What strikes me in this thread - almost everyone here had their first encounter with LotR as children or teenagers! Maybe because you belong to a generation whose parents were already fond of Tolkien and so introduced their children to his works?
Well, I am the big exception here, since with me, it was just the other way round. I first read LotR at the age of 50 !! (That was 2 1/2 years ago. I surely must be the grandmother of this forum [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] )
´Heaven knows why I never came across Tolkien before. It was only when my son (then 15) read the Hobbit and LotR that I discovered it.
The funny thing is that I soon got much more "hooked" than he! For him it was just another exciting adventure and fantasy story, but for me it was kind of a revelation.
I have read much in my life, yet no other book has ever so thrilled, moved and fascinated me and stirred such an interest in its author and all his writings and thoughts.
Miellien, I understand you very well. I also have a husband who never reads any fiction... My boys both like fiction and fantasy but they were both very late and slow readers (they preferred for a long time that I read to them) I hope they will reread LotR (in English, since they only read the German translation which lacks all the charm and beauty of Tolkiens wonderful language) later in life.
Because, as several others have mentioned adults do get more out of LotR!
Like Tolkien himself stated in one of his letters (189):
Quote:
|
I find that many children become interested, even engrossed, in The Lord of the Rings, from about 10 onwards. I think it rather a pity, really. It was not written for them. But then I am a very "unvoracious" reader, and since I can seldom bring myself to read a work twice, I think of the many things that I read - too soon! Nothing, not even a (possible) deeper appreciation, for me replaces the bloom on a book, the freshness of the unread. Still what we read and when goes, like the people we meet, by "fate".
|
On the other hand, Tolkien had stated in "On Fairy-stories":
Quote:
|
...though it may be better for children to read some things, especially fairy-stories, that are beyond their measure rather than short of it. Their books, like their clothes should allow for growth, and their books at any rate should encourage it.
|