How many people have read this saga, or have tried to read it? I have been told by countless people that the book is awesome except for the fact that Tolkien goes WAY to deep into detail on a lot of things. Well I bought the books a few months ago and never read them. I'm going to start them now since I couldn't help myself and decided to read ahead of you guys in Eragon and ended up finishing it while you guys are still in the semi-beginning. I was wondering if anyone had any insight to share with the board about the story and/or movies, or if anyone wanted to read along with me?

If you noticed I kept refering to it as "book" instead of books or trilogy. Well I started to flip through the pages last night and found the beginning part with "Notes on the text" and it says that The Lord of the Rings si actually ONE book. It is just published in three perts ("The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", & "The Return of the King"). It also kind of contridicts itself by saying each one of those three stories in the book is actually two books, so in reality The Lord of the Rings is a SIX book set. Weird huh?

Also, is it neccecery to read the Proluge? I started to, but I ended up skipping it after the first paragraph because it wasn't really part of the story, just more notes on the topics in the proluge. I started reading the first few pages of chapter 1 though. I was wondering if it is a good idea to read the notes before I start the book? Figured I'd ask before I got to into the book and then foundour otherwise.

I've read the books, and I liked them. But, you know how I read: if something is boring me, I skip to the next part.

I don't remember what was in the Prologue. If it doesn't seem important to you, I wouldn't bother with it. Maybe just skim it and see if it mentions anything. You might have to come back to it later.

I want to re-read these books sometime. I've read them a couple times, but the next time I do, I want to check all of the notes. I have done it a couple times, but not all of them.

Good luck with your reading! Be sure to let us know what you think of them

Grrr....I'm not even halfway through with Eragon yet! But, tonight should be a good night to get a lot of it done. Nothing on TV that I want to watch. So, if you see me on AIM, tell me to get back to reading

And then, The Mummy...

Hmmm...maybe I'll read LotR. When are you starting?

Will do!

It may be a bit though. I just got a book from the library and I think it would be better if I read that one before it's late lol.

Don't forget you are in another country, your library just may be a bit different lol...

Woops i forgot to respond to Hallies post. I disagree, Im glad that the movies cut out the ending. When i read it it felt like JRR couldn't let go of the story/reader. Mind you it did have a theme to the ending, it was just kinda irrelevant to the rest of the books.