There and back again....and again.

  I took a different route out of the Shire, than most, to find my love of Tolkien's Middle-Earth.
Growing up, in the 70's, I had watched the Hobbit cartoon on network television(back when
everybody had 4-10 channels depending on which way you turned your antenna.) I liked it well
enough. I never knew it was a book, though. Then in high school, my dad and I rented the Lord of the
Ring cartoon and saying we hated it is really being too nice. Thus a Shadow fell over my interest in
Middle-Earth. Tolkien was as lost to me as the True Ring at the bottom of the Anduin.

 While taking a break during an overnight shift in a grocery I was reading an Entertainment Weekly
article about the films and the history of the books when I came across the line (and I'm paraphrasing)
"read by millions."   READ by millions. READ BY millions. READ BY MILLIONS! I'd barely even
heard of the books. Nobody I knew ever talked about the Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings and I
played Dungeons and Dragons. A percentage of my friends should have talked about it. So, I'm
I'm skeptic. I asked two guys, on the night crew, if they read them. They said, yes. I think I asked my
then wife if she read them. She may have said the Hobbit but not the trilogy.  The absolute BEST
response was my younger sister. Her response was; "Yes, back in high school." (13 years ago, at this
point.) I said, "We went to the same high school. I never read those." Her reply, "Well, you always
were a bit slow." Apparently.

 Needless to say, nobody likes feeling left out. I went to Border's bookstore, later that day, and bought
the trilogy and the histories but not The Hobbit. Since they weren't making that movie and the article
referred to it as a kid's story published almost two decades before I passed on it. The Fellowship of
the Ring, I loved. Absolutely, loved it. Personal 'Top Five' favorite of mine, now. I finished it right
before the first film hit. The next summer, I, totally, struggled through The Two Towers. I believe I
spent a month on a chapter with Frodo and Sam walking, somewhere. I had it read before the movie
came out though. Finally, the summer after, I completed The Return of the King. That one I liked
better than the second book but not anywhere near as much as I liked the first. I never did read the
Appendices or the Histories or the Elven language guide. I did, however, use the crap out of the A to
Z guide to Middle-Earth by Robert Foster. I also of course purchased all the extended versions of the
movies. I felt fulfilled, now. Like a hobbit smoking South Farthing tobacco.

 Jump ahead a few years and I finally get around to reading The Hobbit. I liked that book as well.
Then, like Bilbo at his 111th, I left the Shire. Until, I joined a role playing group and several of
us started debating the books, a lot. Even just going out for a beer we would talk about the books for
hours. Texts passing back and forth, even in the middle of the night, debating Middle-Earth 
economics, race relations and lines of lineage. Somewhere, in there, we determined Bilbo was
autistic. We caught the rerelease of the trilogy in theaters and caught the release of The Hobbit.

I started a book club. We had numerous meet ups on the Hobbit, over the summer. There's another 
one this Saturday. We've really gotten deep with Middle-Earth. I've gotten deep with Middle-
Earth. I've come to love it. I'll share it as I go. I just purchased a Blu-ray and the first thing I
bought was the Extended Edition Trilogy. Also, I've started rereading the Fellowship.

Since the holidays are coming and I get busier, at this time of year, this blog will be my outlet. I
didn't go deeper into what I've liked or my actual thoughts because I just wanted to give you my
history. I will cover many topics and what they mean to me.

                   My current collection and I know there's one missing. It's in my backpack.