#HLOTRreadalong2017 Masterpost

This is the official sign up/master post for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy readalong.

The 21st September 2017 will be the 80th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit. It therefore felt like the gods of Middle Earth were telling me that 2017 would be the perfect time to revisit one of my childhood favourites.

This will be my third visit to Middle Earth (four if you include the movies and five if you include my reading of The Hobbit by itself when I was 11).

My first read of The Hobbit occurred during my tween years - it left me with fond thoughts but very few specific memories.

I didn't give it another thought until I met Mr Books at uni. He was a keen Tolkien as a young man. When we first started dating he was horrified that I had never read all the books - he promptly gave me a boxed set of Lord of the Rings for Christmas.

I binge read them over the summer holiday break...and another convert was made!

Many years later, prior to the first Jackson movie in December 2001, I reread all four books. I wanted to refresh my memory and be able to compare the books to the movie properly.

It was a mixed bag.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movies & found them visually stunning, but some of the actors, some of the character interpretations and some of the scenes felt forced, fake or over the top.

I have been waiting for enough time to go by, to let the movie images fade away, so that I could reread the books with fresh eyes.
The last LOTR movie was screened in Australia on Boxing Day 2003 - I think that thirteen years should be enough time!

(I didn't bother to watch The Hobbit movies - I thought that stretching the story out into three movies was excessive and totally unnecessary).

I plan to reread the books over a leisurely period of time. I want to savour my illustrated editions and feel no pressure to be finished by a set date. My reading time frames are generous but also designed to keep things ticking along.

The Hobbit in February 

The Fellowship of the Ring in March - April

The Two Towers in May - June

The Return of the King in July - August

My plans for the #HLOTRreadalong2017 will be to:

1. Post a master post where people can sign up to join the readlaong or write their own post about their previous experiences with #HLOTR. Or if this is their first time, a post about why they've decided now is the time to read Tolkien. (tick)
2. Write a welcome to book post for the start of each book, providing basic facts, background information and my proposed reading pace.
3. Have a check-in post about halfway through each book - to see how everyone is going, ask questions, rant, rave or refute.
4. Post a wrap up/review at the end of each book where we can discuss our thoughts and feelings, ask questions and practice our Elvish!

If you'd like to join in, please feel free to write an introductory post heralding your intentions and share in the linky below.

Tell us your history with Tolkien and #HLOTR.
Why are you reading or rereading it now?
Have you learnt Elvish? Or read any other Tolkien books?

If you are rereading and would like to mention specific events that happen in the book, please remember to add **spoiler** alerts to protect the innocence of any first time readers.

Gi suilon

Welcome

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