I should give it another shot at some point. I fully accept that Tolkien is objectively more readable than most authors I like, but something about the writing style doesn’t mesh well with me.
I found the writing style irresistible as a student of Classics, because it’s so similar to ancient texts in structure. So if that’s not a special interest of yours Tolkien probably wouldn’t be as deeply appealing.
The Hobbit has a very different register from LOTR. Hobbit is a children’s talk, delightful to be read aloud. LOTR is incredibly slow going, and it difficult to see what can be skipped (hint: Bombadil and the barrow-wights), which means you’re not quite sure where anything is going.
That’s fair. It may not be worth the effort, and I say that as someone who very much enjoys it. So much of what was originally unique about it has diffused into the broader genre that either you like his style or you don’t.
Lovecraft’s stories don’t really read as novels though (he essentially only wrote a single novel, the rest are short stories). Most stories are more like memoirs from the victims themselves.
Tolkien is better if you read it not as novels, but as histories, written in-world by some series of imperfect historians.
I should give it another shot at some point. I fully accept that Tolkien is objectively more readable than most authors I like, but something about the writing style doesn’t mesh well with me.
I found the writing style irresistible as a student of Classics, because it’s so similar to ancient texts in structure. So if that’s not a special interest of yours Tolkien probably wouldn’t be as deeply appealing.
I have little-to-no interest in Classics, but I find Tolkien deeply appealing. :)
The Hobbit has a very different register from LOTR. Hobbit is a children’s talk, delightful to be read aloud. LOTR is incredibly slow going, and it difficult to see what can be skipped (hint: Bombadil and the barrow-wights), which means you’re not quite sure where anything is going.
That’s fair. It may not be worth the effort, and I say that as someone who very much enjoys it. So much of what was originally unique about it has diffused into the broader genre that either you like his style or you don’t.
Lovecraft’s stories don’t really read as novels though (he essentially only wrote a single novel, the rest are short stories). Most stories are more like memoirs from the victims themselves.