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Pretty basic really.  Which is your favorite?  Personally, I'm all for Bilbo and his adventures.  The LotR has a great atmosphere and depth to it (backed of course by The Silmarillion), but it lacks the character and spirit (and most of all humour) that There and Back Again possessed.

You don't hear about the stone giants playing catch with boulders while the fellowship tries the path of Carahdras do you?  Things like that simply make it much more enjoyable and approachable tale.  It doesn't even make mention of a Shire or Middle-Earth in all of the book because it doesn't have to.

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I agree, just because I have a much easier time reading the Hobbit than the Rings. Haven't read Simmarillion, so I can't really judge it.

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True to form, I voted Lord of the Rings.

To me, the Hobbit and the Silmarillion were more like a prelude and an appendix to Tolkien's main work, the timeless classic of fantasy known as the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  The Hobbit was definitely a fun read, and I agree that the humor was top-notch, but it wasn't of the visionary and epic scope designed for LotR.  Likewise, the Silmarillion was utterly enthralling, and arguably even more epic than LotR, but is phrased more like a history book to paint a setting for the more definitive work.

That's not to say that I didn't love all of Tolkien's literary masterpieces.  His brilliance in the genre of fantasy has yet to be matched, in my opinion.

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I voted for LOTR. I have read all three of those books.  LOTR is my favorite, I suppose because it made me feel for the characters. The Hobbit was fun, but I don't remember it making me care for the characters.

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i voted LotR because i haven't read either of the other two

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The corner bends into the perfect dog ear
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I had to vote for The Lord of the Rings. I did enjoy the Hobbit, but for me the longer a book is (such as the trilogy), the more I get into it (assuming it's a GOOD trilogy that is   ) and the more I enjoy it.

The Hobbit was good, but not quite long enough when you compare it to the Lord of the Rings. As for the Silmarillion...it was too over my head. The reading was far too dense for me. It was really good writing, but far too complex, and there didn't seem to be anything I could grasp at. In short, I didn't enjoy it, and couldn't finish it.

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Have they made a move for the Hobbit or the Simarillion yet? I voted the Lord o' da' Rings because i watched the movie, Fellowship and I it.
i'm not much of a reader. my philosiphy is that you can get from a movie what you can get from a book in less time {note: this does not count for most cases and mookie is just dumb that way }

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If I had read The Hobbit after LotR, I probably would've voted for LotR. But as I read them in the order that they were published, I liked the hobbit the most.

I can't beleive I'm the only one who voted for The Silmarillion! Sure, There and Back Again was witty and charming, and the LoR was epic and grand, but The Silmarillion is Middle Earth in the days of truly great battles and truly great deeds. Nothing in the other books are as grand as what's in the history of the elves...

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*END TRANSMISSION*

As a writter, and an avid fan of public television, let me put it this way:

 The Lord of the Rings is like a good japan-imation cartoon series: Fast, thrilling, meant to catch your attention and get an immediate responce. The Hobbit is like a good movie: it's a feature presentation, a bit deeper, meant to be taken seriously and thought about after its over. The Silmarillion is the Ken Burns documentary: it takes you a long time to figure out what you watching, a lot of comitment to read it all the way through, contains deeper thoughts and considerations on human nature, and changes the way you think without you knowing it.

 Why? Tolkien started with The Silmarillion even before writting The Hobbit. Its true. He just finnished The Hobbit first. This was just something he wanted to write, a mentality which oft produces the best works. After his success with the afore mentioned book, his publication company asked him to produce a sequel; thus The Lord of the Rings, which was actually more a sequel to The Silmarillion. The Lord of the Rings was, though very good, produced under pressure. Tolkien never actually finnished The Silmarillion; it was compiled after his death by Robert Tolkien.
 He worked on it throughout his whole life (thats why at times it may seem inconsistant, it is). It really is his lifes work, and you can tell that when reading it. As a writter, I was amazed by how much I could tell about Tolkien and his philosophy when I read the work, but more importantly, I could see the techniques that he was implementing. I want to point out this one, one that most people count against it, but it was possibly his most genius decision.
 He presented it in a way in which you didn't feel like you were there; as a 'history' some say. This made sure that the feeling of a deep understory (which prevades his work) was not ruined. As an example of the opposite of this: Redwall and its sequels. I read Mossflower when I was little, and it gave you a sense of a deep history lost in the past. In later years, I found other books in the series, and decided to read them for nostalgia. In these books, the writter explained everything. This ruined the feel of the books.
 So, if you didn't want to read my rantings and just skiped to the end here:


    The Silmarillion is definitly the best of the three.

I prefer the Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit didn't have enough back story and the Silmarillion was just a bit too Documentary-like for me.

I actually prefer The Hobbit for all of the mentioned reasons. More adventurous, more comical. LotR lacked the "fun" side of a book, in my opinion.

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The Hobbit for me. I loved the LotR series, but I always hated reading Return of the King for some reason and never bothered to finish it all at once. The Hobbit kept my attention the whole way through and was a delight to read, especially with the humor forementioned.

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The Hobbit, because it's more of a naive adventure through dangerous lands and was made greater through having a greater purpose. (The ring.) The Lord of the Rings was wonderful though and like most of you, I've read it many times over the years.

On a side-note this vote will be my way of stabbing at the recent Peter Jackson films where I had to see Faramir turn somewhat ring-lusting, and Frodo stop trusting his friend. Edits are fine, but I don't like it when they mess with the honor of a character. Great films other than that. Yay.

This post has been edited by Endless Knight on 4th September 2004 11:10

It was a tough choice between The Hobbit and LOTR, but in the end i voted for Lord of the Rings. Why? It just seemed to have more of that "epic adventure" feel about it, to me, and the stakes were higher, since pretty much everything balanced on the destruction or survival of the ring, so there seems to be a very dramatic feeling about it. The Hobbit, though, is certainly fun to read, and the humour, i agree, is very good indeed. I couldn't consider Simillarion, because i happen to be among the unlucky few who haven't got to read it yet

This post has been edited by MarquisElmdor on 4th September 2004 11:47

I read the Hobbit at an excruciatingly young age. It was inspired by my viewing of the cartoon movie on television. It was by far the longest read I had ever done at that point, and the book was magical to me. Of course when I found out it was only a prequel to a larger trilogy(a term I don't approve of since the Hobbit came first) I was very excited. I found the cartoon movie and rented it. It put me to sleep. I read the books and found that I got bored of them smack dab in the middle of the second one. So I gave up on the lord of the rings. Many years later as a teen I tried it again with the same result, although I finished it that time through.

Then one day they made a movie of the trilogy and I was over-joyed that they had managed to present the wonderful story in a manner that didn't bore me. And while I now can finally love Lord of The Rings, it will never eclipse the love I had for the Hobbit from childhood. So that is my looooong answer.

Additionally I have two other Tolkien books I recieved as gifts. One is an Encyclopedia to the World of Tolkien written by some other author. The other is the Simillarion. And while only one of them is actually an Encyclopedia, they both read like one.

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Personally I did not like any that much but Lord of the Rings was the closest to being good in my book.

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I like the Hobbit alot better... the LotR was ok but I thought the movies were much better, but the Hobbit was actaualyl a really great book, so I voted the Hobbit.

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