Never made it through Middle Earth

Daily writing prompt

What’s a book you never finished but still think about?

View all responses

As a child I read and thoroughly enjoyed The Hobbit. It was an adventure story with an appealing hero and I was in a period of time where fantasy was my favourite genre. When I got the Lord of the Rings in an omnibus edition at the age of 12, I wasn’t immediately put off by the size of the book, because I knew I’d enjoy it. So, I opened it up, eager to find out what happened to Bilbo after his adventures in The Hobbit. What actually happened was that I was thoroughly bored by the first chapter and I ended up putting it to one side after I had read about 60 pages of a possible 1000 or so!

I was well into my late teens when I tried the book again and this time I felt ready for it. I rationalised my previous inability to get out of the Shire by pointing to the fact that I wasn’t old enough to appreciate the writing. So, once again I opened it up, eager to find out what was going to happen to Bilbo. Yet again I ground to a halt around page 60, once again I failed to get out of the Shire! I ended up never going back to it, and I was sure of my decision after taking my oldest son to see all three films. They bored me for the entirety of the 10 hours they took to watch and I have never returned to Tolkien’s world since. My son became a huge fan of everything to do with Lord of the Rings and I am glad I introduced him to the books and films, but for me my visits to Middle Earth are over. I still think about a book I failed to get through twice, but I really don’t see it as being third time lucky!