Successful LotR converts

[LePetitChoux]

Who did you manage to convert to lovin' LotR? I'm half done with my mum (she loves the films and is GOING to read the books), and if it wasn't for me forgetting my book at her house then busybee wouldn't be here! Imagine that...(This also meant that I finished it after her as she took it hostage and wouldn't return it until she had finished with it.:mad [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Also, I have a bet for £2.00 going with my friend to se if she will finish all 3 before the end of the christmas holidays. If she finishes it and loves it, which I'm hoping is going to happen, well, £2.00 is a small price to pay to let another Tolkien-lover into the world! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

What about all of you Downers? You post a lot about non-LotR friends, but surely there are some of you who have successfully had friends converted into LotR? [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[Manwe Sulimo]

I got one, a few months before the movie FotR came out (although I'm not sure if it was me or the upcoming movie). After he readThe Hobbit for summer reading, I convinced him to read LotR, and eventually The Silmarillion. He may not be hardcore, but he's getting there. I also got about 10 other people interested in the movies (one other actually borrowed The Hobbit, so here's hoping to another convert).

[Morgul Queen]

Well, Ive converted my school librarians, and my english teacher and my lil brother and im almost done with my mum.
The trick with your mum is to ask them to read the tale of luthien and beren (or just get them the short poem in FotR) and then tell them the proper tale is in the silm and that they cant understand whats in it without reading it all.
Before you know it their spouting elvish like one of us!!!

[Aylwen Dreamsong]

I managed to 'convert' my older brother last year just before he moved out to college. I also got one friend from Tae Kwon Do to actually read The Hobbit. I got one friend from soccer to read everything from The Hobbit-LotR-The Silmarillion. I'm working on my dad and his friend Rob now. I might try to get my sister to read one of the books, but she's not really into reading, and we had to leave FotR early one time because the Nazgul scared her (9).

My teachers were already Tolkien Fanatics, and all the students except me and a few others think their Tolkien book 'mini-library' is crazy stuff. Ah well. Can't get everyone to read them.

Aylwen

[Meela]

I'd rather not convert everyone I know. It's all very well having one group of friends with whom you can discuss Tolkien until the end of time, but imagine having everyone you know in every circle of life trying to engage you in a heated debate about the origins of Hobbits. Wouldn't you just be sick of it by then?
I wouldn't mind helping a few people discover Lotr, for example watching the movies with them or showing them where to find the books, or even giving them an Aragorn poster for fun. But I wouldn't try my hardest to convert everyone.

[arelendil]

I really feel like that Meela! everytime i start something all my friends join and then it's not mine any more which is really annoying. My dad tries to play along when he isn't sending me to my room for being a freak or telling me to get a normal life!

Of course i tried to convert my friends but after trying for a whole french lesson to explain why Gandalf isn't really dead i gave up! it's quite fun though they're all very nice and their own ways. they call me 'the mad elven maid' which i like and greet me with the latest elven thing i've taught them even if they do say it totally wrong and not like i told them to! Its really sweet that they try but I can get really annoyed when they ask the same thing over and over! their fav is "where does Legolas come from?" about every five seconds!!

So does that count? I converted then but only if i stay beside them, i don't think it does cause its more to keep me happy then to love tolkien! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

[ December 26, 2002: Message edited by: arelendil ]

[Aylwen Dreamsong]

You've converted them to at least thinking about Legolas and not Orlando, I think that kind of counts. And at least they ask and want to know (they do want to know, right?).

Aylwen

[arelendil]

Well half the time!

i didn't do very well on the orlando front, i tried to tell them it's not Legolas but they don't listen. It's an actor for god's sake. The real Legolas is in the book. and may i just say that he's much nicier looking! plus if you get bored with your legolas or your opinion changes you can adjust your image! like i got annoyed with the blond hair thing so my Legolas currently has silver hair. long, down his back and soo soft.

sorry this isn't meant to be about Legolas! Yeah half the time they ask cause they want to know the other half is the question they keep for times of silence, like with your parents you state 'I'm tried' or 'I'm bored'. Their quetions are much like that! more to keep noise around them and to entertain me cause i have too much energy. Which is why i always have a tolkien book in my bag! That way i can shut them out and step in to my world, which stops the annoying questions.

[Kirsanne_Tolebrass]

I can't get my little brother to read the books! He wants to know what's going to happen in the 3rd movie, but he won't read the book!

[Lhunbelethiel]

I am myself a Tolkien convert! My boyfriend followed the movie news last year and read all the books before FOTR came out and literally dragged me to go see it opening night.

I liked Viggo. Alot. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
I liked the story.
I liked the idea of a quest.

I began to ask questions. I asked to borrow the books. I read them in quick sucession. I saw FOTR again. Then... I joined the BarrowDowns.

I WAS OFFICIALLY HOOKED!

Now I am an even bigger Tolkien geek than my boyfriend (who doesn't entirely mind that I love Viggo too, haha) and am now on the verge of learning elvish, carry the One Ring with me at all times, read every scholarly and non scholarly book I can get my hands on about JRR Tolkien.

haliluleah!!! I adore LOTR and all things Tolkien! I am proud to be a convert! [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]

[ December 28, 2002: Message edited by: Lhunbelethiel ]

[steve]

I converted my girlfriend into liking LotR, i made her , when she came over, sit down and watch FotR, she didnt watch the whole thing so i tried again, and again, then i forced her to go see TTT, then she realized (these are her words) that it wasnt shi**y or stupid retarted stuff, shes even on the downs now, lotrelf, heh, what a creeppy account

[Iargwath]

My sister is hooked on the books after she saw Two Towers. I know its a bit late...but she wasnt fully satisfied with reading the books after seeing FotR. So i kept on hinting for her to read the books but she wouldnt listen. But after TT, i managed to get her to read Lord of the Rings, and she is now so deeply immersed in it, that it is frightening at times [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] However, i am proud of myself to have guided her into reading Tolkien, and my Lord of the Rings book is still missing from my shelf...

