J.R.R Tolkien had a birthday on January 3. To celebrate, I picked up my well worn copy of The Lord of the Rings. This will mark the 30th time I’ve read it since I first picked it up in 1974.
Now don’t judge me, but I qualify as a real fan. I was a member of the Numinorian Society in high school, so was my wife. Our first real date was a day spent helping put on the Hobbiton Bucklebury fair on midsummer's eve in 1979. We were in a park near the ocean in Redondo Beach, helping a marionette group stage a puppet show for the neighborhood kids.
Through the years I’ve waited patently through two inadequate premiers of The Hobbit only to be blown away by the LOTR movies. But even with the movies, I still enjoy reading the books.
I impressed my new daughter-in-law with an answer to the LOTR trivia question, What color are Tom Bombadil’s boots? I blurted out ‘yellow’ as if everyone should know the answer. My trivia skills have slipped recently. I could not recall the names of the the dwarves from The Hobbit. I need to re-read that too.
My son turned me on to a podcast by the Tolkien Professor. I’m hooked. I started listening yesterday, and continued today while I walked barefoot in a warm SoCal park during my lunch hour. It’s what we do here in Los Angeles during winter.
It’s time to read.
