This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected.
I wanted to love this book and believe me when I say I really tried to love it but well I just couldn’t. I feel by admitting that I’ve committed some sort of crime against literature but it’s my honest opinion.
I’ll wholeheartedly admit I think the films have ruined me slightly, you see I’m such a big fan of the films, they’re fun and lighthearted with a twist of something dark and exciting. Turns out that’s not what the books like at all, I actually found the book to just be too nice. Thorin whips out a harp for a little jam with his fellow dwarves rather than unapologetically announcing his complete lack of faith in Bilbo, there’s not so much as a sniff of Azog or any orcs really for that matter and the Necromancer is barely mentioned. OK so I know this was originally written as a children’s story but I just wasn’t expecting everything to be so flowery, I wanted action and battles.
I guess I wasn’t expecting the book to be so different from the films and I just couldn’t get into it. It was a struggle to read and frankly I can’t say as I particularly enjoyed the book probably as I found it such a chore to read, it just flat out bored me in places.
As I say, I feel it’s some sort of crime to not have enjoyed such a well loved, classic book and if you do fancy reading it I’d still say go for it as you may enjoy it. Josh read it first and he really enjoyed it and he’s not a huge reader so it’s definitely worth picking up and seeing for yourself what you think.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
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