The Lord of the Rings - J R R Tolkien

I'm currently re-reading The Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time as preparation for (I hope) starting to write my Tolkien & Oxford piece over the forthcoming New Year weekend - and I'm now planning to re-read The Silmarillion (or some sections of it at least), and some parts of the Unfinished Tales as well. That's what I love about Tolkien's Middle-earth and what makes me return to it year after year - the fact that there's so much depth and richness to it... And that's the reason I get baffled when people say they're not interested in Tolkien since so many of his successors have done a poor job when imitating him... It seems to me that you might just as well blame the Ancient Egyptians for the fact that modern builders can't produce good copies of the Pyramids, as blame Tolkien for the lousy job his imitators have done in creating new fantasy worlds !

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Hooray, I'm off to see the wizard (HP) tomorrow ! I'll try to post my review tomorrow, but I may have to leave it until I get back to Oxford on Friday afternoon...