How many times have you read the books?

In article <12364-4005E097-87.TakeThisOut@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net>, D
BlaDe <NiGhtblaDe1201.TakeThisOut@webtv.net> writes
>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.
>
Currently just starting 'Return of the King', during my second reading
of the trilogy.
--
John Sullivan
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

John Sullivan - typed:
> In article
> <12364-4005E097-87.TakeThisOut@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net>, D BlaDe
> <NiGhtblaDe1201.TakeThisOut@webtv.net> writes
>> 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.
>>
> Currently just starting 'Return of the King', during my second reading
> of the trilogy.

Good Lord, I've only read it completely twice! So it's the dunce's hat
for me I cheat by reading sections I'm particularly interested in.
I'm not a great re-reader of any fiction - I have stacks of unread
novels to last a long stretch inside.

Perhaps a more telling question would be: how many here read anything
else apart from Tolkien?! Although LOTRs would probably be my desert
island book & probably my favourite story, Tolkien's dialogue can be
somewhat wooden, it's the sheer scale & depth that over-rides any such
criticism. I've read it enough to note the omissions in the film ver of
FOTR, the rewriting of the TTs & the ROTK hasn't really sunk in yet.

--
The map is not the territory
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

In article <bu6o8b$e8oaq$1@ID-173588.news.uni-berlin.de>,
me DeleteThis @privacy.net says...
>
> Perhaps a more telling question would be: how many here read anything
> else apart from Tolkien?!

Yes, constantly. I read a lot.

Michelle
Flutist

--
Drift on a river, That flows through my arms
Drift as I'm singing to you
I see you smiling, So peaceful and calm
And holding you, I'm smiling, too
Here in my arms, Safe from all harm
Holding you, I'm smiling, too
-- For Xander [9/22/98 - 2/23/99]
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

NiGhtblaDe1201.DeleteThis@webtv.net (D BlaDe) wrote in message news:<12364-4005E097-87.DeleteThis@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 would say nearly, but not quite, once a year ever since I was about
nine or ten, which was 23 or 24 years ago.
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

> Perhaps a more telling question would be: how many here read anything
> else apart from Tolkien?!

Other books I don't dare let myself reread a chapter of -- because I know I
won't be able to keep myself from rereading the whole thing -- include
Lewis's Perelandra trilogy (with all its faults), John Fowles's The Magus,
Pride & Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, James McCourt's Mawrdew Czgowchwz, any
of the books of E. Nesbit and Rosemary Sutcliff that I discovered about the
same age as I found Tolkien, Esther Forbes' Johnny Tremain, Catch-22, Kurt
Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, I Claudius, Dosoevsky's The Idiot, and the complete
stories of Saki.

Whereas, when I pick up Proust, after rereading 200 pages, I feel full.

So right now I'm reading Ford Madox Ford's The Last Post, Saul Bellow's
Herzog and I just got a Joseph Roth novel for a trip next week. All for the
first time.

The most conceited statement ever made by a human being, from the
Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas:

"Gertrude Stein used to be afraid that she would one day have read
everything she wanted to read ... but in time she realized this would not be
a problem."

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

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 19:50:16 GMT, "A Tsar Is Born"
<AtsarisbornNoSpam.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote:

>> Perhaps a more telling question would be: how many here read anything
>> else apart from Tolkien?!
>
>Other books I don't dare let myself reread a chapter of -- because I know I
>won't be able to keep myself from rereading the whole thing -- include
>Lewis's Perelandra trilogy (with all its faults), John Fowles's The Magus,
>Pride & Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, James McCourt's Mawrdew Czgowchwz, any
>of the books of E. Nesbit and Rosemary Sutcliff that I discovered about the
>same age as I found Tolkien, Esther Forbes' Johnny Tremain, Catch-22, Kurt
>Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, I Claudius, Dosoevsky's The Idiot, and the complete
>stories of Saki.
>
>Whereas, when I pick up Proust, after rereading 200 pages, I feel full.
>
>So right now I'm reading Ford Madox Ford's The Last Post, Saul Bellow's
>Herzog and I just got a Joseph Roth novel for a trip next week. All for the
>first time.
>
>The most conceited statement ever made by a human being, from the
>Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas:
>
>"Gertrude Stein used to be afraid that she would one day have read
>everything she wanted to read ... but in time she realized this would not be
>a problem."
>
>Tsar Parmathule
>
I've read LOTR some 7 or 10 times, hobbit twice or thrice. There are
a few books that are creeping up on it though in terms of number,
Robbson's "Tokaido Road," Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and
"Persuasion", Corelli Barnett's "The Desert Generals." Michael
Shaara's "Killer Angels", Rosemary Sutcliffes "Sword at Sunset" and
Ceceilia Howard's "The Firedrake" and her "Til the Sky falls" , "The
Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Heinlein's Glory Road and Moon is a
Harsh Mistress, Simak's Way Statiion.

Of thick sets, the only ones I I come back to are the Parliamentary
novels of Trollope and Dorothy Dunnet's Crawford of Lymond series, the
Hornblowers , and, McKillop's marvelous "Riddlemaster of Hed" trilogy

Right now I am reading Peter Pan, having just seen the delightful
movie and never having read it when I was a child.

