and will ring echoes in the girls' ears as they read further.
Rating:
Summary: It dosn't get any better
Review: Awesome, amazing. This fantasy dosn't get any better. Action, comedy, adventure all packed into one. Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit, is surprised with an exciting adventure when 13 dwarfs arrive one day to help him on his quest for gold. From fighting dragons to escaping Goblins, this book has it all.
Rating:
Summary: Tolkiens Masterpiece
Review: The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien can only be described as a mideival fantasy. It is the story of how a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins sets out on an adventure with some newly made friends to find the fortune that awaits them. His companions are 13 dwarves variously sized but all about half the size of a human. The wizard Gandalf also greatly helps on their adventure. The reason all of this got started was because when the head dwarf of the group named Thorin Oakenshield, was just a young boy the castle he and his family lived in was destroyed by the dragon Smaug. His family and friends were all killed and he barely escaped with his life. He vowed revenge and to take bake the kingdom that would have once been his. His long time friend Gandalf helps get the motley bunch together and they start on their adventure. On their way they encounter such things as goblins, spiders, elves, ravenous wolves and the horrid golum. In the end it turned out the dwarves started a huge war which they ended up winning and as they vowed, they took back what was rightfully theirs. I would absolutely recomend this book to anyone, anywhere. This is not only one of my favorite books, but listening to other peoples reviews, their favorite too. Tolkien creates his own little world, filled with adventure and fun in this novel. If you read this book and can find something wrong with it than I'd like to hear it.
Rating:
Summary: It's obvious
Review: If you read fantasy, you have to read Tolkien. Each of the many fantasy books I've read borrows elements from Tolkien. Tolkien is the godfather, midwife, and guiding saint of fantasy*. The eternal master. *Sword and Sorcery is another thing; that's Robert E. Howard, who comitted suicide before he had a chance to develop as a writer.
Rating:
Summary: Magical memories....
Review: My father introduced the late great Mr J.R.R. Tolkien to me when I was 8 years old, at a time when I had an insatiable appetite for literature of all kinds. From one night to the next I used to long to hear of events that - somehow - had been happening during my daily absence. "The Hobbit" only added to my impatience. The animated tones of my father's voice as he described Bilbo Baggins's journey into the middle earth, created images of green mist, rugged mountains and dark woods that only a childs mind can see so vividly. Yet I can remember the look on my father's face as he turned every page to rejoin the adventure. And I realised that this book - this fantasy land - had captured my fathers imagination as it had mine. For years after my father read me "The Hobbit", I longed to recapture the feelings that I first encountered in Bilbo's adventure - to learn more about Gandalf, and conjure up further images of dark, mysterious scenery. But maybe that time was too special. Maybe I'm never mean't to find another book with such magical power ..... because maybe I was lucky to be introduced to one in the first place. There are a lot of maybe's in life - questions that go along unanswered - as there are in this book...... that's the magic. In my adult wisdom (!?) I now know that I'll never truly recapture the feelings that I had as a little girl. But - when the time arises - I will strive to provide the same atmosphere in which my children can realise the magic of reading. And "The Hobbit" is the book that made me realise how important the magic is. So Mr Tolkien, wherever you are, I give you 5 stars.... for the thousands that you have already given me.
Rating: 
Summary: A very good book........
Review: So,the book is ok and so but at my personal opinion i mean that the book The lord of the rings is better in its contets it has a deeper story.The hobbit is a book I would recommend to everyone who want to have a dream world on its hands and won`t fall into it. Anyway the book is good, very good but I would prefer other ones of this author because he has better books then this. Sillmarilion or The lord of the rings perhaps?
Rating:
Summary: A classic camouflaged as a "children's book" (NOT!)
