The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien*
366 pages
Published 1977
Read from October 6 to October 22
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
* Denotes a reread
Another book I'm unsure how to review. I read it once before, during my Middle-earth phase in the early 2000s, and found it a challenging read at the time. The book has a reputation of being dense and borderline biblical in its ponderous begats and condensed battles. This time around, though, I found a new comparison: it reads like a setting guidebook from a tabletop RPG.
The hardest part of reading a new book (for me) is getting over that initial hump of investing myself in the characters and the narrative. It's what makes books of short stories particularly challenging -- you have to adjust to a new set of characters (and, in SFF, often a new setting) every few pages. Rereading the Middle-earth books has been nice because I already know the characters, the setting, and the broad strokes of the stories. It's comfort reading. I didn't prepare any deep thoughts to share while I read it. What matters to me now is relearning how to read for fun, and this was a nice book to rediscover in that context.
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