The Hobbit

Well, this is the first book I have read by J. R. R. Tolkien. Quite a boring book, I must say, as I read it at a wrong age of 16. If I had read this book eight or nine years ago, I might have enjoyed it as The Hobbit was written for children. So, if you’re around eight to ten years old and you like the fairytale kind of book, this book is one of the best I can recommend to you. However, if you’re older and you like action-packed fantasy with wars and magic and such, I would suggest that you stay away from this one. Anyway, no book is ever perfect. Now, don’t be worried, I’m not going to launch into a lengthy review here. Just a few important points…

1) There is simply too much unneeded dialogue. It decreased the quality of the story as the author seemed to be rambling on and on about unimportant stuff. It made me terribly bored.

2) The story didn’t manage to get me emotionally involved. Nothing made me laugh or weep. The characters were one-dimensional and they were simply moving from place to place.

3) Smaug died too abruptly and easily. It seemed as if the author created the character, then felt that it was a mistake or got tired of it, and so got rid of it in a slipshod manner. A supposedly powerful and fearsome dragon dying of an arrow-shot that easily? I was expecting some great battle. Oh well, this is a children’s book.