It has taken me many years to pick this novel off my bookshelf. Back in Grade 6, I tried reading the first Lord of the Rings book, and I thought it was terrible. At that age, the songs were too boring and the descriptions were too long, so I stopped reading it 10 chapters in. Since then, I’ve just had no desire to read The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, even when I fell in love with the movies. When I heard that they were making The Hobbit into a movie, I decided I needed to forget my old feelings and start anew. So I read The Hobbit. And it was incredible. Of course, it’s much shorter than The Lord of the Rings books, but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier or less interesting. On the contrary, it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It gripped me from the start, and I couldn’t believe how perfectly paced Tolkien had written it. He made it seem like I was on the journey with the group. One death in particular seemed a bit less extravagant than I thought it should have been, but Tolkien was probably saving up for the final battle. Nonetheless, I am so glad I read The Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins is one of the most agreeable characters in a long while, but despite the fact that he is not a Man, he is still inflicted with many of the feelings, decisions and sorrows any great Man must face in life. I cannot wait until the movie comes out in December because I’m not at all worried that Peter Jackson will mess it up. He did The Lord of the Rings justice, so I know he’ll do this the same. To anyone who hasn’t picked up The Hobbit, I urge that you pick up this timeless tale and just devour it! To view more of my book reviews, visit: http://booksteame.com/

Classic fantasy fiction that comes to life with the adventure of Bilbo, the dwarves and Golum through Middle Earth. Loved the imagery and imagination used to create this world. Look forward to reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy to get to the know the characters even more. Loved how Bilbo challenges himself and takes intiatives to survive and not relying on Gandolf or the others. Kudos to Bilbo, the treasurer hunter!

Jake's Review: Would have been higher rating but the man just had way too much detail and his sentences were like 500 words long. Liked that the characters from the Lord of the Rings (e.g. Gandalf, Elrond, etc) were in the Hobbit. I watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy with my parents so I was familiar with many of the characters. I like the fantasy of the story with all the made up creatures and places. My favorite character was Bilbo because even though he was a wimpy, lazy guy he became brave and fought creatures bigger and stronger than he was. Gollum is one serious creepy dude (and Mom thinks she can do a Gollum voice but she can't - please make her stop) I think Aidan would really like this one. Jake's Rating: 8/10 Mom's Review: Jake and I decided to read this one together - in other words - I read a chapter out loud to him every night for almost a month. An absolutely delightful fantasy tale that I highly recommend everyone to read. That being said -- oh my god -- Tolkien is the "King" of the run on sentence. Reading it aloud was excruciating at times, I never knew when to breathe. Not to mention the shear amount of times he went off topic. It truly drove me nuts at times. It took us a while to get into it but about a quarter of a way in we were hooked and couldn't wait to read it each night. The dialogue between Bilbo and Smog was worth each and every run on sentence. The sheer amount of creativity put into this story is awe inspiring!!! Will be interesting to see what they do with the movies. Best part was reading it with Jake every night, a truly wonderful bonding experience. Mom's Rating: 8.5/10 I borrowed my husband's copy to read aloud to Jake. Yup he actually read a book once and liked it

I was honestly expecting a bit more from The Hobbit. It just sort of fell short of my expectations. Maybe it was because I was expecting it to be like Eragon because of the beginning? The dwarves, goblins, wizards, I couldn't help but think of Eragon! Even though it was quite different from Eragon, I still enjoyed The Hobbit, just not as much as I would've liked to. Now, Bilbo, the hobbit himself was an interesting character to follow. I mean, at first he was the one that couldn't even climb up a tree without help, and the one who kind of slowed the group of travellers down. But later on, he grew to be a brave hobbit and accomplished a lot of things that his old self wouldn't have done. I especially liked the dwarves (by the way, my computer is saying that "dwarves" isn't a word, and should be corrected to wharves..) because each of them had a characteristic that you could remember them by. One was fat, two could make excellent fires, two of them the youngest, and one was a great guard. The others weren't mentioned as much, but it didn't bother me. The wizard in here, Gandalf, was said to have accomplished a lot and was a great wizard himself. But I just thought that he wasn't the best wizard. A lot of the times, I thought he could use his magic in some way to actually HELP. I mean, I get that he did save the hobbit and the dwarves quite a few times, but honestly, I just wanted to scream "HOW ARE YOU EVEN A WIZARD?" I expected so much more from him. -shakes my head- Overall, I liked the book, and I think anyone who is a fan of fantasy should read it. Just don't expect it to be like Eragon, maybe that's why I didn't like it as much as I would have. Who knows...

The artwork on the outside is fantastic, the story is amazing, and the pages are easy to read! I would absolutely recomend this copy of the book

"Far over the misty mountains cold To dungeons deep and caverns old We must away ere break of day To seek the pale enchanted gold." Adventure anyone? The Hobbit is a novel about Bilbo Baggins' journey through middle earth with 13 dwarves and a wizard. It may be a bit slow for some as descriptions are lengthy and plentiful. However if you're the kind of person that enjoys being able to sit back, close your eyes and escape to another world. This is the book for you. 5/5

The Hobbit is a classic that will never go out of style.

This book is absolutely everything you need to make your imagination explode with awesomeness. I was reading it and couldn't let go. I hope more people will read this amazing story of a small Hobbit and the 13 dwarves. Super mega highly recommended!

Tremendous escapism, timeless classic tale.

I loved it, so entertaining!