But, having seen the movies and enjoyed them, I find myself missing
Tolkien, so I will probably finish off the letters which I let slip
halfway through and then reread LOTR. I can hardly wait to reread the
battle with the wargs <g>.


Sindamor
--

Ripley: Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?
 >> 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 read the trilogy straight through three times, when I was 7, then 16, then
23 (I'm 48 now). Last year after seeing the film TTT I re-read The Two
Towers, initially to confirm that the film had indeed changed the plot, and
then I re-read The Return of the King.
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

I was under the impression that The Lord of the Rings was one story, but
three separate books.
 >> 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 first read the book at age 11, and was instantly in love. Reread it about
10 times a year throughout my teen years, then about once a year since then.
Best guess, that totals up to about 120 times.

(do I win? what's the prize?)

Shanahan
| 'Thought you would have been here days ago,' said the balding elf. 'Have
any trouble along the way?' 'I could write a book,' Frito said
prophetically. |
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

In article <12364-4005E097-87.TakeThisOut@storefull-2212.public.lawson.webtv.net>,
NiGhtblaDe1201.TakeThisOut@webtv.net (D BlaDe) writes:

>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 must have read LotR at the least 18 times, an average of once a year, though
I didn't read it after seeing the first film because I wanted to wait until I'd
seen all of them. Just finishing reading RotK now, and I think it was worth the
wait to read it again I must have read The Silmarillion about 8 times over
the last 15 years. UT I've read twice & I'm reading HoME for the second time
now.

ilweran
*******************
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books? 

Michelle J. Haines <mhaines.TakeThisOut@io.nanc.com> wrote in
news:MPG.1a70b868da94c97f98a330@news.Qwest.net:

> In article <bu6o8b$e8oaq$1@ID-173588.news.uni-berlin.de>,
> me.TakeThisOut@privacy.net says...
>>
>> Perhaps a more telling question would be: how many here read
>> anything else apart from Tolkien?!
>
> Yes, constantly. I read a lot.
>

Everything I can get - from Solzhenitsyn (I read Cancer Ward and A
Day in the Life Ivan DsomethingrussianIcan't spell when I was 6th
grade - long before I heard of Tolkien)(and yes, I did understand
it. Couldn't pronounces the names, but that didn't stop me) to
Beatrix Potter (1st read in my 20s) to Stephen Hawking to Mark
Twain to PJ O'Rourke to Stephen King and etc ad nauseum. Winnie
the Pooh is a favorite of mine, and always will be.

Can't even begin to list all the books/authors. Some I've read
many times, some only once. Some I never got through. I don't
like, as a rule, mysteries and crime stories, but loved Agatha
Christie. I've read a lot of "beat" authors, truely weird books
(Naked Lunch, Dhalgren) and some really pedestrian stuff that was
lying around when I had nothing to do. Edgar Allen Poe's poetry is
the only poetry I really ever liked reading for fun, although I've
muddled through bunches. The Oddessy and the Iliad were great lazy
summer day reading.

Tolkien isn't the best writer I've ever read - but his world
strikes a deeper chord than most. But to limit myself to only
Tolkien ? Can't. Wouldn't even consider it. Can't imagine it.

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

"D BlaDe" <NiGhtblaDe1201.DeleteThis@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:5192-400749DD-194@storefull-2213.public.lawson.webtv.net...
> I was under the impression that The Lord of the Rings was one story, but
> three separate books.

Nope, it's just one book:
It has one beginning, several middles, and one end.
Not three beginnings of separate books and three ends.
For a true trilogy, cf. C.S. Lewis's Perelandra trilogy. Or The Forsyte
Saga. Or Kristin Lavransdattir. Others will occur to you. The books are
connected, have characters in common, but tell separate stories and can
easily be read out of order.

Tolkien's publisher thought it would never sell all mashed into one hefty
volume, and he was probably right. So he forced Tolkien to think up titles
for three separate tomes. JRRT hated this, especially The Two Towers --
which was a last gasp, because he honestly couldn't think of a single title
that would link Books III and IV. But he did it because it was the only way
to get the thing published, and he needed the money.

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

In article <MPG.1a70b868da94c97f98a330 DeleteThis @news.Qwest.net>, Michelle J. Haines
<mhaines DeleteThis @io.nanc.com> writes:

>In article <bu6o8b$e8oaq$1@ID-173588.news.uni-berlin.de>,
>me@privacy.net says...
>>
>> Perhaps a more telling question would be: how many here read anything
>> else apart from Tolkien?!

Me!!

Marquez, Italo Calvino, J.G.Ballard, S.R.Delany, Iain Banks, Camus, Kafka, Guy
Kay, Sherri Tepper, Le Guin, P.K.Dick, Primo Levi, Borges, Margaret Atwood,
Terry Pratchet, Banana Yoshimoto, Mervyn Peake, Douglas Coupland, Douglas
Adams, various books about psychology, religion, 'popular' science- quantum
physics, chaos theory, feminism, mythology, various poets, some 'kids' books-
alan garner, J K Rowling, Robin Jarvis, Robert Westall, Phillip Pullman,
Graphic Novels/comics by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Peter Milligan...

ilweran
*******************
 >> Stay informed about: How many times have you read the books?