barbelizabeth's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
scroggin_cooper's review against another edition
5.0
It's still my favorite book. I first picked this book up when I was a youngin, and I didn't read it. It was too long. But a few years later, I read it and loved it. This book is a brilliant character study of Bilbo Baggins. His whole arc of going on an adventure is truly one of my favorite things in the history of literature. Every little section is beautifully written with great characters and interactions. Read it if you haven't read one of my classics in fantasy.
isabellarobinson7's review against another edition
5.0
Rating: 5 nostalgia ridden stars
The first time I read The Hobbit, it took me several months. The second time I read The Hobbit, it took me a day.
Quite a few years ago, my mum purchased a copy of this book to read to my younger brother and I at night time before bed. We only made it a couple of chapters before my brother was bored, and Mum was never really into fantasy to begin with, so we put the book down. But I was not bored, and was developing an interest in fantasy from reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. So while the rest of my family forgot about Tolkien's masterpiece until the films were released, I discovered a genre that would ultimately take over my life (this was all a tad dramatic, but hey, Tolkien would approve).
But I was young, and Tolkien's traditional writing style seemed like another language to me. Sentences like Gandalf's famous "Do you mean to wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good on this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?" flew right over my head. What even were;;; those weird punctuation marks? Why didn't Gandalf just say "hello" or something back? It's safe to say that it took me a bit to get through The Hobbit first time around. But you know what? Young Isabella didn't care if it took her three years to finish this book, because she was loving every second.
Then another issue arose once I had actually finished it - no one I knew liked it, or anything similar. I can even remember another guy in my class reading The Hobbit around time I was, but never finished it because it was quote-unquote "boring" and "nothing happened". Did we read different books? Because whatever it was that I read was so interesting and action packed that it couldn't possibly be described as "boring" (I was a child and thought all my opinions were objective, cut me some slack).
And I had no idea where to go from there. Rereading The Hobbit never crossed my mind for some reason, and I wasn't old enough to tackle the tome-sized Lord of the Rings, so I dived into YA early. What I found disappointed me. This was right around the time when dystopia really boomed in the YA community, overshadowing what little fantasy there was, and so I rode the wave like everybody else. I read Divergent once when I was 10 and decided this would be my "new thing" since Tolkien-esque fantasy wasn't a socially acceptable interest to have. Then dystopia died down and I got lost in the sea of John Green-ish angsty YA contemporaries, none of which I really enjoyed like everyone seemed to. I thought that my issue was that I simply didn't like reading, and I read very little outside Rick Riordan for many years.
I read The Lord of the Rings in amongst this time, (naturally, I loved it and now I own three copies) and Tolkien's work once again caused me to frantically search for more fantasy worlds in books. My mistake was running to the YA shelves. Everyone seemed to continue with YA despite outgrowing the supposed age demographic, so I guess I never expected to look anywhere else. I read Six of Crows and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children the same year, and thought I had finally found my kind of book. But then I hit a dry spout again in 2018 when I realized that I had been reading the same quintessential YA tropes rehashed again and again, most of which I actually didn't like. I had a massive reading slump that year, and ended up just rereading Rick Riordan's entire middle-grade bibliography from start to finish.
I reverted back to my YA ransacking for the first few months of 2019 once I had come out of the slump and almost fell into another one (I was saved by the pure mindless enjoyment of Ready Player One). The real turning point came in June that year, when I finally braved the adult section of the library and found The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. Before long, I had bought all three books in the Mistborn trilogy (I now own three sets) and had completed all of Sanderson's Cosmere, including White Sand (plus some others, like both Skyward and Starsight, as well as Steelheart and the first Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians book). Last year was the best reading year I have ever had, both in quality and quantity, with an overall 3.2 stars average (which is high for me, considering I had entire years with only a couple new 5 star reads) over 170 books.
Now I am in a better place reading-wise than I have ever been before, finishing up book 10 in The Wheel of Time and anxiously awaiting Stormlight 4. So it seemed only fitting that I read The Hobbit for the second time, as it really was my gateway into what would eventually become my greatest passion - books.
(This was way longer than expected, but no one reads these anyway, so it is really only a pain for me when I want to go back and read this review.)
The first time I read The Hobbit, it took me several months. The second time I read The Hobbit, it took me a day.
Quite a few years ago, my mum purchased a copy of this book to read to my younger brother and I at night time before bed. We only made it a couple of chapters before my brother was bored, and Mum was never really into fantasy to begin with, so we put the book down. But I was not bored, and was developing an interest in fantasy from reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. So while the rest of my family forgot about Tolkien's masterpiece until the films were released, I discovered a genre that would ultimately take over my life (this was all a tad dramatic, but hey, Tolkien would approve).
But I was young, and Tolkien's traditional writing style seemed like another language to me. Sentences like Gandalf's famous "Do you mean to wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good on this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?" flew right over my head. What even were;;; those weird punctuation marks? Why didn't Gandalf just say "hello" or something back? It's safe to say that it took me a bit to get through The Hobbit first time around. But you know what? Young Isabella didn't care if it took her three years to finish this book, because she was loving every second.
