Lord of the Rings Readalong: The Fellowship of the Ring

It's February, and that means it is time to move on from The Hobbit and onto the first book of the Lords of the Ring trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. I must confess, I am not quite ready to move on from The Hobbit. I finished reading the book in a couple of days early in January, but since then I have also borrowed a radio adaptation to listen to, and also a graphic novel version of the book which I haven't managed to read yet. But move on we must!

This second part of the Lord of the Rings readalong is being hosted over at the Literary Omnivore and she has started off with these questions:

When did you first hear of The Lord of the Rings

Have you read The Fellowship of the Ring before?

What’s your plan of attack, now that we’re dealing with more “mature” literature?

Have you ever seen the movies? If so, do you think they’ll influence your reading? If not, well, why haven’t you seen them?

I first heard of The Lord of the Rings after reading The Hobbit, but I am pretty sure I didn't actually read it until I had already left school. Here's the thing about this trilogy though. I hardly remember anything about it. I am relatively sure that I have already read it, but it will in effect be just like reading it the first time through I think. I do have vague recollections, but I am not sure that it is any more than is out in the general knowledge in the public.

In terms of my plan of attac, normally with my library books (yes that exceptionally boring cover is from my library book), I keep a list of return dates and whether the book can be extended again, and I keep track of which book I should read next. In other words I keep every library book to read until the last possible moment. I am actually breaking out from that routine to include this book in my February reads, because in theory, assuming that I can extend it through the full cycle of extensions, then I wouldn't actually have to read it for another 8 weeks or so. Instead I think I will try to read 100 or so pages each week. I am sure once I get into it, I won't want to put it down and so I will get through it by the end of the month.

There are some times when I am almost shy to confess that there are certain movies that I haven't ever seen. Let me give you an example. I have never, ever seen any of the Star Wars movies from beginning to end. I've seen bits and pieces, but not whole movies. There's no real reason for this. My mother wouldn't let us see the early movies when we were kids because in her opinion they were rubbish, and then I just really never got around to seeing them once she no longer controls what I view despite the fact that I did go through phases of being really into series like Star Trek, Stargate etc. You know where I am going with this don't you? Yep. Never, ever seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies. Maybe reading this book will inspire me to go and watch it.

Are you joining in on the readalong this month?