Café de Nuit

Had another conversation with my friends about Tolkein's work. We liked different LotR books the best. I decided to pose the question to this community. I like the fellowship best, mainly because of the coucil of Elrond, and Gandalf's exposition scene, and how scary the black riders were when I first read the book. I also liked how Fellowship takes the very idle life of the hobbits, and slowly begins to contrast it to the troubles unfolding thoughout the world.

I can say the one I like the least is the second, but I can't exactly distinguish between the other two.

Alex

The first one for me. I find it the most heroic and it's the one where everything beggins. My favorite scene is when the fellowship is actually formed.

For me, it'd have to be the third book; Tolkein actually gave his trilogy a sense of narrative closure, which many other writers don't.

Now it we were talking about the films, I'd have to say the second one was the best. Gandalf's resurrection, the white horse, the best battles; that film had everything. I thought the first film was pretty good, but I really couldn't get into the last one; it just seemed like a rehash of the other two, or an extended cut of the second film, and it was way too long and torturous to watch toward the end. *They've faded to black. Its over! Yay! . . . oh, never mind, its just a really abrupt transition to the next hour long scene.*

Hmm... y'know, I never considered the books separate entities, so I'd rather like a fourth option with "It's just one bloody big book, man!"

I can never decide between Towers and King, I just both them both so damn much! Of course, the Uruk-hai at Helms Deep is one of my favourite sections of the whole book.

I'm gonna agree with Malus Black that it's really more like "one big long book." Choosing a favorite is kinda like taking one book and picking your favorite chapter.

That said, I'm gonna go with Two Towers. Fellowship was really solid, but there was too much extraneous garbage in there (I can't agree more with Peter Jackson's decision to leave Tom Bombadil completely out of the movie). Return of the King felt too short compared to the others, plus there's just too much wrap-up at the end. Still a great book, but weakest of the trilogy in my opinion.

I went for Return of the King - mainly because of the ending. The scouring of the shire was probably my favourite bit in all of Lord of the Rings.

I went with Fellowship of the Ring, but I am actually torn between it and Return of the King. But, let's also remember the Silmarillion for the nifty elven dictionary in the back. Man, I love elven (or elvish). Speaking of which, some of you may find this interesting...


http://www.jrrvf.com/hisweloke/sindar/o ... en-sd.html