Hoof! :lands hard:
Hmmm... Level 15. I didn't even know this place was down here.
:looks around:
Well, hey! I know a whole lot of you! Nice to see you all here! How come noboby told me?
:whimpers in self-pity then slaps self across face:
Sorry. I coulda looked.
Okay. I think some of you may know my little story from other threads.
One night at bedtime, way back in 1968, my brother H. said he'd like to read me a chapter from the best story he'd ever found (if you consider it as prequel to LotR and therefore part of it). He proceeded to read to me Riddles in the Dark from The Hobbit. I am indebted to him for that wonderful experience. Next day, I picked up the book for myself and read the whole thing through, I don't know how long it took me, but I savored Riddles in the Dark for the second time, on my own. It has remained one of my favorite chapters (I really need to read it again). I moved on to LotR, but was frankly too young, and when I got to Minas Tirith in RotK, I got bored with the description of the place, and set the books down for a couple years. I never lost my enthusiasm for Middle Earth, though. I finished RotK when I was 13. Lessee, that puts my completion at 30 years ago. I have since read LotR 6 times, the Hobbit about 3 times all the way through, and scanned both for reference regularly. As I said, it changed my life and baptized my imagination. Okay. I've put in my 2 cents and will now go back and read through the thread and catch up.
:doffs cap and zig zags back down a few corridors, and calls out before he gets out of hearing distance:
Yeah, I did AD&D too. I plagiarized Tolkien's world, making much of the two Blue Wizards, dungeon mastering feebly but enthusiastically.
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