[Nesacat]

The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings are very different in tone. I think they go very well together because of that. And therefore, reading the one before the other does, in a way set the stage as it were.

In the Hobbit there's an adventure that for the most part is light hearted. A couch potato finds that he has an adventurous streak after all. There's a dragons and barrels tumbling down waterfalls and men who are bears. Yes there is also danger and many tense scenes but the fate of the known world does not hang in balance.

You also meet and get to know many who will play larger and darker roles in the Lord Of The Rings.

And then you get to the Lord Of the Rings and you see the difference. Now the fate of the world and the fun loving hobbits is at stake. And it all might rest in the hands of a hobbit very like the one who went rushing out of his house without pipe or handkerchief in the Hobbit.

They are good reads although many have followed in Tolkien's footsteps. He created a whole universe and took his time is describing it. The pace is slow a lot of the time but in the end you know exactly what everyone and everything looks and sounds like. And when later awful things happen you feel the hurt all the more for having been steeped in what was.

And again the same when you come out again into the light it's a huge weight lifted off your shoulder for having totally understood what the dark was all about and walked in it along with all those in the story.