Today is J..R.R. Tolkien's birthday. I have long been an admirer of his work. It started when I went on a field trip in school to a puppet version of The Hobbit. On the occasion of my first trip to Mackinaw Island, my parents purchased me a set of his Lord Of The Rings Trilogy. It was never actually intended to be a trilogy, it was published in 3 parts due to it's bulk and in case it proved to be a failure.
It of course was not a failure, being one of the best selling and most loved books of all time. I on the other hand have failed many times in my attempts to read or even listen to the entirety of Fellowship of The Rings, the first installment of the work. This is a cause of some embarrassment for me, and also a point of friction between myself and my son, who had read all 3 installments while he was still a tween.
I am actually a much bigger fan of his fellow Inkling C.S. Lewis and generally read all 7 books of Chronicles of Narnia every year. I have decided in honor of Tolkien's birthday that I will attempt yet again to read this magnificent tome. Two years ago I was successful at my attempt to finish Moby Dick, this year I hope to finish LOTR. I will start to read it this Winter and attempt to complete it by the end of Spring. If I still haven't finished it by the beginning of Summer, I will complete the rest by listening to an audio version. I will give myself to September 2nd, which is the day Tolkien died. This years it falls on my eldest daughter's 25th birthday, and thus a easy to remember due date. If all goes well I will repeat the process in 2025 and 2026 for the final 2 installments. I will update my progress here with my installments of Last 5 Next Ten.
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