More commemorative coins from New Zealand’s THE HOBBIT fever. “To put Gandalf on these splendiferous coins is a wizard idea,” said Sir Ian McKellen.
See all the coins at The Huffington Post.
September 21, 1937: The Hobbit is published.
J.R.R.Tolkien’s classic children’s novel turns 75 years old today. The book begins with the line “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”, a sentence which, according to Tolkien, came to him spontaneously while marking papers. The first edition dust jacket was designed by the author himself, who also provided the black and white illustrations. Since 1937, The Hobbit has been translated into over forty languages and sold tens of millions of copies. The initial print of 1,500 copies ran out in three months, and response was unanimously favorable. Tolkien’s close friend and fellow fantasy author C.S. Lewis wrote in The Times Literary Supplement: ”Prediction is dangerous: but The Hobbit may well prove a classic.”
Perhaps The Hobbit’s greatest legacy was not the book itself but the sequel that was published seventeen years later - the far more complex first volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. Urged on by his publishers, who wished to make the most out of the smashing success that was The Hobbit, Tolkien worked on his sequel slowly and deliberately through the years of World War II and after. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings brought the popularity of fantasy literature to new heights and established Tolkien as the “father”of modern high fantasy.
The first film of Peter Jackson’s new trilogy, based off The Hobbit, is set to release in December.
"Adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine."
- J.R.R. Tolkien
FML: Your Everyday Life Stories
Today, my father, who is going through a serious mid-life crisis, walked into my room, told me to “sit the fuck down,” and spent the next two hours ranting about how the Lord of the Rings books prophesy the end of the world this December, and that Sauron is an analogy for “corrupt bankers.” FML
The Soviet “HOBBIT” (1976)
JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit was published in the USSR in 1976, with illustrations by M. Belomlinskij.
Horrible Book Reviews
The Book: ”The Hobbit” by JRR Tolkein
Reviewed by “Olive-705” on Goodreads:
Shelves: abandoned-booksI think this book was frankly kinda boring. I think (even though I stopped reading at page 60) it didn’t relate to many real world issues, except for maybe something like peer pressure when Bilbo is forced into coming on an adventure. But I found I couldn’t relate to it.
Maybe it’s just me, but THERE ARE TOO MANY CHARACTERS!
I found this book uninteresting and while I guess quite a bit happened in the first 60 pages, it didn’t appeal to me.
Tolkien talks about what he knows best.
Happy birthday to Bilbo and Frodo!
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort…. - J.R.R. Tolkien , The Hobbit , Ch.1
The Fellowship of the Ring by Tom BKK on Flickr.
Reader Submission: Title and Redesign by Megan Pallante. J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings
