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[kcwong]

Would you recommend reading "The Hobbits" before "The Lord of the Rings" (the three books)?

Would you recommend the other books edited from Tolkien's notes?

I also have just bought the 4th book of the Halo series, Ghost of Onyx. I finished the first three books last year.

The next series I have in mind is Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy"... and maybe all the books in Earthsea.

I'm trying to catch up... being a Hong Kong Chinese, while I've read many Chinese novels, I think I heard too much but read too little of these English classics and masterpieces. I already read many of H.P. Lovecraft's work on WikiSource.

[Cthulhu]

Wait.

The Halo novels are read by people who read things other than the Halo novels?

wat

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

Well, there is some inconsitensyes of The Hobbit when put side to side (I mean read at once) with TLoR. But it's okay, since TLoR is more canon than The Hobbit.

And, The Hobbit is essentially for children, so it's much lighter in tone than TLoR...

[DJ]

Frankly, I found The Hobbit to be a much better book than LoTR. Don't even bother with Silmarillion - it's practically unreadable.

[Siquo]

Or the children of hurin or any other Tolkien. Even LOTR can be a pain to read... Reading The Hobbit first explains a lot of references in LOTR though, you should read that one first.

Hitchhiker's guide is definitely canon, and should be compulsory for the world population. Read it.

[Heavy Flak]

Frankly, I found The Hobbit to be a much better book than LoTR. Don't even bother with Silmarillion - it's practically unreadable.

I've got to agree with DJ.  I've read the hobbit a couple times and enjoyed it thoroughly.  I had to plow through my one reading of the LotR trilogy, and that was just to say I read it and didn't enjoy it to shut a couple people up. 

Tolkien had a very vivid imagination, and a great ability to create worlds, but he wasn't a very good writer.

[kcwong]

Wait.

The Halo novels are read by people who read things other than the Halo novels?

wat

Well... 

One day last year I had to go to a client for some on-site support. I investigated about some issues they've been having there, and didn't finish when it was lunch hour. They guys there needed to lock the office, so I had to leave as well, even when I only needed a few more minutes.

They told me to go for lunch... on my own. I was not invited to go with them. And they won't be back for two hours.

I walked slowly to a nearby shopping mall, ate in food court, and still got more than an hour left. Without anything to do, I went into a book shop.

And that's how I picked up the Halo books. I think I read about ten chapters of the first book, thought it was interesting, and they had a neat 3-book package which cost HKD40 less when compared to buying the three separately.

I don't even have an X-box, and I've never played Halo... but I thought I could use more reading so I bought them. 

Today I went to another bookshop for "The Hobbit" after work, and I saw the fourth book right next to Tolkien's books. Even though the character I liked the most is already dead (Captain Keyes), I've already read the first three and I hate to leave the plot hanging... I'll have to see it through.

I hope you can rest peacefully tonight now that I've explained it to you.



Edit:

Yeah, I've read online that Silmarillion is pretty bad. What about "Unfinished Tales"?

[JoshuaFH]

I own the first of the LotR series. Yeah, go ahead, read it, but be prepared to read just humongous, overly excessive amounts of detail on every. little. thing.

[Jude]

Don't get Earthsea...the first book is kind of cool and then they just suck. Especially "Tehanu" is terrible.

[Mephisto]

Another person telling you to run the opposite way if you see the Silmarillion. Seriously, I only read maybe half a chapter, and even that little bit was a struggle.

The appendices are nice, though.

[Awayfarer]

Would you recommend reading "The Hobbits" before "The Lord of the Rings" (the three books)?

Yep. Like others have said, the LoTR series is actually a bit met. Tolkien could imagine pretty nifty stuff but was a rather dry writer.

Would you recommend the other books edited from Tolkien's notes?

The Silmarillion is ONLY for diehard Middle Earth fanatics. I don't think I even got halfway. Imagine the bible if you took out any reference to the jews and replaced it with elves. That's basically it. Very dense, not terribly enjoyable as literature.

