I was in seventh grade the first time I read J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. As soon as I finished, I started all over again, the only time in my life I've done such a thing. I loved Tolkien's world so much that I wasn't yet ready to leave it. It was escape, and who couldn't use a little escape when you're a peonic seventh grader in a 7th-12th high school?
I felt like a geek. The Lord of the Rings wasn't popular back then (I won't say when), and girls, especially, didn't admit to reading it. So I kept my love to myself, and quietly and regularly made my escape into those pages.
The story is well known now. Peter Jackson did a beautiful job of bringing the world to the screen. But there's no substitute for Tolkien's lyrical language. I still take the occasional journey to Middle Earth by way of the page. Perhaps it's still a geeky thing to do. But I'm finally ready to stand up and proclaim my geekiness to the world.
I felt like a geek. The Lord of the Rings wasn't popular back then (I won't say when), and girls, especially, didn't admit to reading it. So I kept my love to myself, and quietly and regularly made my escape into those pages.
The story is well known now. Peter Jackson did a beautiful job of bringing the world to the screen. But there's no substitute for Tolkien's lyrical language. I still take the occasional journey to Middle Earth by way of the page. Perhaps it's still a geeky thing to do. But I'm finally ready to stand up and proclaim my geekiness to the world.
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