tldr: i am finally getting around to LoTR
Growing up I was an avid reader. I read through the small books quickly, and loved every second of it. However, what really piqued my interest was the first Harry Potter book, The Philosopher’s Stone [I much prefer this title to the American counterpart].
This series introduced me to the idea of continuity. No more were the days of Ricky Ricotta’s Giant Robot adventures that never really lined up, or Magic Tree House books with natural disasters that just so happened to be alliterate to the weekday. Instead, there were massive family trees and deep emotional scenes. Main characters facing the challenges of the world around them, as well as the political ramifications of breaking the rules. Interesting point: every book in this series had to do with breaking the rules. Although I guess that is what happens when you are The Chosen One and don’t fear death. Or worse: expulsion.
My parent read The Philosopher’s Stone to me in second grade, and after that I read about one book in the series a year [I read other books during the time,, reading multiple books at a time became an issue for me]. I ended up finishing the last three in seventh grade. This was the time when I read the most, because *that* was the year when I was introduced to the Battle of the Books [I promise it is as nerdy as it sounds].
This Battle went as follows: at the beginning of the year the library is given a list of 30 books, and six months to read as many of them as you can. Books that year included The Boy In Striped Pajamas, Surviving the Applewhites, and my personal all-time favorite book: Counting by 7s by Holly Sloan. Then, six months later, all of the schools in the district get together and are asked questions where the answer is the title of the book– 1 point for the title, another for the author. That first year of middle school, I read 27 books, and was team captain. And then, I stopped.
I’m not certain why. In a previous post (Blog 05.) I said I went from “novels to maths textbooks.” Still, I don’t know the reason behind it. It could be that I was getting more into math– that transition definitely occurred. But it feels more apt to say that sometimes, these sort of things just happen. Now reading a book takes, ages. I had to (and loved) reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for academic decathlon [an excellent experience that I will write about sometime] and it took me *THREE MONTHS*. That is when I realized I had a problem.
Not the type that will physically/emotionally scar me, but nonetheless the type that will take time and active effort to fix. So I have picked up a novel again– The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien [short for Jolkien Rolkien Rolkien Tolkien if you didn’t know]. The goal, being to finish at least one classic series written past the age of 13, at least beyond Harry Potter. Updates to come.
Paige
The Home Paige 
That’s a mood and a half.
The Harry Potter series was the only thing I would read for a solid half year, my parents actually banned me from reading it because I just Wasn’t Reading Anything Else.
The Hobbit is really good. LOTR is too,, but I gave up half way through the marshes, because that section is sooo tedious.
I’ll resume it at some point though. Probably.
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