> 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.

Actually, I haven't. Perhaps I shall again, despite your warnings. I've got 'em on my bookshelf, they're not very long. Dawn Treader was always my favorite anyway (with the absolute worst in the series being the horrid Last Battle).

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

Yeah, I get you. I still hold to the fact that I really enjoyed TRotK, book and story. But I really would probably also say that I enjoyed Fellowship, overall.

>
> 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).

Heh, exact opposite of me. I couldn't get past them traversing that wood, with Tom Bombadil and all that other stuff that's just them travelling. Once I got to the ford scene, I got more interested (though the Council of Elrond is incredibly dull, save for the few parts where they actually convey information relevant to the plot).

>I nearly lost it in The Two Towers, better known as The Book In Which Nothing Of Consequence Happens.

Well, wait, there was that one part where something happened. I think it was with one of the characters..... Oh yeah, you got to learn that The Ring was corrupting Frodo! Something which wasn't really mentioned enough (sarcasm).

>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.

I pretty much liked everything in TRotK, particularly the Siege of Minas Tirith (again, if that's spelled wrong, tough). That is probably one of the coolest mass battle scenes I've ever read. The bit with Frodo and Sam did drag, especially with "They're gonna die, oop, maybe not. Oh, here, now they'll die, oop maybe not."

>
> >
> > (By the by - has anyone actually read the
> >Silmarillion >
> Ugh. I tried to read it once. Sorry, I'm just not interested in the back story enough.

There was a story? I couldn't get past the first few chapters. As I recall, exactly nothing happens, except some Biblical metaphors. That's first rate entertainment if I ever saw it.