I have a confession to make. Despite living in Middle Earth, I have never read The Lord of the Rings.Never.
I've watched the first movie, fell asleep during the second, and have never seen the third even though I live with several TLOTR fans and all three movies exist in either video or DVD format in our house.
But the other night with our temperatures returning to mid-Winter temperatures, and finding it impossible to get warm, I decided to go to bed early and read. I looked at my old favourites lined up on the bookshelf but nothing seemed to appeal. And then my eyes fell on The Lord of the Rings.
Why not? I thought. Perhaps millions of fans can't be wrong. I nearly changed my mind when I realised that I would have to wade through one thousand pages.
One thousand!
But I started it and while I can put it down, I'm enjoying it.
So why did it take me so long to pick up a copy of The Lord of the Rings?
The blame lies squarely at the feet of my library teacher from primary school. As a nine- or ten-year-old (I'm guessing but I think that would be about right) our whole class had to endure page after page of The Hobbit being read in a dry monotone. Not an audio learner to start off with, it put me off Tolkien for years.
Over thirty years if you really want to know. How's that for a legacy!
But that's all about to change. I'm about to discover what has delighted TLOTR fans for years and years. Either that or I'm about to discover that my initial impression was right after all.
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