The Hobbit

Title: The Hobbit
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Published: 1937, this edition in 1974
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 279. I made it to 180.


Am I giving up on The Hobbit? Am I really giving up on The motherfucking Hobbit? Apparently I am. At least for now.

Lord of the Rings was the biggest thing to hit me since learning to read when I was a kid. For years it was my favourite book. I read it long before reading The Hobbit (in Finnish) for the first time, and preferred LotR to The Hobbit. Still, I liked Bilbo's adventures.

When I was living in the UK, I found this old edition with a cover drawn by Tolkien himself, a sketch for the Death of Smaug. I was looking forward to reading it, before going to see the first Hobbit-movie.

That was my mistake. Seeing the movie. I really, really liked the LotR movies from a decade ago. I saw all of them, several times, in the movie theaters. Back when I was a poor student!  And I was really looking forward to The Hobbit -movie, since it's full of my favourite actors. EVERYONE is in it! I love Martin Freeman, he does make a perfect Bilbo. And hey, it's that vampire guy from Being Human! Sir Ian McKellen! HUGO WEAVING! Glee all around! But oh gods! The movie!

The beginning was great, the rest not so. And I get that they had to add stuff in, and Gandalf was going on about the Necromancer in the book again and again, but I just didn't like it. It was pretty and beautiful and I didn't like it. Gollum was great. When Thorin went all "Bilbo, my bro!" after the eagles? And that stuff before the eagles?! I contemplated beating myself unconscious with my empty soda bottle. I'm not looking forward to the next two movies. (Two? Two?! Three 3-hour movies from a 280-page book?!) Even if they're throwing in Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch. I don't know. I just don't know anymore...

And that is how I lost all will to finish the book right now. The movie made me want to cry, and not in a good way.