The Hobbit (or There and Back Again)

Perhaps THE BEST little adventure story every written. Written for kids but certainly enjoyed by all. It has trolls, dragons, a kindly but strange wizard, dwarves, and of course Hobbits. It's really a story of bravery and strong friendships in the face of mishaps and evil things. What stands out in this book and The Lord of the Rings is that the world Tolkien creates sucks you in hopelessly. It only takes a few sentances and you really feel like you are along for the journey. Tolkien creates a world with a huge history full of peoples and monsters and dwarves, with nature playing a large role in all of his books. The history part is small in The Hobbit since its focused on the journey and characters. The Hobbit is meant to be a lead-in to The Lord of the Rings, which has much more history and nature and more characters than the Hobbit. 'Rings is a darker tale and much more serious. Its harder to read, much longer, and I think the best adventure story ever written. In response to Chris Fletcher, you have some valid criticisms of Tolkien. His writing style is a bit, well, sticky. When you think things should be moving faster and faster and the action is coming, you instead get "and then the big troll (or whatever) was killed. On to the next adventure." However, the upside to this is you really feel like you are reading a kind of history book found in Middle Earth. I think Tolkien was a bit nuts and that's why his stuff was so good. He half-believed he really was writing and living in the world of his own making. He created entire languages, maps, unforgetable characters and mostly sad but gripping tales of adventure. Some people can't get through Tolkien's sticky prose when reading the lengthy The Lord of the Rings and I understand why, but stick with it! After reading the whole thing you will be glad you did. Remember no one can tell you how to read a book. If you come accross a paragraph about Bilbo's half-sister and all her family and the history of her cat, just skip it if you want. Tolkien really does go out on a limb sometimes escpecially with all the names and family trees and fictional history. However, this same strange Tolkien style allows for re-reading and getting much more information, and a sense of depth and life to Middle Earth that is truely amazing. I have read the series, both the Hobbit and LOTR twice and I got much more the second time through. I read it slower and tried to keep the characters and places in my head. You can buy a nice map book which lays out all of tolkiens worlds in detail including battles and paths that the characters follow. Its by Karen Wynn Fonstad and has a lot of detail. Careful though, some plot happenings are given away in the tracking of characters and the battle maps :D If you really want to get background info you have to start with the Silmarillion. And that beast can drive you crazy. Parts of it are amazing to read however and it explains some of the history that was confusing in LOTR. Where did Galadriel come from? What or who exactly is Gandalf? What's a wizard? What are the counterparts to Sauron and other evil in middle earth? Surely there must be some good gods or angel like beings? So, Silmarillion: very difficult, for tolkein fans mostly. Its long, hundreds of names, not a continuous story. It does explain a great deal about the gods and formation of Middle Earth and many things and people and places that show up later in the Hobbit and LOTR. Hobbit: very easy fun read, not a whole lot of depth, short, great characters, great adventure. The Lord of the Rings: medium difficulty, lots of depth, some history, lots of names, some difficult and confusing paragraphs, but a truely great tale. The kind of book where you find yourself kinda stunned after reading the last sentance. (The movie is not bad, but messed things up a bit, read the book! Notice that Tolkien's name is not on the movie. The family took their name off it because of the Hollywood treatment.)

Let's face it -- there is nothing that can be written about the actual story of "The Hobbit" that has not been written about a bazillion times before. Much more accessible than the Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien's delightful tale of Bilbo Baggins' adventures will delight you, dear reader, no matter what your age. Enough said about that. What I will opine about is this edition. I had this when I was a youngster but over the years the book disappeared. I always swore that some day I would get another copy and now that I have, I remember why I loved it so much. This hardbound copy comes handsomely detailed on the cover with elvish runes (you can even find out in the book what they mean!) The illustrations and maps inside are lively and add to the reader's enjoyment. The paper quality and the binding are decent, but nothing to write home about. Still, my 8-year old has started reading the book and it hasn't fallen apart yet, so it seems pretty well made. The bottom line is that I have read other editions of "The Hobbit" -- several -- and I prefer this one over all others. Some stories just deserve a substantial feel that paperbacks cannot convey. It's a matter of permanency, and certain works like "The Hobbit" will remain after many others have faded. This edition just feels good in your hands and really does justice to the story and its author.

My sister requested this as one of her birthday presents, and it’s a lovely book. It looks striking on her book stand, so I will probably buy different titles to add to her collection

The book has more characters than the movie.

Super high quality copy of the Hobbit. I absolutely love the cover and binding. The print is pretty large and easy to read. This looks great on my bookshelf.

Beautiful Book, Fair Price! Delivered safely! What more can I ask?

Got it as a gift for my friend, and I’m excited to finally give it to her! At first I was confused by the size of the box it came in, because somehow I thought the book was going to be bigger, but you can see it in comparison with my hand; It’s not huge, but it’s not small either. It has a great finish, and the illustrations are beautiful. The text pages are just regular bond paper, and some illustrations are printed in that material too, but quite a few are printed in a glossy, slightly thicker paper that just elevates the vibrancy of the colors. It has great weight to it, and it sure looks stunning on display. Really happy with my purchase! :)

The book arrived on time. I got it because I have the LOTR books, and wanted a special edition of the Hobbit. It is a very nice book, however, I know this is picky, the plate on the cover is crooked. Is it worth a star? Maybe not. But it’s too bad I can’t use it.

Un libro extraordinario en una edición excepcional. El libro, como objeto es hermoso; letra adecuada, impresión impecable; ilustraciones perfectamente presntadas. Estoy feliz con esta adquisión. El Hobbit, una de mis obras favoritas, ahora tiene una digna representación en mi biblioteca.

Qualquer um que deseje uma edição de The Hobbit com uma excelente apresentação e um custo acessível, essa pode ser a melhor opção.

In realtà ho acquistato il libro cartaceo dopo aver letto la versione kindle sempre in inglese. Questa versione è abbastanza curata e fa coppia con LOTR 50th Anniversary Edition (spettacolare). Consigliato il libro, consigliatissima la versione!

Çok kaliteli bir set. Sergilenebilecek ve kaliteli bir ev eşyası gibi. Çok havalı. Bir çok kitap aldım ancak bu kitap çok çabuk koleksiyonumun en değerli parçalarından biri haline geldi.

Great to meet the original artist after seeing 50 times Peter Jackson's trilogy.