How to read The Lord of The Rings
How I did it: The first time I read it, I blew through. I skipped all the songs, other than giving them the briefest glance. Also, I ruthlessly skimmed the first pages about the hobbits.
Lessons & tips: For me, the key on the first pass was to get the sense of the story, and the LOTR universe... and to highlight or underline areas I wanted to come back later to in order to study in detail.
Let this book take you away. For example, picture yourself on a horse, looking down at 300,000 orc-mosters. Attempt to feel the fear you would feel just before spurring your horse to charge.
LOTR is a classic. A classic is a book you can enjoy reading multiple
times. LOTR works great as an escapist adventure story. Its fine if
that is the way you want to read it. In fact Tolkien himself says so!
So, you can have a great time reading LOTR as light adventure reading,
or you can approach it as the serious (and fun) classic of western
literature I believe it to be.
Resources: If you would like to dig deeper, check out the following podcasts on iTunes University:
"Literary Background of the Lord of the Rings"
Dr. Janet Blumberg, Seattle Pacific University
"The Lord of the Rings as a Defense of Western Civilization"
Dr. John G. West
Tolkien, Man and Myth
Dr. Joseph Pearce
"Wartime Wisdom: Ten Uncommon Insights from The Lord of the Rings About Evil"
Dr. Peter Kreeft, Boston College
