Parts We Skip and Why

[Lathriel]

For me it changes all the time. One time when I read the book I couldn't stand it when I was reading about Frodo and Sam. However, when I re-read the book this year I really enjoyed it.
Me growing up also changed it a lot. At first like many of you I read LOTR for the story. Now as I've grown older I have re-read the book not only for the story but also for character development etc. So now there are very few parts that I do not enjoy. Although I have to confess that when I read the book this year I did skim read the Palantir part in The two Towers. This time around I thought that it was tedious. But next year...I might just enjoy it.
As for The council of Elrond,every time I approach the chapter with dread because I think it will take me a long time. It usually turns out that I read it in a jiffy.

[Nuranar]

I'm a very fast reader, and always have been. The first time through a fiction book (nearly all I read, unless under duress) I speed through it, because I'm dying to know what actually happens. But I love to reread books; in fact, that determines whether I like a book or not. It's good if I can't remember all the plot details (important for mysteries), but since I'm not devouring it to see what happens I can go slower and savor it. And even if there is a part that isn't my favorite, I'm dedicated to doing a complete job that I practically force myself to read it! I can't even think of what I would skip if I could. I even read the Appendices! Well, I get bogged down in the part on language a little...

I first read it sometime in junior high, I think. I read the whole thing in about two days, skipping nothing. Of course, a lot of things (the Earendil story, &c.) I didn't understand at the time. Subsequent rereadings made me more familiar with them, and I grew to understand them at least from context. I didn't really learn it, of course, until reading the Silm; but even before then I didn't mind reading the parts. The awesome sense of history those references supply just staggered me. They made the story seem more of a piece with other things, instead of a neat plot with no loose ends or unexplained happenings. It seemed a lot more real. And of course now I do read it gradually and slowly, taking time to notice not only characterization, but also the craft of his writing. I delight in seeing how he chooses just the right words, for sound as well as meaning and connotation, and the sentence structure, as well as when he takes time to describe, when he uses dialogue, and when he writes more generally.

Hmm... Instead of explaining the above, I could just proclaim that "I don't skip!" But what's the fun in that?

Actually, the only times I did skip was when I read it aloud to my father during our work commute this summer. He got lost really fast on all the songs, so instead of enduring them he had me skip them. (I think "Earendil was a mariner" was what really did him in...) But the point is that the skipping certainly wasn't my idea.

[Mithalwen]

I read the council of Elrond a lot - partly because I like Elrond but mainly because it has so much information and so it is something I refer back to for RPG and so forth.

[Legolas]

I don't know that I've completely skipped it before, but I've been tempted to skim through the second half of the Two Towers. After the thrill of the first half, it was difficult to wade through. Kept me from moving on as fast as I had been, with my new-found love of Tolkien.

[The Saucepan Man]

I have never been tempted to skip any part of the story. If I make a decision to read a book, I have to read every part of it. Even the parts that I find a bit dull, which usually results in me reading the lines and not really taking them in. That doesn't happen with LotR - well not the story at least. I must admit to reading some of the poetry without really comprehending it, the first few times at least. And it has happened with some of the other works. For example, I found the chapter on Numenor and the tale of Aldarion and Erendis in Unfinished Tales rather dull, and my recollection of them is far hazier than it is of other parts of the book.

With LotR, I always feel slightly disappointed when I reach the end of each book in TTT and RotK because I have got caught up in the story and want to carry on about the adventures of those that I have been following. But, as soon as I start on the next book, I am immediately caught up in the new story and find myself equally disappointed when I reach its end.

[Essex]

I also don't skip parts of the book. I tried to start lotr the other week to tie in with the chapter by chapter reviews the site is running, but I couldnt do it. I needed to read the whole book again, so have started from the beginning.

The films have helped me concentrate on various parts or themes of the books that I have missed on prior readings. For example, after the fotr movie, I reread the books and for the first time noticed the real animosity between boromir and aragorn, and also I was able to see boromir's character much better.

the last time I read the books after the rotk movie, I 'concentrated' on frodo and sam's journey, something that I've never been able to keep exactly in my mind what happened step by step (as I could for other story strands).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the thing that jumped out for me last time was the passage below, a few days out from sam and frodo's escape from the orcs near the black gate, and their trip towards mount doom.....

Now as the blackness of night returned Frodo sat, his head between his knees, his arms hanging wearily to the ground where his hands lay feebly twitching. Sam watched him, till night covered them both and hid them from one another. He could no longer find any words to say; and he turned to his own dark thoughts. As for himself, though weary and under a shadow of fear, he still had some strength left. The lembas had a virtue without which they would long ago have lain down to die. It did not satisfy desire, and at times Sam's mind was filled with the memories of food, and the longing for simple bread and meats. And yet this waybread of the Elves had a potency that increased as travellers relied on it alone and did not mingle it with other foods. It fed the will, and it gave strength to endure, and to master sinew and limb beyond the measure of mortal kind.

The line in bold just struck me when I read it. I had never really noticed or took in this line before! I just didn't realise how close to death the hobbits had got. Just to imagine the hobbits giving up and lying down to die fills me with sadness in what they must be going through.

Now, without the context of all of their trip from the emyn muil, this scene would not have the same effect. This is why I can never skip parts in the books.

[Lathriel]

Well I am part of the club of non-skippers. It doesn't matter how boring the book gets, I NEVER EVER skip.

And just like Essex I have begun to pay more attention to certain parts in the book because of the movies. The movies also make me focus on other things that happen in LOTR. This way I payed attention to particular behaviours of Gimli, hoping I could figure out why they made him deliver most of the comic relief. I also looked more closely at the characters of Boromir,Denethor, and Faramir.
Such things do keep the urge of skimming through a chapter to a low level.