My dad would mention
The Lord of the Rings and
The Hobbit in passing for as long as I could remember......I would always roll my eyes and pass them off as "one of Dad's kitschy science fiction novels". (NOTE: That was before I became a sci-fi fan myself. Mind your words, you may eat them some day.)
When I was in the hospital once (I was about 14 or 15 at the time) my dad read the first part of
The Fellowship of the Ring to me. I was mildly interested, but didn't give the story much thought afterward.
My dad had been telling me
The Fellowship of the Ring was about to become a movie a good month or two before it came out. About a week before the movies came out (December 2001) I passed my dad's battered old paperbacks on the bookshelf (you know, the tan paperbacks with the Eye and the ring script on the front in the red slipcase, I think they are second edition Allen & Unwin but I'm not sure) and thought "Hmm...maybe I will give these a try.
I.......WAS.......HOOKED
It's been a great nine years ever since that day.
