The Hobbit

“Hobbits have…little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort.”

2/5 ⭐

It may be sacrilege to rate Tolkien so low, but I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as I was hoping I would (also, in retrospect I rated Treasure Island a star too high).

There is plenty to like about this book: a well fleshed out fantasy world in only 300 pages, a classic hero’s journey from normalcy to adventure, and a huge cast of characters. Discovering new parts of the world—the goblins’ caves, the wood-elves’ fortress, the lonely mountain—was the most entertaining aspect of the book.

But, sadly, in almost every other way the book fell short for me. Of our cast of over a dozen dwarves, most of them never speak a single word of dialogue and have zero personality. Bilbo is one of the only characters that changes from the beginning of the story to the end. Even the dwarf leader—Thorin—is largely stagnant until a hasty redemption arc in the final act.

It is fun to see Gandalf, but the story does better when he is not around to swoop in at the last second and save the day. With or without Gandalf, the story was completely void of tension. The narrator would often tell the reader how a dangerous situation would play out, then explain it in retrospect.

There are also ten songs, which is ten songs too many.

I can appreciate the importance of this book and wish I had read it a decade ago (maybe I would have liked it more then) but at the end of the day—classic or not—I want to have fun reading, and this too often felt like a chore.

Some underline-worthy quotes:

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something.”

“We…have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them.”