What's new

I introduced my 11 year old son to The Hobbit

So we rented all three Hobbit movies (the ones directed by Peter Jackson) and watched them over last Saturday and Sunday with my 11 year old.

Now he wants me to break out my Lord of the Rings DVDs this weekend to watch.

It was great being able to share with him as I read the book when I was his age (maybe a little younger).
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
Read the book. Still have not seen the movies. Nor have I seen the lord of the rings movies. Gotta get on that.
 
Read the book. Still have not seen the movies. Nor have I seen the lord of the rings movies. Gotta get on that.
it took three 2.5 hour movies to tell the tale of The Hobbit. I think you will enjoy them as the details aren't left out as many book to movie conversions do.
 

JWCowboy

Probably not Al Bundy
This may sound like a quaint suggestion, but try carving out about 20-30 mins every day and read the book to your son. Will take a while to get through it but I'll venture a guess that you will create some memories that he will treasure even more than watching the movies with you.
 
I'll be honest - I thought this was going to be about reading the book with your son. I second the suggestion to read it together. SWMBO read it to our 12yr daughter recently, and I was able to sit in and read a few evenings as well. To continue the honesty here, my daughter wasn't crazy about it, as she found some of the writing style to be odd (it is quite old...). But she did enjoy the experience, and we enjoyed the time with her as well.
 
This may sound like a quaint suggestion, but try carving out about 20-30 mins every day and read the book to your son. Will take a while to get through it but I'll venture a guess that you will create some memories that he will treasure even more than watching the movies with you.

I'll be honest - I thought this was going to be about reading the book with your son. I second the suggestion to read it together. SWMBO read it to our 12yr daughter recently, and I was able to sit in and read a few evenings as well. To continue the honesty here, my daughter wasn't crazy about it, as she found some of the writing style to be odd (it is quite old...). But she did enjoy the experience, and we enjoyed the time with her as well.
I agree with this. We spend time reading together as a family. Sometimes a book of my choice, sometimes his choice.

We have read some of the books I had to read when I was in school like Johnny Tremaine, and books I enjoyed as a kid like The Phantom Tollbooth.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
If you want to watch the Hobbit movie with your son ... great!

Just make it's the animated one from 1977!!

IMHO the LOTR movies started off good, and got worse as the story progressed, changing far too much to "Hollywood it" up. The "Jackson Hobbit" movies took things up where they left off on LOTR, departing more and more from the book ... there was no need, IMHO, to do three movies for the Hobbit ... unless they figured they could make as much money with a Hobbit Trilogy as they made with the LOTR trilogy. Hmm ...

On a side note, to my mind Tolkein wrote The Hobbit aimed at a much more child-oriented audience compared to LOTR, and at a time when perhaps he did not have the grittier details of his Middle Earth Universe fully fleshed out, so it's obviously a good place to start for younger kids, and then let them explore LOTR later when they are a bit older.
 
If you want to watch the Hobbit movie with your son ... great!

Just make it's the animated one from 1977!!

IMHO the LOTR movies started off good, and got worse as the story progressed, changing far too much to "Hollywood it" up. The "Jackson Hobbit" movies took things up where they left off on LOTR, departing more and more from the book ... there was no need, IMHO, to do three movies for the Hobbit ... unless they figured they could make as much money with a Hobbit Trilogy as they made with the LOTR trilogy. Hmm ...

On a side note, to my mind Tolkein wrote The Hobbit aimed at a much more child-oriented audience compared to LOTR, and at a time when perhaps he did not have the grittier details of his Middle Earth Universe fully fleshed out, so it's obviously a good place to start for younger kids, and then let them explore LOTR later when they are a bit older.
Oh we will definitely watch the 1977 animated movie also as I remember watching that in fourth Grade at school in 1979....
 

JWCowboy

Probably not Al Bundy
I agree with this. We spend time reading together as a family. Sometimes a book of my choice, sometimes his choice.

We have read some of the books I had to read when I was in school like Johnny Tremaine, and books I enjoyed as a kid like The Phantom Tollbooth.

Bravo! One thing worth pointing out is that when you read the Hobbit and LOTR out loud, you realize just how much poetry and song are part of the narrative. Makes for fun times when reading to your kids. Sam Gamgee's recitation of the poem about the stone troll is one of the best....

If you want to watch the Hobbit movie with your son ... great!

Just make it's the animated one from 1977!!

IMHO the LOTR movies started off good, and got worse as the story progressed, changing far too much to "Hollywood it" up. The "Jackson Hobbit" movies took things up where they left off on LOTR, departing more and more from the book ... there was no need, IMHO, to do three movies for the Hobbit ... unless they figured they could make as much money with a Hobbit Trilogy as they made with the LOTR trilogy. Hmm ...

On a side note, to my mind Tolkein wrote The Hobbit aimed at a much more child-oriented audience compared to LOTR, and at a time when perhaps he did not have the grittier details of his Middle Earth Universe fully fleshed out, so it's obviously a good place to start for younger kids, and then let them explore LOTR later when they are a bit older.

Could not agree more with every word of this post ;)
 
Bravo! One thing worth pointing out is that when you read the Hobbit and LOTR out loud, you realize just how much poetry and song are part of the narrative. Makes for fun times when reading to your kids. Sam Gamgee's recitation of the poem about the stone troll is one of the best....



