Book Review: “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien

I know this is probably an unpopular view, and I don’t know why it is, but I find when I read Tolkien my mind loves to wander. I love his stories, I love his characters, I love the movies based off his books, but I lose focus when reading his books. It took me a while to figure it out but I believe it’s because there is little dialogue compared to description of adventure. I think I’m a reader who thrives off character interaction, and sometimes I would read two whole chapters in The Hobbit where there was only a line or two of dialogue.

That said, Tolkien has created an incomparable world and characters to live in it, as we all know. I love the hobbits, the elves, the dwarves, and even the men and goblins. It’s all so rich and vast. Reading the book compared to the movie, I got a little more insight into the races and what is thought of them by other races, how they interact with each other. The adventure in this book was well represented in the movie.

I thought it was unique and fun that Tolkien made Smaug a talking dragon, and there was even an entire chapter told from Smaug’s point of view where we got to get inside his head to see what he thought about the dwarves and their hobbit trying to steal his gold. It was all very interesting.
The language was easy to read for being an older book, first published in 1937. I can see why it’s a timeless classic. There is nothing to give away its age inside. It’s just a great story of dwarves, a wizard, and a hobbit journeying across their vast land for a mission to sleigh a dragon and reclaim dwarf treasure.