How many times have you read the books?

"D BlaDe" <NiGhtblaDe1201 RemoveThis @webtv.net> wrote in message
news:12364-4005E097-87@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net...
> I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read each
> book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
>

I've read the trilogy at least 10 times over the past 25 years. That doesn't
include just reading select passages when the mood hits
me.

MNB
---
"Sic hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes." ---Anonymous
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

"D BlaDe" <NiGhtblaDe1201 RemoveThis @webtv.net> wrote

> I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read
each
> book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Many of us have lost count.

Somewhere between twelve and fifteen, I think. Three or four times in my
teens, every year or two in my twenties, and every two to three years in
my thirties, something like that. Plus maybe five times each for The
Hobbit and The Silmarillion. But I'm slipping now; I don't read as much
as I used to generally.

Far more than I'd consider reading any other book, certainly.

--
Bruce Tucker
disintegration RemoveThis @mindspring.com
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

----------
In article <bu58bp$ho9$1@ulysses.noc.ntua.gr>, "Aris Katsaris"
<katsaris.DeleteThis@otenet.gr> wrote:


>
> "D BlaDe" <NiGhtblaDe1201.DeleteThis@webtv.net> wrote in message
> news:12364-4005E097-87@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net...
>> I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read each
>> book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
>
> They can't be counted for me: Once I have read a book once all later
> readings end up consisting of jumps from chapter to chapter as the
> mood strikes me, going backwards and forwards, rereading favourite
> passages or occasionally even opening the book at a random page and
> reading from there.
>
I do exactly the same thing; unstructured wallowing, seeking little
epiphanies. Every couple of years I go on a Tolkien binge, lasting up to a
month or more, during which I compulsively read as much of the Middle-Earth
material as I can, jumping about as the mood takes me. I've been deep into
one of these for the past two or three weeks, stimulated by all the
discussion of the movie(s); this has happened after each of the films has
been released, about the only genuine pleasure I've derived from the fact of
their existence. One passage in FOTR will make me think of something in
Unfinished Tales, which will then lead to a related bit of material in the
Silmariliion, then something will need to be cross-checked in the LOTR
appendices, and round and round it goes... This time I actually re-read The
Hobbit for the first time in more than a decade; strangely enough, I'd all
but forgotten how wonderful it is.

All this feels, at times, a lot like academic research, though of a very
pleasant kind. These "binges" have been happening at least every two years
since 1967 (you do the math). The advent of the HoME series (and it's thanks
to a loving significant other that I was given the whole series in HC as it
was released over the years, as Xmas or birthday gifts) expanded the
bingeing possibilities exponentially. Besides all the favorite passages in
the core books that I read again and again, I'm still discovering material
in the HoME books I haven't read before, or haven't read in depth...and god,
I love those moments.
GMW
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 19:36:39 -0500 (EST),
D BlaDe <NiGhtblaDe1201 DeleteThis @webtv.net> wrote:
> I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read each
> book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I never really counted, though I expect at least fifteen times or more.
It's been about a year or so since my last cover-to-cover rereading (or
maybe two, I don't keep track of these things).

--
Aaron Clausen

tao_of_cow/\alberni.net (replace /\ with @)
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

"D BlaDe" <NiGhtblaDe1201.DeleteThis@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:12364-4005E097-87@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net...
> I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read each
> book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
>

I'd say every year since I was 11. That makes 26 times.
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

NiGhtblaDe1201.RemoveThis@webtv.net (D BlaDe) wrote in message news:<12364-4005E097-87.RemoveThis@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net>...
> I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read each
> book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I haven't really kept count but I'm sure it's been at least 10 times,
the first when I was 10. In the last ten years, however, I have only
had the time to read it twice, most recently four years ago, when I
heard about the movies. Now that I've seen the last movie, I'm making
my way through the Silmarillion (which I've only read twice before),
and Unfinished Tales (which I've never actually read before), in
preparation for another reading of LOTR with the movies in mind.

