Lord of the Rings

At the risk of sounding like I'm departing on the very late train, I'm going to talk about the Lord of the Rings. Yes, the Lord of the Rings, although some may wonder how you could go from singing the praises of Paulo Coelho to Tolkien, well, that's just how it is.

In any case, what has brought me to the subject is that I've come across Tolkien's famous trilogy in audio book format (thanks in large part to the same person who introduced me to Coelho). I first "read" (or should I say, "listened to") the Hobbit and was so taken in that I continued on to the Lord of the Rings. All four books are read, unabridged, by the same person- Rob Inglis. That man has the gift of story telling in his voice. And at the risk of falling into cliché, I will say that he brings Tolkien's character's to life! His voice changes as he switches between narrator and character, and among the characters themselves so that you even come to recognise certain voices- Gandalf's for instance. He even SINGS the songs that occur frequently across the books! That's probably one of the greatest parts and without a doubt constitutes a large part of the charm of the work.

I'll bring it to an end here by simply encouraging anyone who gets the chance to give a listen to these audio books to grab the opportunity and do so! Once you begin, you won't be able to put them away til the end (that is if you appreciate that sort of thing). One word of caution- remember, they are unabridged recordings, so while it means that you won't miss a single word from the original books, it does make for several hours of listening. It's a long listen but an enjoyable one nonetheless.