Posts
With all of my heart, I tried. We adapted to the somewhat difficult narrator and actually enjoyed The Hobbit, but that story was simple, sweet and dear. With the complexities of LOTR, and an increased amount of chanting, singing, Shakespearean trilling and droning on, we crashed and burned. (This has only happened five times in my history of listening to audios.) I fear Viggo will never fall for me now.
It is entirely possible that this is my fault. It is summer, and we are distracted. We just finished Harry Potter, which is an audio masterpiece. But I found myself wanting to read my book in the car on roadtrips instead of listening to the audio. A bad sign, because I am very tolerant. So we took a break. The kids watched movies instead. Then we listened to another disc and it felt physically painful. It was confusing, and I tended to drift. We watched The Fellowship of the Ring the movie, and got a nice long look at Viggo, all sweaty and handsome and brave. But at the end of the day, after the kids and I arrived home from Indiana, none of us were inspired to pick up where we left off. I could have forced the issue, but that tact rarely meets with successful results with my children. We made it through 9 of 16 discs, so we did give it the old college try.
Beth Fish Reads loves these audios, in fact she has listened to them more than once. So my advice, if you are interested, would be to at least give them a chance. These are classic stories that are in need of admiration. I'm not crying uncle yet - maybe the printed version?
19 comments:
I read The Fellowship of the Ring and found it a real struggle. I battled on to the end, but it took me about 6 months and I was never that interested in it. I decided to abandon the rest of the trilogy and watch the DVDs instead. I wasn't a big fan of those either!
I don't think these books are my thing! It's great that you guys tried, but why put yourself through that when there are so many books out there that do appeal to you?
I would say that you gave it MORE than a fair chance!
Since I teach the Hobbit, I did purchase a copy of the CDs from Half Price and enjoyed the narrator's rendition. However...I had not yet heard Jim Dale AND I was quite familiar with the book (having read it at least 4 times prior. I was ready for a new way to review the book for class)
I have been told my many lovers of the LOTR series to watch the movies first. I plan to do that....some year :)
ok, I have admitted that I can't listen to audio books. Can not concentrate at all! So who am I to say, but..
I love LoTR, one of my all time favs, but I think it is way too complex for an audio book. I would NEVER have been able to keep it straight.
I hate to break it to you, but Viggo is already claimed by Michele (a.k.a. Michelovena) at A Reader's Respite.
I admire you for sticking with it as long as you did.
Try the real books, then. You gave it your best, so no need to apologize. Some things are not meant to be condensed into another format (although the movies worked--one more sigh for Viggo!).
If I remember correctly, these are pretty slow reads. I really liked them when I read them, many years ago, but I remember struggling to finish the series.
I'm going to wait until band practice starts up again in the fall and then I'm going to try to track down the audio for this one to listen to as I drive back and forth from band. I've tried reading it and haven't yet been able to make it through. I'm thinking maybe as a captive audience in the car it work better. At least I'm hoping. :)
I'm sorry the audio didn't work for you, Sandy. I love the books and breezed through them when I read them. I haven't tried the audio at all though.
Well, you guys tried! This post reminds me though that I should probably write up something on some of my DNFs... I've had quite a few lately which is a bummer.
I have tried with these books a few times and never get very far. I imagine it would be really tough on audio, so don't beat yourself up over it. It's weird because I love the movies, I just can't seem to do the books. At least you gave it a try!
Let me know when/if you ever want to try the printed versions....we should make a year-long thing of it.
PS....while Jillovna is correct about Viggo, I do loan him out for group watching of the LOTR series: he changes out the DVDs for us. And serves popcorn.
I would definitely try the print version. I think you will really enjoy reading them that way.
As I've said before I think you made the fatal mistake of listening to this right after HP. I like LOTR better than HP, but LOTR is not overly kid friendly and the experience is totally different. Had you waited a year or so, I think you have had an easier time -- or you would have hated the books anyway.
Sigh. I still like you even if Viggo will like me better! LOL.
I tried reading this at some point long ago and couldn't stick with it so you all did a pretty good job!
I fell so deeply in love with LOTR when I read it years ago...
For some reason the LOTR series is intimidating to me. Not quite sure why, maybe just because I don't read much fantasy. Either way, I can't stand sound effects and music on audios so that is definitely not for me!
Post a Comment