Then another issue arose once I had actually finished it - no one I knew liked it, or anything similar. I can even remember another guy in my class reading The Hobbit around time I was, but never finished it because it was quote-unquote "boring" and "nothing happened". Did we read different books? Because whatever it was that I read was so interesting and action packed that it couldn't possibly be described as "boring" (I was a child and thought all my opinions were objective, cut me some slack).
And I had no idea where to go from there. Rereading The Hobbit never crossed my mind for some reason, and I wasn't old enough to tackle the tome-sized Lord of the Rings, so I dived into YA early. What I found disappointed me. This was right around the time when dystopia really boomed in the YA community, overshadowing what little fantasy there was, and so I rode the wave like everybody else. I read Divergent once when I was 10 and decided this would be my "new thing" since Tolkien-esque fantasy wasn't a socially acceptable interest to have. Then dystopia died down and I got lost in the sea of John Green-ish angsty YA contemporaries, none of which I really enjoyed like everyone seemed to. I thought that my issue was that I simply didn't like reading, and I read very little outside Rick Riordan for many years.
I read The Lord of the Rings in amongst this time, (naturally, I loved it and now I own three copies) and Tolkien's work once again caused me to frantically search for more fantasy worlds in books. My mistake was running to the YA shelves. Everyone seemed to continue with YA despite outgrowing the supposed age demographic, so I guess I never expected to look anywhere else. I read Six of Crows and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children the same year, and thought I had finally found my kind of book. But then I hit a dry spout again in 2018 when I realized that I had been reading the same quintessential YA tropes rehashed again and again, most of which I actually didn't like. I had a massive reading slump that year, and ended up just rereading Rick Riordan's entire middle-grade bibliography from start to finish.
I reverted back to my YA ransacking for the first few months of 2019 once I had come out of the slump and almost fell into another one (I was saved by the pure mindless enjoyment of Ready Player One). The real turning point came in June that year, when I finally braved the adult section of the library and found The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. Before long, I had bought all three books in the Mistborn trilogy (I now own three sets) and had completed all of Sanderson's Cosmere, including White Sand (plus some others, like both Skyward and Starsight, as well as Steelheart and the first Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians book). Last year was the best reading year I have ever had, both in quality and quantity, with an overall 3.2 stars average (which is high for me, considering I had entire years with only a couple new 5 star reads) over 170 books.
Now I am in a better place reading-wise than I have ever been before, finishing up book 10 in The Wheel of Time and anxiously awaiting Stormlight 4. So it seemed only fitting that I read The Hobbit for the second time, as it really was my gateway into what would eventually become my greatest passion - books.
(This was way longer than expected, but no one reads these anyway, so it is really only a pain for me when I want to go back and read this review.)
mollyxmiller's review against another edition
5.0
Really, how could you NOT love the Hobbit? This one's just a given....
darkndani's review against another edition
3.0
For a fairly short book, there were times it felt extremely long. Probably because of the older writing style and the details through out. This wasn't a very difficult book to follow as far as fantasies go, but it's definitely not my cup of tea. I often found myself zoning out while reading or listening. I think had I read this before I watched the movies I might have given up. It's not a bad story, but I think in general classics aren't for me. My ADHD causes me to struggle to focus on books enough as is, LOL.
But hey, if you like fantasy and classics you might really enjoy this book! And especially so if you enjoy the LOTR world in general.
Side note- this book had waaaaay more singing than I expected. To be fair, I didn't expect any songs but there was a song in just about every chapter and that was very surprising lol
But hey, if you like fantasy and classics you might really enjoy this book! And especially so if you enjoy the LOTR world in general.
Side note- this book had waaaaay more singing than I expected. To be fair, I didn't expect any songs but there was a song in just about every chapter and that was very surprising lol
mboling's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
zermaslan's review against another edition
5.0
Pocos libros me han llenado tanto como el hobbit, a pesar de ser una historia para niños, los personajes son genialmente desenvueltos y se enfrentan a retos muy maduros y muchas veces se enfrentan a decisiones morales que deben tomar por un bien mayor.
Me quedo con un excelente sabor de boca y casi no puedo esperar por leer el señor de los anillos, pero al haber disfrutado tanto de este libro creo que lo mejor será esperar un poco para poder disfrutar de los otros a pequeñas cucharadas.
Me quedo con un excelente sabor de boca y casi no puedo esperar por leer el señor de los anillos, pero al haber disfrutado tanto de este libro creo que lo mejor será esperar un poco para poder disfrutar de los otros a pequeñas cucharadas.
erica_cronje's review against another edition
i tried to gibe audiobooks another try but for some reason i just cant enjoy it when i listen to an audiobook so i will continue to read my physical copy instead
motivoslobos's review against another edition
5.0
¡Una gran aventura!
Amé la narración desde sus primeras páginas y la facilidad con la que se lee.
Curioso con algunas cosas que el libro no nos da pero siento que tienen alguna explicación.
Muy pocas páginas para toda la aventura tan enorme que creé en mi cabeza, si o sí voy a por los otros libros para saber que pasa y la conexión con El señor de los anillos...
Amé la narración desde sus primeras páginas y la facilidad con la que se lee.
Curioso con algunas cosas que el libro no nos da pero siento que tienen alguna explicación.
Muy pocas páginas para toda la aventura tan enorme que creé en mi cabeza, si o sí voy a por los otros libros para saber que pasa y la conexión con El señor de los anillos...