Te tqm Tom Bombadil 🫶

I couldn't possibly write a comprehensive review of this book, so I'll just say that it's a must-read. 

It took the Rings of Power coming out to finally get me to buckle down and read this book. My previous attempts all ended because I couldn't get into it. So much walking! Random disconnected events! Absolutely NO women other than a bitchy hobbit aunt! 

As someone who had been raised on Tamora Pierce and who read her first N.K. Jemisin when I was 15, Tolkien seemed quaint and outdated to me. I wanted to understand it and be in on the fandom - people seemed to be having fun! - but it wasn't clicking for me and I never could get past the first ~150 pages. The movies came out slightly too early for me to imprint on them (though I did marathon the extended editions with friends as a teenager). I can now report that Tolkien is indeed quaint and outdated - but nevertheless charming and a fun time if you reset your expectations. The problem was that I expected Serious Epic Fantasy when I previously attempted to read this series. While there are Serious Epic Fantasy moments, this world is GOOFY and a playground for a fiddly old academic to dump his pet languages and lore. 

LOTR: Rings of Power has made me invested in understanding the world and has given me space to appreciate the original trilogy despite my critiques (seriously, we've met 4 women so far and none of them feel like real people [bitchy hobbit aunt, Goldberry, Arwen, Galadriel]).