Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Hannah Nurse

I first read J. R. R. Tolkein's "The Hobbit" when I was seven years old.  I'd been in bed for a week with a horrible virus and I was sick to death (no pun intended!) of it.  I had to lie down all day in a quiet room and it felt like the most boring thing in the world.  The only thing that took my mind from the illness was reading. But I'd read all the books on my shelf and I couldn't exactly get up and walk down to the library, so I turned to my elder sister for help.

She brought me "The Hobbit".  I'd vaguely heard of it and thought it was a boy's book, full of goblins and swords and nothing at all that would interest me.  But there was nothing else to do so I wearily opened it up and started reading.  And I was enchanted. 

The tale of Bilbo Baggins, a little hobbit who just wants to live in peace in Hobbiton but who is dragged on a quest to relcaim treasure from a dragon by Gandalf the wizard and a troupe of dwarves was the perfect antidote to my mental stupor.  I was enchanted by the thought of woodland elves who sang mysterious and beautiful songs, terrified by the giant spider and threatening trolls, delighted by the battle of wits and riddles between Gollum and Bilbo. 

"The Hobbit" was the only book in those weeks of frustrated bed-ridden boredom which could lift me from my room and pull me into new and exciting worlds.  Whole afternoons which I would have spent pestering my mum for attention flew by as I flicked through the pages as fast as I could to find out whether Bilbo would ever get home, and by the time I closed the book, thrilled and exhilerated, I knew I'd read something special.  I've always loved books, but this was the first book that made me feel better about something in my life. 

"The Hobbit" is a wonderful story.  Tolkein builds a beautiful and magical world so comprehensively, so believably, that by the time you close the book you long to tramp through the Misty Mountains or stroll through Hobbiton yourself.  And what's more, it is a story of friendship, of determination to the right thing and of bravery from someone ordinary.  Bilbo is not a prince or a knight or a wizard - he is a small, ordinary hobbit who discovers he is capable of remarkable things.  Reading it, I believed that maybe I could do remarkable things too. 

I love this book, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anybody else.  Whether old or young, a fan of fantasy or someone who has never touched it before, I truly believe this book will touch your heart and put a smile on your face.