> Say Dave, what books do you like? In the same
>day, you manage to knock both Narnia (a childhood
>favorite series of mine) AND Middle Earth.
>Sheesh. You just trying to stir up the board, or
>what?
>

Have you read the Narnia books at any time since your childhood, or is your opinion of them based soley on your fond childhood memories? If you have not reread them as an adult, I suggest that you don't do it. They don't hold up nearly as well as other "childhood" books I've reread. The only one I liked as much as I did when I was a child was "Voyage of the Dawn Treader". All the rest of them have been a huge dissapointment, I'm very sad to say.


> However, I do agree largely with your problems
>reading Tolkien. I think it took me a year to
>read Fellowship, just because I kept stopping
>(also, my dog ate my first copy, and it took me
>forever to get another one). Once I finished the
>first half, I really got into the series (except
>for that dull part in the middle, um, I think it
>was called The Two Towers?). I can say that I
>read Return of the King pretty much without
>putting it down, and I REALLY enjoyed that book.
>Overall, I really like the trilogy, but it does
>go SLOW at times.

I have to admit I did enjoy the story. I just didn't enjoy the books, if you know what I mean.

Basically, I read the first two hundred or so pages of Fellowship at a good clip, then stumbled to the end (that bit between Bree and the Council of Elrond really drags, *including* the famous Nazgul at the ford scene, IMO). I nearly lost it in The Two Towers, better known as The Book In Which Nothing Of Consequence Happens. The Return of the King was much better--once I got back into the series and managed to make my way to this book, I was pretty much home free. The last half of TRotK was awesome.

>
> (By the by - has anyone actually read the
>Silmarillion [and if my spelling is off, oh well,
>I'm too lazy to check] all the way through? You
>want to talk about dull books...]

Ugh. I tried to read it once. Sorry, I'm just not interested in the back story enough.