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"Why does it take everyone so long to read LOTR?"

I read TFOTR in 5 days yet when i talk to people on msn they say they started it at christmas and theyre still only on TTT.

I didn't say it ruined it completely, but it would have better without so much of the heavy stuff.

Sales don't necessarily indicate greatness - just look at charts of music, games, films etc. Usually 90% crap.

And fight scenes are the reason the films are successful. People like fight scenes.

Fair enough then, it is pleasing to us that you like the Beard Bible. But if the language spoils the book, how do you explain the huge sales and success of both the book and the movie?

Don't get me wrong, I think the plot is good, it's well written etc, I just think it's far too name heavy. Which answers the question in the thread title. I read it, and enjoyed it for the most part. Just too many god-damn names.

A langauge created for a book shows inventiveness and dedication. A book created for a language spoils the book.

Then don't read it. Simple. But there's a reason why it's the second best selling book of all time (and the Bible's had a huge head start, heh). It's a masterpiece.

However many names there are, it's too many. People are mentioned for no good reason, and sometimes never mentioned again. Whoever edited that book should have been a bit more firm.

And it gets even worse for the film, because they have to squeeze everything into such a small amount of space.

It's not an impossible book to follow, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who inwardly asked "Who the hell is that?" a few times.

Of course.

Thankfully the bit at the back of the book helps if you are feeling a bit lost.

The Silmarillion is a complete mythology of Middle-Earth. It's bound to be name-heavy when you're desrcibing thousands of years of history, quasi-religion and song.

Blank wrote:
> It takes people so long to read it because it's so bloody name heavy.
> It's what happens when you write a book to show off your made up
> languages. If you put the book down for a few days you're instantly
> greeted back with a barrage of countless similar sounding names, many
> of which are completely uninfluential and unneccesary, and sometimes
> it's hard to even remember who the relatively important ones are.
> Reading the book is like a battle at times. Which just makes you put
> it down for a longer period, which in turn makes the whole scenario
> worse next time round...it's a vicious circle.

I disagree, LOTR is fairly easy to follow. There arent THAT many names, i mean, it involves a war that will decide the fate of middle earth. Naturally that will involve a lot of people.

The silmarilion is a LOT worse.

the_aoe_slaught wrote:
> Also has anyone read the simirilian? My dad bought that aswell but he
> has only read the first 4 books of Bilbo and Frodo.

Yeah, its a lot different to the narrative used in LOTR and The Hobbit, but definitely worth reading if you are interested in the history of middle earth.

It takes people so long to read it because it's so bloody name heavy. It's what happens when you write a book to show off your made up languages. If you put the book down for a few days you're instantly greeted back with a barrage of countless similar sounding names, many of which are completely uninfluential and unneccesary, and sometimes it's hard to even remember who the relatively important ones are. Reading the book is like a battle at times. Which just makes you put it down for a longer period, which in turn makes the whole scenario worse next time round...it's a vicious circle.