Alright guys, this week is a special one for the Hobbit. 67 years ago this week, The Hobbit was first published! So I think we all owe it to Tolkien and the Hobbit to each say was we love so much about the book. I'll start:
Thank you J.R.R. Tolkien for creating such a wonderful world, and letting us get a peek at your thoughts by giving us your amazing story you call the "Hobbit." For children (like when I first read it) and adults (I am still reading it) this story is pure entertainment. Still grasping the complexity of your magnificent world - you bring us to simpler times, full of adventure and suspense, happiness and at times - sadness. Thank you, for writing the Hobbit, and having it published, 67 years ago, this week.
Thread: 67th Anniversary: The Hobbit
Planet Tolkien is archived and no longer updated, but the forums remain browseable. We have established a Telegram group for old and new visitors to stay connected and discuss all things Tolkien.I second that! In every way! (In truth, my calendar has this marked on it ['tis this year's tolkien calendar] but I did not think anyone else on the site would notice!)
The Hobbit has got to be the second best fiction book ever written.
The Hobbit has got to be the second best fiction book ever written.
Thanks J.R.R.!!! 
Now you have really gone and done it! You have used The Hobbit to suck your readers into the LotR and a lifetime habit of rereading all your books where we sit on the edge of ruin enjoying the pleasures of the fable and discussing them to the ninth degree. At least this is one habit that isn't detrimental to our families when practiced with moderation. 
Now you have really gone and done it! You have used The Hobbit to suck your readers into the LotR and a lifetime habit of rereading all your books where we sit on the edge of ruin enjoying the pleasures of the fable and discussing them to the ninth degree. At least this is one habit that isn't detrimental to our families when practiced with moderation. The Hobbit (or there and back again) was the first 'big' book I enjoyed reading, when I was around eight years old. The magic, the adventure, the danger and the comedy. I continuously borrowed it from the local library until I finally got my own copy. The more I read the more I thirsted to know about this wondrous world. When I read The Lord Of The Rings I was engrossed, and delighted to discover more of Middle-Earth, but sad that it was recounting the end of that world. I need not have worried, a whole mine of writings had been done providing me with endless hours soaking up this enchanted place that I had fallen in love with, and just when you think you have discovered all you can more comes to light. I can't wait until the full version of 'Narn I Hin Hurin' is published.
So thank you, John Ronald Ruel. You have given me tears of enjoyment, and opened my eyes to the world of 'faerie', which is a fabulous place to be.
So thank you, John Ronald Ruel. You have given me tears of enjoyment, and opened my eyes to the world of 'faerie', which is a fabulous place to be.
I know a person who doesn't read books unless he has to.
He said to me one day,
"when I own my own house, I will build a room in it with floor to roof bookshelves, grand, ornate, oak or wood shelves.... in the center of the center shelf in this room, I will have one book: The Hobbit. There will be nothing else on the shelves."
(later he revised his statement and said "two books -- the Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit. No, wait, three -- the Bible too. No, wait, four -- the Narnia chronicles too." Still -- it is significant that even though he "never" reads, his first thought was to enshrine the Hobbit in a place of honour in his household -- he thought of it as the only book worth owning for a non-reader like himself).
He said to me one day,
"when I own my own house, I will build a room in it with floor to roof bookshelves, grand, ornate, oak or wood shelves.... in the center of the center shelf in this room, I will have one book: The Hobbit. There will be nothing else on the shelves."
(later he revised his statement and said "two books -- the Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit. No, wait, three -- the Bible too. No, wait, four -- the Narnia chronicles too." Still -- it is significant that even though he "never" reads, his first thought was to enshrine the Hobbit in a place of honour in his household -- he thought of it as the only book worth owning for a non-reader like himself).
Now it is the 68th anniversary of The Hobbit's publication.
Quote:
Alright guys, this week is a special one for the Hobbit. 67 years ago this week...
Alright guys, this week is a special one for the Hobbit. 67 years ago this week...
could only narrow it down to a week, anyone know exactly what day it was 1st published?
It was first published on September 21st 1937... I'm not an expert mathematician, but there's got to be a way of finding the actual day 
Sixty-eight years after the book was published, it is still loved... amazing right... *Tips hat*
Edit: It isn't 68 years... It's 70... 2007 - 1937 = 70
Sixty-eight years after the book was published, it is still loved... amazing right... *Tips hat*
Edit: It isn't 68 years... It's 70... 2007 - 1937 = 70
By golly, I think he's right.
Without a doubt One of the best books ever written!
Just imagine, in an ordinary house, in an attic room sparsely furnished and a little untidy, there sat an English professor, tired from having to mark extra papers late at night to make a few more shillings to take care of his family. And there, among the test papers was an extra sheet. Clear, clean, unmarked and he suddenly picked up a pen in his tired fingers and wrote "Once there lived in a hole in the ground, a hobbit." ( (i just realized I don't remember the exact wording, yikes.).
But at any rate, that tiny strange sentence was the beginning of a fifteen year labour of love exploring all sorts of hobbits, men, elves, dwarves, orcs and well an entire world called Middle-Earth.
amazing. 
Imagine if another person somewhere else in the world scribbled down similar words on a piece of paper, but instead dismissed them as a folly of the mind and threw the piece of paper away.
I do think about things like that a lot. And I have witnessed this sort of thing in real life. And.........hey Vir, it is so lovely to hear your voice. Just awesome.
