The Beginning of My "Recommended Reading" Book List: The Hobbit

As I mentioned in my last post, I am building a list of books that I feel good about recommending to other people.

It is natural to start with books that I have been reading to my own children. Not long ago, we read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. We were delighted with the story. Most of the children had read it on their own and already had their favorite passages and chapters. It was still good to read it together, a chapter a night.

I won't spoil the plot for those of you who haven't read it, though most will have some inkling of what happened in the book due to popular culture or because of having seen The Lord of The Rings films.

In short, I highly recommend this book and I even more highly recommend reading it aloud to children. The Hobbit is thought of as a childrens' story, but I assure you that I got great pleasure from reading it and I think that most adults would have a similar experience. It's an introduction into a rich world that is so different from our own, but still familiar. It's what has become known as "High Fantasy". Whatever genre it may belong to, it is enjoyable to read.

Our copy of this book has quite a bit of wear! I'm glad we had this hardcover edition, though. I do think that a hardcover book with wide margins is more pleasurable to read than a mass-market paperback (though I will certainly read in that format, if there are good stories to be enjoyed or important ideas to explore).

If you have read it, what did you find most memorable about the story? Do you have a favorite edition of The Hobbit? If you haven't read it yet, what would be a good enough reason for you to decide to read it?

More books to come!

This is the first book on my recommended reading list. I hope to grow this list into the hundreds of titles. Thanks for being here at the start of this journey.

Until next time,

-- @matthewdavid