The next series I have in mind is Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy"... and maybe all the books in Earthsea.

The first three books are good. The fourth is pretty good, but feels superfluous. The fifth is, oy, Adams himself said he was going through a rough time when he wrote it, and it shows. The fifth book is depressing. YOu might want to look into "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul". Both are also by Douglas Adams, and are enjoyable, if not exceptional, books.

[Il Palazzo]

Uh, I liked Silmarilion. It's great if after reading the Hobbit and LOTR you're hungry for more information about Tolkien's world. It's sort of a compilation of said world's mythology(kind of what 'Poetic Edda' is for Norse world).
If you have to read just one story from it, go for the one about Turin Turumbar(hope I didn't mess up that name). I do agree that most of it is way to dense for it's own good.
Also, in my opinion, one can read either the Hobbit or LOTR first. Neither one requires knowledge of the other.

I need to ask you this, though: being Chinese, what did you read until now that you'd recommend for westerners? I know 'the Three Kingdoms' already, but there must be much more.

[kcwong]

I guess I'll leave Silmarilion alone for now... after I've finished the four books, if I still want more Middle Earth lore, I'll buy Silmarilion and Unfinished Tales during a sale.

I need to ask you this, though: being Chinese, what did you read until now that you'd recommend for westerners? I know 'the Three Kingdoms' already, but there must be much more.

Definitely Jin Yong. His 14 books are masterpieces, top of the genre.

Naturally I read the original, in Chinese. I've read a bit of the 14th book, The Deer and the Cauldron, on Amazon... it felt weird to me. Since his books have a great deal about martial arts, the translation might hurt your brain. But I'd say Jin Yong's books are worth learning Chinese for.

For Three Kingdoms, there are two versions:
Records of Three Kingdoms is closer to true history (with lots of errors).
Romance of the Three Kingdoms is fiction based on history. It is also what the games are based on usually, and what people talk about. Countless games were made about the Three Kingdoms, but I'd recommend above all KOEI's DOS game "英傑傳" (Legends of Heroes - my translation). It's a turn-based tactical combat game similar to Fire Emblem. You play as Liu Bei, and you have options to follow the history (and die in the end as one of the possible endings), or change the course of history and unite ancient China under your flag.

Water Margin is another classic. KOEI has a DOS game based on this noval, called "Bandit Kings of Ancient China".

Journey to the West is another classic. This is where DragonBall stole the idea of a monkey-boy from (and that's the only thing in common with DragonBall).

Nearly everyone grown up in a Chinese culture would have heard of the above books... and like Tolkien's, the Chinese-speaking population is divided into two: Those who have already read the above books, and those who are going to.

[inaluct]

kcwong, have you read Brave New World? It's pretty entertaining.

[Zai]

Frankly, I found The Hobbit to be a much better book than LoTR. Don't even bother with Silmarillion - it's practically unreadable.

I've got to agree with DJ.  I've read the hobbit a couple times and enjoyed it thoroughly.  I had to plow through my one reading of the LotR trilogy, and that was just to say I read it and didn't enjoy it to shut a couple people up. 

Tolkien had a very vivid imagination, and a great ability to create worlds, but he wasn't a very good writer.

It wasn't that he was a bad writer. It's just that he got very long winded, which tends to lead to boredom for the reader.

There was a similar discussion on another forum recently about great fantasy novels. The people there pretty much concluded that while LotR established the fantasy genre as a serious, honest-to-God, this-is-not-just-a-fairy-tale genre in the public view, it's not a very interesting reading nowadays (for most people =)).

Of course, I'm butchering the words, as I am incredibly tired, and I probably don't make any sense. Oh well.

[EDIT:] Oh, and to answer (one of) the topic's question(s) (what I should have done in the first place <.<), I would say read the Hobbit before LotR. And then try LotR, and if it starts boring you, switch to another book, as it doesn't really get much more entertaining. It's one of those series of books that you either love or really could do without.