I finally took the plunge and followed up on a promise to myself from several years ago. I decided yesterday to start reading Tolkien. I started with The Hobbit and so far so good - I am enjoying it. One of the interesting features is the way occurences are tied to present day things, such as the invention of golf (read the book and see).

Thus far I have fought against the hype of the Lord of the Rings movies. I only ever saw the first one because I was forced by my partners in Miami. It is unlikely at this point that I will sit through them, especially if I read the books. I can’t recall offhand seeing a movie that I preferred to the original book.

I have still refused to watch any of the Harry Potter series because they cannot live up to the pictures I created in my mind while reading. A bit upsetting to me is the upcoming movies from C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. I have already had strong recommendations to see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. But I am not yet sure about that. Having grown up with those stories, and read them dozens of times, I don’t know if they can be captured for me on screen.

I guess one of the things I always enjoyed about reading fiction is creating the places and people in my head, with some guidance from the author. I get to imagine faces and spaces based on my own experiences, perceptions and creativity. When they then make a movie from the book, I now have to be immersed into someone else’s own idea of what those things all look like which in my head never feels the same. I guess it’s just one of my little eccentricities.