Nicol Williamson's Hobbit

[davem]

On Nicol's official site is his reading of The Hobbit. http://www.nicolwilliamson.com/?p=125

In the early 1970’s, Nicol was approached by Demi Demetriou and asked if he would undertake a recording of the Hobbit for Decca records. Nicol has a true love for the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and was excited to work on such a challenging solo project.
A lot of people have expressed an interest in both a re-release and in an unabridged version, but so far there is no movement in either direction. Nicol actually is strongly opposed to an unabridged version, in fact he re-edited the original script, removing many ‘he said, she said, said so and so’ etc, relying on his vocal character performances to convey who was saying what to whom. He really prefers that to an over-reliance on descriptive narrative, and feels it keeps you more in the story.
We were talking recently about his doing the same thing with Lord of the Rings, I think he would enjoy recording it immensely.

This is an abridged reading, but quite lovely. Give it a go.