Review: First of all, let's dispose of a couple of widely-held beliefs about "The Hobbit". First, this book was written as its own story, stands very well on its own, and is far from being merely a "prequel" to "The Lord of the Rings." Second, although children certainly can read "The Hobbit" and enjoy it, this book can be read on more levels - and possibly with even greater pleasure -- by adults. So, to call "The Hobbit" a "children's book" is neither particularly accurate nor helpful. The fact that there's been a great deal of serious literary criticism written on "The Hobbit" should tell you something right there! Personally, I have read this book nearly a dozen times, starting when I was in college and just about annually for more than 15 years afterwards, and I still feel that I have not fully exhausted this book nor outgrown it. In fact, I very well may read it another dozen times in my life. Who knows? Now, what about the book? On one level, this is a fairly straightforward -- and excellent -- adventure story, with plenty of action, colorful characters (good, bad, and in-between), suspense, treachery, fighting, treasure, etc. On another level, this is also a kind of Freud meets Harry Potter "coming of age" story, beginning metaphorically in the womb (Bilbo Baggin's tunnel-like, comfortable, safe "hole in the ground") and ending up with Bilbo progressing via a series of challenges through childhood (burglar), into young adulthood (adventurer, with his new-found sword named "Sting" - hmmm, Freud thinks...sometimes a sword is just a sword?!?), and finally into full maturity (leader/hero). Contrast the beginning of the book, where Bilbo runs practically naked ("to the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, a walking-stick, or any money" or even his "pocket-handkerchiefs") out of his womb..er, hobbit hole, and the end of the book, where he returns much changed ("not the hobbit that you were," according to Gandalf the wizard) and totally grown up (actually, presumed DEAD, with his possessions in the process of being auctioned off). So, in sum, this is an adventure story/coming of age book, which takes us from the main character's birth to his (symbolic) death, with lots of interesting life in between. But, if that was all there were to "The Hobbit," it would not be the classic that it is, but merely an entertaining, well-written book, mainly for children. Instead, "The Hobbit" rises to a totally different - and much higher -- level on the basis of several factors: 1) the author, JRR Tokien, Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford and an expert in linguistics and early English literature, Beowulf for instance, creates a work of tremendous scholarship, great thought and care -- well camouflaged as a "children's story" -- and, as CS Lewis wrote in 1937, "a happy fusion of the scholar's with the poet's grasp of mythology;" 2) this is a great work of imagination, which essentially imagines a world - Middle Earth - in many ways similar to our own world, and in other ways quite different; and 3) there is a lot of really interesting stuff bubbling beneath the surface here, some of which Tolkien hints at in "The Hobbit," and much of which is developed further in his two other great works, "The Silmarillion" and "The Lord of the Rings." For instance, although great evils (and in fact the origin of evil - and much else) are hinted at in "The Hobbit," they are left mainly for further development in other places. However, this does not lessen "The Hobbit," per se, just gives it a sort of subconscious depth which is not often found in "children's books." Just to provide one further illustration of how this is not merely a "simple children's book," let's think about this for a minute in quasi-Marxist socioeconomic terms. Basically, what you have here is a comfortable bourgeois community of Hobbits - fat, lazy, happy, contented, ignorant, and kind of stupid. Then you have a bunch of mercantalist/proto-capitalist Dwarves enter the picture, who draw one of the bored-out-of- his-mind Hobbits (Bilbo) out of his comfortable hole and in search of their plundered (and now unproductive) capital, being closely guarded by the ultimate robber-baron, the Dragon. Other interesting creatures from this perspective are the "cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted," machine-making, worker-exploiting Capitalists, er, Goblins ("they make many clever [things]...or get...prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light [to make]"). And guess what this all leads to, as Marx predicted? War, of course, which in this case is ultimately won (barely) by an unlikely alliance of the Dwarf and Elf proto-capitalists (led by various monarchs), the mercantilists/petty bourgoisie of Lake-town, and mysterious Other Forces (Beorn, the Eagles, Gandalf the Wizard). And, of course, lots of workers/proletariat types die in this war (which does, in the end, result in a long period of peace in Middle Earth). Given all this, is it any wonder that "The Hobbit" really became popular in the 1960s Vietnam War era? Anyway, this is just a partly serious, partly tongue-in-cheek example of why I think "The Hobbit" is a great book (like "Alice in Wonderland"), worthy of numerous readings, by both children and adults alike. The thing about great literature is that different people can get different things out of it. So, read this book, then read it again (and again), and, to paraphrase Tolkien, "see whether [you have] gained anything in the end."
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