[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

The trouble I have is when authors bottle the waters in shiny bottles with precious pink bows.

Couldn't agree more. There's nothing less wonderful than sugary prettiness, especially when myth has been plundered and mutilated to achieve that effect. In my opinion, the Disney versions of the brothers Grimm (and their stories' antecedents) not only had the biggest, pinkest bows imaginable, but were gathered into plastic bottles and scented with artificial rose water to boot.

My problem with Redwall is that the author used the same tired formula FIVE TIMES in the SAME BOOK! Come ON!

And then proceeded to use it again and again and again in every single one of the umpteen sequels, along with the plot structure, descriptions of food, characterisation and so on, until a reader could program a computer to write the next novel as a money-saving ploy. Brian Jaques should have called the series "The Formulaic Chronicles". Mind you, I quite like the Redwall books in small doses: they're so undemanding, like candy-floss for the mind.

But in any case, Sauron was one of the most integral characters, but we never really "see the monster."

I agree. I always got the impression that Sauron's appearances in LoTR were aspects of his spirit projected over a distance. As such they're not quite the same thing as seeing him in the flesh, so to speak, as the leaders of the Last Alliance would have seen him, and this adds to his threatening presence throughout the story.

Following up on GtG and Underhill's discussion, I'll throw in my lot with the "Shire as an idealised society" thesis: I can't imagine living in, for example, Gondor or Lothlorien; Rohan would be a good place to visit for a couple of years if you like mead-halls, riding competitions and Saxons being Saxons; but the Shire is a comfortable nostalgic fantasy of rural England as it should have been, flawless in its small imperfections.

On the subject of telemarketers, I envy Tolkien in that he died before that insidious sales technique took off: bearing in mind how he felt about being pestered over the 'phone by fans, I should imagine that he'd have been apoplectic at a complete stranger wasting his time with exhortations to buy double glazing or life insurance. Those people in their dreary little offices, with their rigid lists of questions would definitely have been among the "maggot folk"; a disembodied army of the damned, spreading irritation and despair.