I think what most people who don’t read don’t realize is that reading is a more active process than watching movie because your own imagination creates “scenes” in the deep-end of the mind.

This is exactly why, at least for me, watching the movie then reading the book, is akin to ruining the reading experience.

And with an exception or two, the books are always way, way better than the movies based on them.

So, although I had watched “Lord of the Rings” year ago, the other day a Ballantine books edition of “The Hobbit” excited just enough curiosity for me to see whether my formula (book > movie) held.

One thing I noticed as I kept reading was just how complete Tolkien’s mastery of the English language was. Story and content aside, the sentences are elegant, while meaning-to-word ratio is very high (that is, he paints a very complete picture in the least amount of words–kind of like my sentence that began with ‘while’ and ended with ‘high’.)

Another interesting thing I noticed was how original the story was. Although Tolkien has, no doubt, been influenced by old Nordic and Anglo-Saxon lore, the characters, the ideas and the action sequences are all very Tolkienic. Inventions such as hobbits, bear-man, vargs, and goblins all show a very English originality (that is, he did not steal ideas from other cultures.).

There is a sort of artistic consistency throughout the story that shows Tolkien as a master of entertainment, as well. There are no loose or unexplained ends. The story is action and although descriptions are maximally imaginative, no undue time is spent on fluff. The actions moves fast.

He also brings a religious touch to the story. But in the spirit of religious unity and tolerance, although he was a Catholic, no explicit references were made to his own religion. The references he makes to religion are in general. For instance, when King Thorin is about to die, he says to Bilbo:

“Farewell, good thief,” he said. “I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers, until the world is renewed. Since I leave now all gold and silver, and go where it is of little worth, I wish to part in friendship from you.

It is very subtle, but the reference to money being useless for the dying person is a very powerful religious tonic: it made me think of the idea that before embarking on a questionable action or deed, one need to imagine oneself dying and then ask: “do I really want to leave this world doing this?”

There are also subtle hints like this about inter-racial relations, economics and trade, strategy (how Bilbo destroyed black spiders), personality psychology, arts and crafts, naturology (the love and study of all things natural, such as when Bilbo wanted to learn the names of the fascinating flowers at Bear-man’s house.).

Finally, the references to wizardry were off-putting, though, and although otherwise I enjoyed the practical and artistic elements, I will have to think twice about investing time and eyes to the ‘Lord of the Rings’ series. That’s because there are books written that even better, and time is a scarce resource.