DB.
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

Quoth NiGhtblaDe1201 RemoveThis @webtv.net (D BlaDe) in article
<12364-4005E097-87 RemoveThis @storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net>:
> I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read
> each book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

All I know is that I lost track somewhere around fifteen times back in
ninth grade or so. Most of those readthroughs included _The Hobbit_,
too. I've read LotR (and _The Hobbit_) quite a few times since then,
of course (I'm now 27), so I'm probably somewhere in the neighborhood
of twenty-two full reads. But my rate has been considerably slower in
recent years: I spend more time on my work and on other reading than I
used to. Plus, I _think_ about Middle-earth an awful lot by spending
time on these groups and maintaining the FAQ; it's sometimes hard to
find time just to sit back and read. (On my last full read, I
actually marked dozens of pages with potentially interesting
discussion topics. )

As for the other Middle-earth books, I've never kept track. I'd guess
that I've read Silm. 5-10 times and UT all the way through around 3 or
4 (but some chapters or sections probably as many as 10 times). And I
know I've read HoMe all the way through twice (but some parts
considerably more).

Yes, I'm a bit of a nut. But I like to think that I'm getting
better.
Steuard Jensen
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

"D BlaDe" <NiGhtblaDe1201 RemoveThis @webtv.net> wrote in message
news:12364-4005E097-87@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net...
> I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read each
> book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

For one thing there is ONLY one book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It
just happens to have been published (to the author's annoyance) in three
volumes, to which the publisher gave three separate titles (again, to the
author's annoyance).

After the first ten or so in the first year (aged 11), I quieted down, but
continued to reread it once a year, often at Christmastime, in a particular
chair in a particular room. And then it came out in paperback and was
everywhere, and still had to be kept near to hand. Then Bored of the Rings
came out, and I couldn't read LotR again for about ten years. But it crept
back on me.

There's no way to estimate complete readings. There are chapters I've reread
fifty times and chapters I skim except on very rare complete readings. There
are the appendices, which got a lot of attention -- but I admit I skipped
the last three the first several times through. Full of great stuff when I
got to them though.

Then I got copies in Italian and French to make myself WORK to enjoy them,
but I've never actually made it through more than individual chapters of
those.

Tsar Parmathule
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

"D BlaDe" <NiGhtblaDe1201.TakeThisOut@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:12364-4005E097-87@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net...
> I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read each
> book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

They can't be counted for me: Once I have read a book once all later
readings end up consisting of jumps from chapter to chapter as the
mood strikes me, going backwards and forwards, rereading favourite
passages or occasionally even opening the book at a random page and
reading from there.

Aris Katsaris
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

"D BlaDe" <NiGhtblaDe1201 RemoveThis @webtv.net> wrote in message
news:12364-4005E097-87@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net...
> I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read each
> book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Lost count after 28.(Read straight through back to back through HS and
college.) Still re-read about every other year. Almost through with RoTK
for the umpteenth time. ( Just finished with the Battle of Pellenor in
fact. I was amazed at how much more stirring I found Theoden's and Eowyn's
speeches when I had an actual voice to attach to them.)
Barbara
>
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

D BlaDe wrote:

> I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read each
> book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
>
Lost count years ago. At least 20, not counting the random passage every
now and then as some others have described.

-- Chris Csernica
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

"A Tsar Is Born" <AtsarisbornNoSpam RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ccqNb.596$Fl1.382@nwrdny02.gnilink.net...
>
> "D BlaDe" <NiGhtblaDe1201 RemoveThis @webtv.net> wrote in message
> news:12364-4005E097-87@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net...
> > I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read each
> > book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
>
> For one thing there is ONLY one book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Well actually there are six books in the Lords of the Rings "trilogy", divided
by the publishers into three volumes.

Just to nitpick

Aris Katsaris
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

"Aris Katsaris" <katsaris RemoveThis @otenet.gr> wrote in message news:<bu5n44$1aus$1@ulysses.noc.ntua.gr>...
> "A Tsar Is Born" <AtsarisbornNoSpam RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:ccqNb.596$Fl1.382@nwrdny02.gnilink.net...
> >
> > "D BlaDe" <NiGhtblaDe1201 RemoveThis @webtv.net> wrote in message
> > news:12364-4005E097-87@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net...
> > > I'm new here and I just wanted to know how many times you have read each
> > > book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
> >
> > For one thing there is ONLY one book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
>
> Well actually there are six books in the Lords of the Rings "trilogy", divided
> by the publishers into three volumes.
>
> Just to nitpick

People keep repeating this, but its a confusion of two senses of the
word 'book'. I have never read any indication that Tolkien intended
each of those six 'books' to be published independently; it makes no
sense in terms of the story; and interpreting numbered 'books' to be
just a way of subdividing what was intended to be a single volume has
been a common practice.

So it's cute to correct someone who says that the Lord of the Rings is
one book, but it's not a valid nitpick, because it should be clear
which sense of the word is intended, that of 'volume'.

DB.
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books?