Week Six: Writing Assignment

At first, when I heard that we were reading The Hobbit in class I was not thrilled. I'm not a huge fan of fantasy to begin with and having read The Hobbit in seventh grade I was a little leery to delve into it again. However, thinking back to how awful a pre-teen I was, I decided to give The Hobbit a second try instead of picking something off our alternative reading list.

To begin with, the reading experience was better this time. The Annotated Hobbit, which was the version I read this time, gave me a better idea of the adventure and the entirety of Middle Earth. The commentary and the added illustrations gave me a better understanding of what I was reading. This allowed me to focus on the characters a little bit more this time around. However, every time a chapter opened up with a description of the scene I still felt the almost impossible urge to skip it because I knew that it would continue on forever. This time, I had a new-found respect for the dwarves and even Bilbo himself. Bilbo is a lot more likeable this time around. I really appreciate how he grows in his adventure. He starts off in the story being complacent in his little hobbit hole in Bag End, and he ends it as a brave and courageous little hobbit. I also seemed to forget that once Smaug was defeated, and the Battle of the Five Armies was was won, Bilbo rejected a substantial amount of treasure. I always really like when characters recognize who they are and what they need and stay true to their values. He wasn't greedy when the moment was presented to him. Instead he returned home and lived a peaceful life, even though he was shunned by his neighbors and and other hobbits. I think I responded to Bilbo better this time around, probably because I wasn't a pissy little teenager. 

However, Bilbo's personality was one of the only things that I really enjoyed. Everything else was similarly lackluster as the last time I read it. I just really don't enjoy books like this. I could appreciate how good of a book and how well it was written this time, but it just isn't the genre for me.