Books2Movies Club discussion

Since I was a child, I loved Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy. I think I read them all thrice, and even fumbled with Tolkien's letters and biographies. However, that was unbelievably ages ago, so I decided to dedicate this entire year to Tolkien and his legacy. I would be more than happy if some of you decide to join me too!

Of course, this project will be open indefinitely, so you can join it whenever you can, and track their own progress in this thread I made specially for the project: TOLKIEN 00.2 - Members' Progress . Discussion threads will also be open for everyone, so do not fear to join discussions for any of the books even if you won't participate in the project itself.

The tentative schedule is as follows (threads will be added each month):

01. Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring (January)
02. Tolkien: The Two Towers (February)
03. Tolkien: The Return of the King (March)
04. Tolkien: The Art and Magic of the Lord of the Rings (April)
05.-06. Tolkien: The Hobbit and the Movies (May-June)
07. Tolkien: Biography (July)
08. Tolkien: Letters (August)
09. Tolkien: Silmarillion and Enchanting Tales of the First Age (September)
10. Tolkien: Unfinished Tales of the Second Age (October)
11.-12. Tolkien: The Author of the Century And the Whole Wide World (November-December)

I planned to put discussions for LotR movies in April, as I'll watch them myself after reading LotR as a whole. Peter Jackson did some adjustments to the storylines of the movies that didn't follow exactly the books themselves. However, we can discuss them together with the books, and in April as a whole.

You can of course do the project at any pace you like - however, as I probably won't open any thread before time, please make notes somewhere (I found my sticky notes to be particularly useful in these instances), so you can have them ready for discussions when they appear :)

I might change the structure of the project, especially the last bit, as I am still indecisive about the books to read. I have many, read none, so maybe they are all similar in one way or another. The LotR series coming this September (2022) follows The Second Age in particular. The First Age won't be adapted yet as such, however, some abbreaviated tales are present both in LotR and in Unfinished Tales, so it might be visualised in some way in the series.

So, if you like what you see, and think you may do it, please join! If you do not have time right now, you can join at any time later and do it on your own as it suits you.

Freely share your thoughts and suggestions for the project below :)

The first post is up!

(just click above on the number 01 or on the book itself)

If you'd like to enrich your reading experience - especially if this isn't your first encounter with Tolkien - have companion guide books at hand!

My recommendations would be:

The Complete Tolkien Companion by J.E.A. Tyler
The Complete Guide to Middle Earth by Robert Foster
The Atlas of Tolkien's Middle-Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad

No need to use them all, of course! Please share your suggestions below too!

This is so strange, I just watched the entire series this weekend and kept thinking about reading the books (which I have never accomplished). Then I get a notification of this thread and now I know that I must read them this year.

I really want to start with the Hobbit as this is my first read through. There are so many different editions (with awesome artwork) and I wouldn't mind also listening to the audio book (esp for the Hobbit).

Anna wrote: "This is so strange, I just watched the entire series this weekend and kept thinking about reading the books (which I have never accomplished). Then I get a notification of this thread and now I know that I must read them this year..."

Hi Anna! I got that same feeling during these holidays - it was now or never :)

It's perfectly fine, start with Hobbit! We already have the threads about Hobbit as it was our book of the month years ago. I intended to repurpose those threads to this project, as the discussion was pretty good there, so I'll put them "live" again:

Hobbit - The Book
Hobbit - The Movies

In May, as I scheduled it then, I meant to add only one more post, about the art of the book and the movies. There are some books we can read about them.

Added another thread to the project:

TOLKIEN 02: The Two Towers

I believe many of you are aware of some rumors about LotR series coming this September.

I do not pay any attention to race questions - seriously, how that can be relevant, the color of skin? I think Tolkien wouldn't mind himself. He created a Nordic like saga simply because he was the most familiar with them. I would dare to say in the books all characters are presumably of lighter skin simply because of the area they inhabited just like the people from the medieval Europe, and as there are enough prejudices and conflicts between races (hobbits vs men vs elves vs dwarves vs orcs vs wizards) it would have been too much to add real-world conflicts inside each race to already complicated story. For the screen, we do not have to adhere to that premise strictly, and we can expand the colors of the world that was Middle-Earth, as LotR is beloved in the whole real world that is our planet. No need to be sticklers in that aspect. That's my opinion of it, and you do not have to agree with me, of course.

The question about dwarven ladies too - why on earth would someone want to see a woman with beard just to stick with some humorously mentioned description? Who really cares about that?

I am more worried about the story itself. The producers admitted they do not have any rights to Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. They are basing their whole story on appendices and bits written in LotR. However, how do they intend to make the series worth prolonging if they have no clear narrative of anything? What was then the point of making a LotR series? Why didn't they simply invent a new fantasy series? The idea of butchering this one just to earn more money is mindboggling. I am so disappointed. I'll probably give the series a fair chance, but I do not like what I have heard so far.

Forgot to post that at the beginning of March I opened the third thread to the project:

TOLKIEN 03: The Return of the King

The fourth thread about the art and the movies of the Lord of the Rings is up:

TOLKIEN 04: The Art and Magic of the Lord of the Rings

A week after I finished LotR I stumbled on Amazon upon a free reading guide to both The Hobbit and LotR:

Reader and Educator Guide to "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I wish I've seen it before, because I may have prepared our topics better! As it is, it may be of some help to all of you who haven't started their reading yet. Well, it may be useful even to you who had finished the reading, because it offers some really interesting insight on the books and some inspiring additional reading material.

Added new post:

TOLKIEN 07: The Biography

I am still so very behind with books about The Hobbit movies and Peter Jackson. Hopefully I'll catch up soon and manage to finish the project on time!

Another thread open:

TOLKIEN 08: The Letters

Just so to remind you, I did not give up on this project, I am just still so very behind with my reading.

I'll keep posting new threads and hope to finish the project, if not till the end of this year, then the next one. That's the charm of the projects - you can do it on your own time as long as it pleases you, just don't give up!

The next thread is:
TOLKIEN 09: Silmarillion and Enchanting Tales of the First Age

P.S. If someone would like to read something that relates more to the current show on Amazon, I'll suggest this book:
The Fall of Númenor: and Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth

Project-wise, we plan to read this book together with The Unfinished Tales.

The October thread is open:

TOLKIEN 10: Unfinished Tales of the Second Age

If you are interested in talking about the Amazon show separately from all these threads, freely say so. I haven't seen it yet so I am not quite certain where to put it exactly. Suggestions are welcome :)

The last thread for this project is up:

TOLKIEN 11-12: Author of the Century and the Whole Wide World

I finally finished both the letters and the biography of Tolkien. It'll take me another year (or even two) to read the rest of the assigned literature. Good thing then this is just a hobby :)