So what kind of fan were you?

[narfforc]

I read The Hobbit in 1973( though I played Fili in a school play in 1969), LotR in 1975 and queued in Oxford St for the release of The Silmarillion in 1977, and I count not one second wasted.

[aelithes]

I would have to admit that I'm an Edain movie recruit, but in fact my first exposure to Tolkien was when I was in middle school about ten years ago and saw my older brother reading The Hobbit. I remember scoffing and thinking how only nerdy boys who play D&D read that kind of stuff. And now look at us! - he is a saavy, politically/socially-connected lawyer, whereas I'm whiling away my hours poring over Tolkien and ancient literature!

[Shelob]

First-Born for me...I first recall hearing the Hobbit because I went up to my dad (old school book fan) while he was reading it and bugged him until he went back to the begining and read it to me, though acording to my mom he had been reading it to me since I was in the cradle and I had just never realized. After that I made him read me The Lord of The Rings (though we only got as far as Shelob's Lair before I was too scared to continue--which is still pretty good for a 6 year old) I finally finished reading the Lord of the Rings a few years later (when I was about 9 years old).

And I liked the comic...I think I know all those people...

[Milady Revenwyn]

First-born here. My mom had read LOtR when she was around my age currently but has since forgotten everything about it. Thus, I discovered them by myself without the aid of any movie/cartoon version. I became a hardcore LOtR addict, having read the books 76 times since my first reading in 1998.
I have also read Silm, Unfinished Tales, HoME series.

[Thinlómien]

I don't really understand this classification, can someone help me?
What am I? To which class do I belong?:
- I was born after The Sil was published
- My father read me aloud the Hobbit, LotR, The Sil and The UT, beginnig from when I was 6 years old
- I saw the Ralph Bakshi's animation when I was small, but I don't remember was it before or after my first touch with the book
- When I was 8 years old I read LotR by myself and fell in love with it. Since that I've been a fan.
- since then I've read the books mentioned before many times by myself
- the movies had no influence on me

[Sophia the Thunder Mistress]

Goodness, so many young readers 'round here. I thought I was pretty young to read LOTR at about 12.

This is a clever thread, Snowdog.

I would have to say I'm something of an equal mix of Eldar by Bakshi Recruit (although really more aptly Rankin-Bass Recruit) and First-Born. My mother an Old-School Book fan (of the 70s variety) often read aloud to us during the winters when I was a kid. When I was about 8 years old she bought us the Hobbit book and the Rankin-Bass movie for Christmas and we read it aloud together and then watched the movie afterward. It was magic. Here I am.

I got the Bakshi LOTR and R-B ROTK as soon as I could, and though I always could see what was obviously wrong with them, I still enjoy them nostalgically--and frequently. And I am a firm believer that if a live-action Hobbit movie is made, I won't like it better. *Stubborn* The R-B version is whimsical.

Sophia

[Lathriel]

Well, since I was born in the late 80's I read the hobbit in the nineties at about 8 or 9.
I read LOTR when I was about 12 I believe or maybe I was eleven. Then I forgot about them for a while. (Partly because I was mad at Tolkien for making Frodo leave ME) Then I read it again and enjoyed it. (This time in english) Then a few years later I heard about the movies and I read the book again. Initially my family didn't like FOTR very much. I however felt this need to see the movie again. So when we saw TTT and my family approved my obsession suddenly exploded! And at aound that time I joined the Barrow Downs, got the FOTR EE and it goes on form there.