Lord of the Rings

I've failed to finish this book three times in my life – I was about 12, 18 and 25 respectively when I tried – each time finding some enjoyment, but struggling with the depth of lore and the glacial pace of the book, so that I had never got further than The Fellowship of the Ring. I realised eventually that I couldn't "get past" the lore; I needed to embrace Middle Earth, drinking all of it in and not worrying about how long it took. So I set up a bespoke book club, roping in friends and family to read with me, and following a one-year-long reading plan I found on Reddit. This was our quest for 2022 (plus the appendices in January 2023).

This was a wonderful way to read the book, with encouragement from five other people that I would compare notes and thoughts with at the end of each week. We lived and breathed this book, looking up things we didn't understand and cross-referencing the different mythical characters referenced in the many lengthy songs. Each week's chapter was a joy that I was eager to squeeze every drop out of, rather than the chore it became when I was reading alone.

With this full attention and commitment, it became clear that this book is a masterpiece. Tolkien is the most accomplished world-builder I've read, placing his story effortlessly in a world with so much history, legend and myth that it's hard to believe it's the work of one man. We see the bittersweet twilight years of a fading world filled with crumbled monuments from ages past, with loremasters giving hints to the glory years gone by, in a way that makes you desperate to find out more.

Tolkien rejects the book being seen as allegory, but talks in his Foreword of 'applicability', and this is exactly the word to use. We found the book applicable to the two world wars, the industrial revolution, Homer, the Roman Empire, and many other things; and it always felt possible that Tolkien had these things in mind when writing. Through all the stories about Elves and wizards and magic rings, it never feels silly or trivial: these are stories of peoples, wars, and moral hazards that arise in our real lives.

The book isn't perfect by a long way. Some parts are too long or too hard to follow, and many characters are underdeveloped or poorly distinguished. Most characters are perfectly good or perfectly evil, with only a few conflicted souls like Boromir and Sméagol to make the interpersonal relationships interesting. But when it comes down to it, Tolkien's legendarium isn't presented as entertainment; it's presented as a complete mythology, on the level of the whole bodies of Greek or Norse myth, with The Lord of the Rings as its Iliad. It succeeds spectacularly at this, being the model of practically all fantasy literature written since, and inspiring incredible dedication from 'Tolkien scholars' who have tried to understand every part of it and preserve it as an important piece of culture.

Finishing this book was the end of a wonderful journey, and it feels immensely satisfying to have experienced the world of Middle Earth through this book. A big thank you to the rest of our 'Fellowship' – Dad, Claire, Col, Steve and Parker – for reading along with me and so many times giving me an alternative view on what we were reading.

I got the "millennium edition" paperbacks, where the novel is split into seven slim volumes, which reinforced the important 6-book structure that Tolkien envisaged, and which besides was much easier on the wrists!