I'm just curious as to how many of you reread The Lord of the Rings. I just picked up The Fellowship this morning again and I've got to say that no matter how many times I read it I still laugh and am  in awe of Tolkien and his awesomeness. :P :)

Yes, I agree with you. This series is awesome. The recent films were a huge success, but I disliked them b/c they were so poor on character development.

It's one of those books that's always on my TBR pile, and I notice different things in them each time I read them.  There's such an amazing depth to the books, and they are so finely crafted.  Just amazing.

I've been able to read them in the quiet of the  morning lately and it's awesome how much more I've been able to pick up from them this time around. Tolkien always makes me giddy with his simple brilliance. :)

I'm certain I've read them at least 3 times and will no doubt reread them again at some point.  I always seem to get something different out of them each time I read them.

Linda, I agree with you about the movies.  They lacked the characterization that made the books so wonderful and enduring.  The movies were great in their own way, but I feel like they were all about awe-inspiring special effects, drama and action.  For instance, there is little in the movies about the quiet homeyness of Hobbiton, or the songs which were throughout the books, etc.

I read them the first time when I was 10 and have read them a dozen times since then, probably. Each time I get something different out of them--probably due to how I've changed, not the book! LOL I haven't re-read them since just before the first movie came out, and I really should do that sometime soon!

Cheryl

I am reading The Hobbit right now (actually, listening to it on audiobook as I commute). I think I will never say "Good Morning" again.

I think i read all of the series about twice including the Hobbit and The Silmarillon , As for the movies personaly i dislike movies made from books I have read but as I watched the movies and i am thinking the whole time how could you understand the movie without having read the books before seeing it, so much is left out. But they have to shink the book into 2 to 3 hours. And the Stephen King movies (i know getting off the fantasy genre) they just flat out change the endings of some . now what was this tread about , ohh ya rereading Tolkien books. (maybe i should start a new tread about ' books to movies '  LOL) . But i reread alot of books (when i runout of new ones )  LOL  You can wake-up now my speech is over

I reread Tolkien frequently.  I have read The Hobbit 4 times, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy at least 6 times, and the Silmarillion 3 times.  I just pick them up whenever I feel like, even if I'm in the middle of another book. 

By the way, I'm a really big fan of both the movies and the books, for different reasons in each case.  I actually saw the movie first.  I've known about The Lord of the Rings for as long as I can remember, because my mom was always trying to get me to read them in my younger years.  Alas, at some point in my very young years, I saw some picture or another that was supposed to be from The Hobbit, and it scared the crap out of me, so I forever afterwards synonymized the name "Tolkien" with "Horror," and I don't like horror.  When The Fellowship of the Ring came out in theaters, a friend of mine took me to see it without telling me what it was.  I missed the title sequence due to the long popcorn line, and I made it about half-way through the movie before I realized what I was watching.  But it was too late; I was hooked.  I started reading the books that night, and I have read them about 5 times more since then.  I'm in the middle of reading The Fellowship of the Ring again now, actually. 

I know, I'm rambling.  Sorry.  I just think it's funny how our perceptions change over time, especially when someone forces your eyes open.  Tolkien is a great storyteller, and among the top influences of the 20th century.  After all, The Lord of the Rings is the second-best-selling book of all time, after the Bible.

I'll shut up now, but this is just my two cents.

I've lost count of the number of times I've read LOR and The Hobbit.

I should invest in a set of large print paperbacks at this point. I wore out several paperback sets in my youth which seems to have taken my eyesight with it in its passing. Fortunately, there's some great audio recordings out there. This is great road trip stuff! I think maybe even a more intense experience since it flows without any effort on your part.

LOR audio  isn't  suitable for commuting daily, because it's too hard to walk away from after a brief period of time. Even when the story isn't new to you. Who wants to get out of the car or off the train just as we reach the forest, cross the river, climb the mountain, or hmmmm, I wonder if I should start reading tonight or wait for the weekend....... 

I've LOR at least 15-20 times, the first time when I was 9 (I'm 41 now). I read them so much during my adolescence and early 20s that I eventually had to take a break, and coincidentally my brother borrowed my copy (to take with him for comfort when moving across the country). After that I didn't reread them again for a good 10 years, then I did again before the movies came out and was blown away again. Now I know they're waiting for me whenever I need them...

I love the movies, but they did distort a fair amount of things from the book - everything had to be made  more "dramatic", or in a lot of cases cheesily melodramatic. It still wasn't enough to tarnish that basic story, and they did wonderful things with cinematography, and the sheer drama was wonderful; so I think the movies are still masterpieces in their own right, if maybe not quite as much so as the books.