Booking It: The Hobbit

So I went into reading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien for my Booking It 2012 assignment with an “okay, am I gonna like this?” perspective. I was hoping I would, but I wasn’t getting my hopes up too high. Goblins and dragons and dwarves, oh my! Fantasy isn’t normally my thing {though I do love The Chronicles of Narnia}.

But I was so pleasantly surprised!

The Hobbit was an easy and delightful read.

Mr. stuck-in-his-hole Bilbo Baggins gets sent on an adventure with 13 dwarves by a wizard. Gandalf chose Bilbo because he saw in him what no one else {including Bilbo} saw in him. You follow their escapades through forest and river, over and under mountains. You meet friendly elves and evil goblins. Their goal? To recapture the dwarves’ gold from Smaug the dragon.

They meet great people, they fail and get off the trail, the get overcome with greed, but there is joy and forgiveness and reconciliation and choosing to do the right thing {eventually} all throughout. I love that the characters weren’t perfect, but that they developed in good healthy ways.

So I’m not normally much one for dragons and magic and all that jazz. But I found these dwarves and goblins and “magic” of the light-hearted variety. I mean, the goblins were still the bad guys, and there was still fighting and escaping, etc, but there was no deep, dark, evil magic feel to the story. This kind of fantasy I could enjoy!

Tolkien has such a fun way with words! Almost with a poetical feel at times. I loved it!

I also loved that Hobbits love clothes. Remember this Instagram from couple of weeks back?

“…wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes)…”
That’s what I’m talking about!

I was particularly intrigued by the dragon who had stolen and was guarding the treasure. When Bilbo encountered the dragon “…he was in grievous danger of coming under the dragon-spell.” And later the dwarves said to him at his confession of perhaps revealing too much to the dragon, “Well, well! It cannot be helped, and it is difficult not to slip in talking to a dragon.” Reminded me very much of another “dragon” who lurks around who would like to trick us into speaking to and trusting him. A good reminder to be on the alert of our enemy, satan.

There were definitely life truths to be gleaned for the pages of The Hobbit. I love a good fiction book that is not only entertaining but good for the soul!

All in all, I was delighted with The Hobbit and look forward to seeing the movie when it comes out in December!

What else I have I read? Not much I’m afraid!

I’m in the middle of several books. One being Anna Karenina which is taking me ages!

The only other book to report is:

Against All Odds by Irene Hannon … Which I picked up for some light fiction reading to help alleviate the heavy, slow going of Anna Karenina.

The boys and I read:

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken This was interesting. Set back in the day {maybe Victorian era?} in England. Two cousins are put in the care of a long-lost relative while the parents go abroad in the hopes of improving the mother’s help. The relative turns out to be a bad egg, and decides to send the girls to an orphanage and steal the family’s immense wealth! The girls, of course, can’t let that happen. And the book follows their adventures to restore what is rightfully theirs.

Capyboppy by Bill Peet This was such a fun book! The Peet family adopted a capybara and made him a family pet! Capybaras are the largest animal in the rodent family. What a fun story this is and how silly the Capyboppy is!

What have you been reading lately?

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