Beginning of a Lifelong Love

This is one of the first long books I remember my mom reading to me. I remember snuggling in next to her every night for the next chapter of the story, and being amazed at this story that had so many amazing things in it: Elves, dwarves, dragons, and one brave hero who had never really meant to be a hero at all.

I think this is the book that introduced me to my lifelong love of fantasy, and gave me dreams of writing my own. This is a wonderful book to read to yourself when you're older, but also a great story to read aloud to young children to introduce them to the possibilities of imagination.

I've read this book many times over the years and loved it each time. There are so many different things to notice each time, to question. I know I will always love it for the humor of poor Bilbo and how he is reluctantly dragged into an adventure he never asked for and during the course of it discovers there is so much more to him than he had realized. I love it for Smaug and how menacing he is curled atop his treasure, for the brave dwarves and the heroic men.

It's a classic story, and as much as Lord of the Rings it is the root of so much of what we enjoy in Fantasy today. For younger readers it is also easier than Lord of the Rings, even if it lacks some of the scope, and in The Hobbit we first meet some of the characters that we will later have the chance to love in Lord of the Rings, Gandalf and Elrond among them.