[Alphaelin]

I am converting my 8-yr-old via The Hobbit.

The 13-yr-old wasn't interested till FOTR came out, but is reading the trilogy now because I won't tell if the hobbits live or not. [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]

[Gorwingel]

I did not really convert anyone, but I did get people who did not want to go to FOTR to go to TTT.

I had this one friend that every time I would go to the movie I would ask her if she wanted to go, and she would always say no. But when I said that I was going to TTT and I only had 1 ticket left, she surprisingly said that she wanted to go. Though she had never seen FOTR, and she did not have a DVD player, so she had to watch a downloaded bootleg copy of FOTR on her computer, where at one point of the movie, the camera fell on to the floor.

But she enjoyed the movie a lot, and she is going to see ROTK next year [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Arwen Imladris]

Well, my familly were already Tolkien fans, not as much as me, but they were the ones who started me on it. I forced my friends to see FOTR, but the one who didn't really like it to begin with hasn't read the books yet. Most people who have read the books like them, it is just getting them to actually read it.

[Faye Took]

I converted some friends. They all know a lot about it since 4 of us are always chatting on and on about LotR and our websites, etc. One of my friends began reading FotR but then all of a sudden stopped. I went to go see TT with her and her boyfriend (bad idea) and all through out the movie he was talking and I kept telling him to shut up but he wouldn't listen [img]smilies/confused.gif[/img]. They really didn't watch the movie if you get where I'm going.

[Durelin]

I converted my friend who is on this board, her name is Miththôlien. She knew nothing about LOTR and Tolkien so I got her over to my house to watch the movie. She immediatly fell in love with it and Aragorn/Viggo, though for the longest time she called him Strider all the time, never Aragorn. Anyway, it was really quite easy converting her, she is working on reading the books but has recently slacked off. I've been pushing her to keep reading. She can be a lazy bum! Piph you Miththôlien! You lazy! Sorry. I know so many people who love LOTR. Those that are movie goers only and those who are totally obsessed. I have brought many people to the Downs too including Miththôlien, Coral, Have a Day, and Shanna, thought bringing Shanna was a mistake...

[Merri]

Well, I managed to convert me. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Let me explain.

I've been obsessed with Harry Potter since Middle School (I'm a Junior now), and last year, when the first movies came out, I read an article in Time magazine saying something about how Lord of the Rings was better than HP. I got extremely indignant, thinking, What little upsmart journalist thinks that LOTR is better than HP? And I decided that I'd better see what all the fuss was about. So, I read the Hobbit (I've had a copy gathering dust in my bookshelf since third grade), and loved it. I made my mom buy me the other three books, and I finished them in a week. At the end, I thought, Well, you know, that journalist does know what he's talking about, and I felt much more amiable towards him after that [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

All my friends are already LOTR-fans and anti-Harry Potter, so I was the only one left to 'convert' [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]

[ January 03, 2003: Message edited by: Merri ]

[Luthien]

Most of my friends are my little converts I have got about 6 so far and working ever harder. It sounds cheesy but the books changed my life(you do have to realize that all books do that to me I am a sap) and so I go around like some mad little Spanish Inqusitor. Oh well it's for their own good, they'll thank me later...I hope.

[Manardariel]

Well. I convinced myy cousin to go see FotR with me after showing her a picture of Viggo. She was all for it, duh. AFERWARDS, she was like "It´s not that bad.... maybe I should read the books...well, now she´s rereading LotR for the third time, has fnished the Hobbitt and is biting her way through the sil.
Talk about converts.
I also managed to convert another cousin "by accident". I was making him a package with my old books for him and also packed the Hobbitt. Well, he loved it. So I go:"If you liked that, you might wanna try LotR." And what do you know- he loves it!
A bad example is my dad, who took me to go see FotR(I only said ok because it meant that he´d pay) and afterwards he goes: "BUT IT´S SO UNREALISTIC!" I practically died laughing. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

[LePetitChoux]

My father had this prejudice against LotR, and yesterday he finally watched it, and at the end, he said "Is that it? That's where it finishes?"
Fingers Crossed!

[LePetitChoux]

Yesterday we went to see TTT and afterwards he asked to borrow my copy of LotR and has been listening to the soundtracks all day
[img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]
[img]smilies/confused.gif[/img]
I don't understand any of this.

[Sindafalathiel]

I am one of the said converts, my best friend would NOT STOP talking about LotR whenever we were on the phone, so finally I watched the DVD to shut her up. after one viewing, I was obsessed. I now even wear the ring around my neck on a silver chain. I borrowed my brother's copy of The Hobbit, until Dad took it away because I wasn't doing my Homework. the fool...I snuck into my brother's room and took it back. now I have my own copy, as well as LotR. I'm looking for everything else now. of course, I'm now teaching said friend about BD...she'll have joined in a week, I'm guessing.

[Alphaelin]

I don't understand any of this

Well, my little cabbage, it seems you've made a convert out of your dad. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]