Ah, yes, I returned to the classic favorite, The Hobbit. I have to admit that this is only my second reading of J.R.R. Tolkien's children's story; I first read it about ten years ago and had a very hard time making my way through the tale, though I did not find it is hard this time.
At that time I had not read the stories by Tolkien's counterpart, C.S. Lewis, or any other fantasy/sci-fi novels, so the world was completely unfamiliar to me. On this second trip with Bilbo to defeat the dragon, Smaug, I knew a lot more of the terminology of fantasy, and the mythology of Middle Earth.
I chose to read the Annotated Hobbit (Ed, Douglas Anderson) and could rabbit trail down lost poems by Tolkien, artist's renderings of Gollum or the many mauscript changes that were necessary to conform the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings, as Tolkien began work on the great myth of Middle Earth. I wouldn't read the annotated version if you have not read the Hobbit before; but if you are familir with the story and can stand to break off every once in a while, mid-sentence, then it is a delightful volume!
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