Could not agree more with every word of this post ;)
I so agree... Tolkien's writings have a rhythm to them. I remember reading some of his short stories and they almost read as a song.
 
A fabulous story and yes, liberties were taken in the Hobbit films, but I’m all for gateway drugs to the Tolkien universe. The book is going to be that much more sweet. LOTR films were closer to the books than the Hobbit movies, but they still changed the story in ways that I still think you appreciate the genius of the books even more.

If you can’t sleep, break out the Silmarillion. I personally love it and re-read it often, but that first trip through can be tough.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
This may sound like a quaint suggestion, but try carving out about 20-30 mins every day and read the book to your son. Will take a while to get through it but I'll venture a guess that you will create some memories that he will treasure even more than watching the movies with you.
My wife read all of the "Tales of Narnia" books to our son at about 10 or 11..... I read to him every night for years before that, Dr. Suess mostly. It was a great "bonding" time, and I got my "physical fix" with him. Because as we all know, those little ones grow up much too fast.
 
So we rented all three Hobbit movies (the ones directed by Peter Jackson) and watched them over last Saturday and Sunday with my 11 year old...
I was hoping this post would be about the books. Remember when we read books? :laugh:

Many fine moments in my life were spent with books...way too many screens these days.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I will never forget the time that my mother read a book to me at about 6yo. Each night before bed she would read a chapter to me. The book was "Smiley" by Moore Raymond and published by Sylvan Press, London.

I still remember some of the adventures that Smiley got into. I believe that that experience with my mother kindled my love of reading books.
 
Last edited:

garyg

B&B membership has its percs
Amen - there are precious few movies that come even within hailing distance of the quality of a book .. Maybe the Godfather was close to even, but most movies are pale refection's aimed at the disabled ..
 
If you want to watch the Hobbit movie with your son ... great!

Just make it's the animated one from 1977!!

IMHO the LOTR movies started off good, and got worse as the story progressed, changing far too much to "Hollywood it" up. The "Jackson Hobbit" movies took things up where they left off on LOTR, departing more and more from the book ... there was no need, IMHO, to do three movies for the Hobbit ... unless they figured they could make as much money with a Hobbit Trilogy as they made with the LOTR trilogy. Hmm ...

On a side note, to my mind Tolkein wrote The Hobbit aimed at a much more child-oriented audience compared to LOTR, and at a time when perhaps he did not have the grittier details of his Middle Earth Universe fully fleshed out, so it's obviously a good place to start for younger kids, and then let them explore LOTR later when they are a bit older.
I totally agree - I remember being genuinely thrilled by the opening sequences in the first film, Hobbiton looked "real", as I had imagined when I first read the books back as a teenager, but then such liberties were taken, swathes of dialogue that didn't belong, key elements such as the scouring of the Shire and Tom Bombadil being discarded, an elf surfboarding on a shield... I never finished watching the Hobbit films, I just gave up on them.

The book of the Hobbit is very much aimed at the younger audience, we read it in English class together so I would have been about 10, then I discovered LOTR 3 or 4 years later in the local library. I read all 3 volumes in a week, I could not put them down.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
I should have added that all the love for reading that my wife and I tried to pour into our son only really caught on "devices."

This generation is like every other: it gets it's stories how they choose.

My son reads the news on his iPhone. His "literature" is on his iPhone, and usually in video form.

He was in Kollege at 15 and graduated at 18, and bought Textbooks he rarely opened and graduated with honors.

But I still wish he enjoyed reading a book. To be honest, I loved "the Hobbit".....but the rest of those books liked to kill me!

After I had reread a sentence or a passage for the 15th time describing the trees on the side of a mountain I just gave up!
 
I should have added that all the love for reading that my wife and I tried to pour into our son only really caught on "devices."

This generation is like every other: it gets it's stories how they choose.

My son reads the news on his iPhone. His "literature" is on his iPhone, and usually in video form.

He was in Kollege at 15 and graduated at 18, and bought Textbooks he rarely opened and graduated with honors.

But I still wish he enjoyed reading a book. To be honest, I loved "the Hobbit".....but the rest of those books liked to kill me!

After I had reread a sentence or a passage for the 15th time describing the trees on the side of a mountain I just gave up!
There were definitely some "speed reading" sections in those books. I was never a fan of the Elvish Poetry, for example.
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
So we rented all three Hobbit movies (the ones directed by Peter Jackson) and watched them over last Saturday and Sunday with my 11 year old.

Now he wants me to break out my Lord of the Rings DVDs this weekend to watch.

It was great being able to share with him as I read the book when I was his age (maybe a little younger).
How great. A great book. I don’t think the movie was a hit here.
It’s also funny kids today don’t know what a dvd is ha ha
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
There were definitely some "speed reading" sections in those books. I was never a fan of the Elvish Poetry, for example.
JRR Tolkien was a linguist, and if I had an extra ounce of intelligence I may have loved those books.

But my favorite reading for fiction is Mark Twain and Robert A Heinlein, and Steinbeck... Now I'm old and almost only read Biographies.

Most of the new fiction kinda surprises me that it even gets published.
 
Top Bottom