The Hobbit

First read in ... er, 1989 or so, I guess?

The Hobbit wasn't the first fantasy novel I read - as far as I can recall, that honour goes to Lloyd Alexander's The Book of Three. The Hobbit was, however, the book that made me a fantasy fan, so it's fair to say that this book helped shape my life when I read it; as a result, that 5 star rating I gave it can in no way be objective.

Still, it's a good, classic read, one that serves as a nice introduction to Tolkien's legendarium, and which tells a fairly straightforward but exciting story about dragons, dwarves, goblins, and gold. What made it even better was that I read along with the Tolkien Professor's podcast series - he's a university professor who specializes in Tolkien and records his lectures. It really helped me appreciate The Hobbit on a deeper level, especially as he made sure to show a lot of the subtle links between this book and both Lord of the Rings but also the Silmarillion.