Parts We Skip and Why

[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.

[littlemanpoet]

In my first ever reading, still not yet a teen, I picked up Return of the King and made an effort at the first page about Minas Tirith, and just couldn't get interested. I put the book down for a year and a half. Maybe I wasn't ready. When I picked it up again, I got through that section with relative ease, and became quite hooked all over again. Now that I look back at it, I know why I couldn't get through the first page of RotK: I was so keen on what was going to happen next to Frodo and Sam that I was disappointed that I'd have to put up with a different story for at least a chapter. As to what I pass over these days, I haven't sat down and read LotR in close to a decade, so I'd have to say I pass over the whole thing! ..... in favor of talking about it and writing my own stuff. I'll take a look and see what my less favorite and more favorite chapters are, though.....

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

A decade? For shame, LMP. Actually, proportionately, I'm not doing much better. Even though I had an actual class devoted to reading the books last year, I only read a select few chapters. I still aced every test, mind you, getting the least bonus correct on the final, but it was just so boring to spread it out so much. That's probably why I fell out of the read-along here on the 'Downs. In the case of Tril class, I skipped almost every chapter except the first book, The Council of Elrond, The Breaking of the Fellowship, Helm's Deep, and most of the RotK. Why did I skip all these parts? Because they aren't my favorites.

Fea

[Lalwendë]

The first time I read LotR I spent as long as possible reading it; perhaps I somehow knew it would be an experience unlike any other. I savoured it, and took in all the facts like it was a real history book.

Reading it again for the CbC threads I obviously don't want to skip anything, and I tend not to anyway when I do a proper read through. But I often pick it up (and I do this with other books too) just to 'look something up' and find I've ended up reading a fair few chapters because I get carried along. I have no qualms in picking up something like the Sil and opening it at random and just reading whatever I see first because I just like the language, and I do have parts in all of the books I like to read over and over just as extracts as they are favourite passages.

The first time I ever read the trilogy, I skipped some of the poetry, I'll admit that, but you'll have to forgive me, I think I was about eleven...
Apart from that, I don't think I have ever skipped any parts, especially not the chapters like 'The Council of Elrond' and 'The shadow of the past.' I know a lot of people skip these chapters, because there's just talking, really.
But I, like some who have posted before me, think these are among the most interesting chapters, because there are so many stories to look into...

A lot of people I know, especially the ones who prefer the movies instead of the books, think the beginning is boring. They feel like it never gets started...
I can understand why they feel that way, especially if they've seen the movie before they read the books, and expect all that action at once.
Still, I have to disagree with them, because I think it's necessary to have that kind of beginnig. After all, you've got all these people that need to be introduced, not to mention Middleearth, and the Shire itself.

My point is, that I don't really skip anything while reading Tolkien, but ofcourse there are parts that I read a little faster than the other ones, and that would probably be some of the travelling...
And to everyone who was shocked by my first sentence; I don't skip poetry any more. I now take the time to enjoy it