I've just started rereading The Lord of the Rings for the first time in a century, it seems...

I discovered these books right after the first movie came out, to my shame that it took me that long to read them in the first place. I leapt through them, devouring their contents as rapidly as I could, and they immediately became my number one (to this day) inspiration for story telling. As soon as I finished the trilogy, I started over and read them again. And again. And again. Then took a break to read every ounce of other Middle-Earth or fantastical writings Tolkien had ever come up with-- The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales (which funnily enough, you can't finish reading the story about Turin son of Hurin in Unfinished Tales without a copy of The Silmarillion, as there is about a 50 page section missing from the Unfinished Tales-- go figure-- that appears randomly at the end half of The Silmarillion), The Middle-Earth Dictionary (oh yes), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, besides more that don't come immediately to mind at the moment, even a biography of the learned author.

I then reread and reread The Lord of the Rings until the copy of The Two Towers that I was going through for the umpteenth time literally fell apart in my hands. A huge section from the middle gave up its hold on the binding and fluttered out, as well as a few other, smaller chunks. I ran to my older sister at the time, the books being her possessions, frantic, because to this day (but to greater effect back then) I was horrified at the idea of anything happening to any book, much less one that I was borrowing. She didn't mind, and I found a way to keep reading the books nonetheless.

I quickly became the hugest Middle-Earth geek you can imagine, and remain so to this day, proudly.

With The Hobbit coming out in December, I am going to reread that novel closer to the actual date, but I decided to start with The Lord of the Rings since 1) it's been so long since I've read them and 2) they are the story that stems from The Hobbit.

And I am yet again blown away by this language and tale. I've come across many people who say they've never seen the LOTR movies. Well, alright, you should see them simply because they're absolutely marvelous. No movie stays strictly to the script of the book, but I tip my hat to Peter Jackson for doing the best possible job I've ever seen. If you watch the movies several times and then go back and read the books, you will see just how much language and literature Jackson took directly from Tolkien's manuscripts, in various places all over, and you will be impressed and inspired. Then I come across people who have never read the books. Well, there are many reasons for that: they are pretty thick, much like Asimovian writing, but at the same time they're very simple, which can trick people into being not only confused but bored.

This is not the case in any terms, friends. The Lord of the Rings is like a dense dessert-- don't miss out on it just because you can only take it in short bursts at a time. If you try to read the whole thing in a week you'll be confused and overwhelmed. Read a chapter a day, even half a chapter a day, as I am doing, and I am known for reading at 7+ hours at a stretch. But don't miss out on these books just because someone else told you it was hard or boring, or because someone decided to start out with The Silmarillion rather than anything else. That is a huge mistake, I'll say. I didn't even read The Silmarillion in order-- I started towards the back and skipped the whole beginning, which is unexcusably dry. The rest of the novel is very enjoyable.

Tolkien is the ultimate minimalist. He leaves everything open to the imagination, which is very possibly why it is so hard. You have to work to picture everything, to create this world in your mind. And that, as speculated earlier this week between myself and another avid fan (one even better versed than I in Tolkienian lore) is also why it becomes so personal to each and every reader. In a sense, it becomes your world, the world. As Narnia captures the minds and hearts of children, so does Middle-Earth absorb all ages besides.

It is also important to note that so much lore that has affected our world today stems from these novels. Things we take for granted and don't notice. Of course stories of goblins and of dwarves and elves have been told for centuries before Tolkien even picked up a pen. But so many of these creatures only came into the limelight because Tolkien wrote about them, especially the ones he created-- the Hobbits, the Nazgul, the Balrog, the Ents, and many, many more. The imagination that this all must have come from is staggering!

And to think, it was all inspired by a hole in his carpet one afternoon.

Tolkien is the ultimate example of how no image or sight that we see day to day should be taken for granted. Whether it be a bole in a tree, or a leaf falling on water, or perhaps the grey glistening sheen of rain in the distance plummeting from a cloud; perhaps you heard a funny story, or a single line of dialogue, or perhaps the sound of a train rushing by; maybe it's the feel of grass under your bare feet, or the color of fire on a velvet ant's back, or the antics of a happy dog. Nothing is trivial. That doesn't mean you have to find empires in every thimble, but if they're there, don't take them for granted. And never think that your story-- or even the beginning of a story-- is too small or too insignificant to make a difference. Mr. J. R. R. Tolkien was sitting in his den, one afternoon, thinking of something to write, when he saw a burn hole or some frayed dot in his carpet, and wrote these words: In the hole lived a Hobbit.

The creation of a world with those words, where even the smallest of beings, little Hobbits, for example, made a difference. Indeed, made all the difference, and saved Middle-Earth from being covered in a second darkness. There and back again, those words, that hole in the carpet, inspired the creation of an entire world. And that mythical world inspired the entirety of ours.