Hobb'it? I only Read'it!

Peter's talking about the movie, which I already did. But since I haven't mentioned the book..

One thing that struck me when reading The Hobbit was how comedic it was. At least at the beginning. It got a lot darker towards the end, but I hear some of the chance in tone is due to rewriting after Tolkein did LotR. Certainly the blue and yellow caps of the Dwarfs speak more to Disney cartoons than a serious squad of fighting dwarfs... not that they do a lot of fighting.

I had thought I had read the book before, remembering the Riddles in the Dark section that everyone does. And yet, as I went on, I had to remembrance of anything I was reading. Did I give up? Did I just forget it? Did I never read the book in the first place, or only read that chapter? Certainly I know I had to have a second attempt to read LotR (which I'm now tempted to re-read, what with the movies and having read The Hobbit). Certainly I didn't expect that end of Smaug, and as for the Battle of Five armies...

Still, I can see where they will be padding out three movies out of this. Peter Jackson loves his big battles, so boom, yeah, Five Armies it is. And who knows how long the dragon attack will be...

But this is Bilbo's book, so he gets a lot to do. Even when having to incapacitate the dwarfs in order to give him something to do. He uses the One Ring (before it was known to be the One Ring) a lot, and given they're going slo-mo with the movie, I'm not sure how well that's going to come off. Perhaps that's how they will be padding out the movie? Bilbo invisible versus the spiders and in the Elf settlement... ten minutes just to cross the room!

Actually the best moment for Bilbo is in the stand-off before the Battle, when Bilbo takes events into his own hands to try to end it. Yes, this is so he will be able to get back home and stop whining about not being home. Which he does. A lot. But yeah, going against the Dwarfs with the Arkenstone is a great character moment.

This book is a good paced read, and I'm glad I gave it another go.

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