My Adventures in Middle-Earth

I have now read and watched all the Lord of the Rings books and movies!!

WARNING! Some spoilers ahead!


Starting at the beginning. On April third of this year, I received a report that would change my life. Mom and Dad were going out, but before they left they said I could read the Lord of the Rings books, by J.R. Tolkien!
Promptly at 7:00 that night I began read 'The Hobbit' with great enthusiasm. Note: I do not recommend reading 'The Annotated Hobbit' for first time reading. There are some spoilers in the annotations.

April 7, 9:45 p.m. Finished reading 'The Hobbit', and had a great dislike of spiders for some time! I have been looking forward to the Hobbit movie coming out in December ever since!

Mara and I were painting outside a little while after, so I painted a hobbit! Mara guessed that that was what I was drawing, when I just had the hair done! It must be very recognizable as a hobbit, because everyone said it was one before I told them. (Or maybe they just knew that was what I had been reading?)

The Fellowship of the Ring. April 8, 2:30 p.m. - April 12, 4:30 p.m.
Mara was out with Dad when I finished it, so I had to wait a couple hours for her to get back and find the next books. It was horrible to have to wait when the action was really starting to get going! My suggestion, know where all the books are in advance, so you don't have to stop between books, and almost go crazy!

The Two Towers. April 12, 6:45p.m. - April 13, 11:45 p.m.

The Return of the King. April 14, 9:00 a.m. - April 16, 9:12 p.m.
I finished all of the Lord of the Rings books!!! I also read all the appendices, which made me take longer to finish. I didn't know what to read for a little bit, but I decided to reread 'The Hobbit' since I now knew the significance of the events in it.

We watched the first movie on July 3rd. Helena and I hadn't seen them before, so it was fun watching them just the four of us, as since Benedick hasn't read the books yet he and Mom would go out.

This is me shortly before watching The Fellowship of the Ring. I know I look like an evil genius, but I am really in great danger of bursting with excitement, having waited all day, so do try to understand.

As opposed to what some might tell you, I did not watch the whole movie like this, only bits of the more scary battles. This was the second PG-13 movie I had ever seen, and according to what Mara told me before, it sounded like it would be very scary and keep me from sleeping for a week, but none of them were very scary at all.

This is me after finishing the movie, with the realization of the entire awesomeness of it still sinking in!

Then, on the 6th, we watched The Two Towers!

Finally, on the ninth of July, we watched The Return of the King! Dad got pizza from Costco for our dinner, and Helena made us all balance the box on our heads.

Mara showing off!

After proving that we are all indeed capable of continuing that age-old tradition of balancing objects on heads, we continued watching the third and final movie.

I know, you see me cowering yet again, and you think that despite my brave words I was really scared out of my wits. But in my defense, when you consider that this is the Shelob scene, and you observe that Helena, despite being four years my senior is also hiding behind a pillow, I trust that you will understand that I did not wish to completely lose my nights sleep by watching open-eyed the scariest part of all the movies.

We watched all the credits to all the movies, including the names of the people in the Lord of the Rings fan club (some very interesting names came up).

If you are still here at the end of all things, congratulations! Now that we have finished with all of these movies, I have started counting down to the Hobbit movie in December. I can't wait!! I also like reading good Lord of the Rings fan fiction!

P.S. I know I have said this before, but I am going to post more in the future. At least you know one reason it has been taking me so long.