The Fellowship of the Ring

I've tried multiple times throughout the years to read Fellowship of the Ring but I've always either skimmed through the book or given up entirely. Still, it's one of those bucket list TBR that I know I want to keep having another go at, and I think I've finally gotten to a sweet spot in life where I've managed to finish reading Fellowship and enjoy it.

I think my previous attempts had been foiled by mismanaged expectations brought about by my obsession with the first movie (back when I was a teen), but now that I've kinda left that behind at this point. I've also read more classics and gotten used to this style of writing, and all of this made Fellowship a much more pleasant read than I've previously experienced. It also helped that i went into it knowing that some parts were going to be slower-paced and lore-rich rather than action-packed (as i had expected during my very first attempt), and that helped me to shift my mindset to enjoy it better.

I took so long to read this not because it was a drag as it had been on my previous attempts. In fact, this is the most I have been engaged in and enjoyed the book in all my numerous attempts throughout the years! But I figured that this was a book I didn't want to rush through and force myself to read any faster than what I was comfortable with, so along the way I got distracted by a lot of things, like reading an entire other book (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry) and watching an entire 50-episode TV show. Despite all that, I'm still managing to finish FOTR within a month, and I think that's really good progress for me.

I'm already planning out the rest of my LOTR reading journey - TTT in Sep and ROTK in Dec. I really want to finish the rest of the trilogy this year, but I also think that these are books that I don't want to read consecutively because they're pretty dense in themselves. I want to take my time and slowly savour it along the way.

Some spoilerish observations:
Sam is even more of a voice of reason in the book than he was in the movie. I also can't believe they ended it so abruptly?? I thought that they'd at least have gone on to the death of Boromir and the kidnapping of Merry and Pippin etc. but I guess not. I previously really didn't like the whole Tom Bombadil bit because it felt so draggy and useless, but I found myself really fascinated by it this time round! Also, very fascinated by the Lothlorien bits and the fact that Galadriel is in fact Arwen's grandmother.