Welcome to the Hobbit Reading Group!

[Pattertwigs Pal]

Welcome to The Hobbit Reading Group. We are excited to begin this journey. We will have many opportunities for discussion. The official start date for the reading group is September 22. At that point, we will start discussing Chapter 1.

For each chapter, the mods will post a few questions to get the discussion started, but you do not need to answer all (or any) of the questions to join in the discussion. Feel free to comment on other people’s comments or simply post your thoughts on the chapter.

If you have read the book before, please be careful when answering the questions so as not to give anything away. Try to answer the questions based on what is known so far in the story and not based on what you know from reading The Hobbit or other works by Tolkien. If you need to talk about something from a future chapter or another work by Tolkien, put it in spoilers.

We are planning on reading and discussing one chapter a week. See the tentative schedule below.

September 22 – Chapter 1 An Unexpected Party
September 29 – Chapter 2 Roast Mutton
October 6 – Chapter 3 A Short Rest
October 13 – Chapter 4 Over Hill and Under Hill
October 20 – Chapter 5 Riddles in the Dark
October 27 – Chapter 6 Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire
November 3 – Chapter 7 Queer Lodgings
November 10 – Chapter 8 Flies and Spiders
November 17 – Chapter 9 Barrels Out of Bond
November 24 – Chapter 10 A Warm Welcome
December 1 – Chapter 11 On the Doorstep
December 8 – Chapter 12 Inside Information
December 15 – Chapter 13 Not at Home and Chapter 14 Fire and Water
December 29 – Chapter 15 The Gathering of the Clouds
January 5 – Chapter 16 A Thief in the Night
January 12 – Chapter 17 The Clouds Burst
January 19 – Chapter 18 The Return Journey
January 26 – Chapter 19 The Last Stage

Watch out for detours and adventures along the way as we read and discuss The Hobbit. Please vote in the poll so we can get an idea of how familiar people are with The Hobbit.

Pattertwig's Pal, Lady Arwen, and coracle

[Pattertwigs Pal]

Today, September 21, 2012, The Hobbit turns 75 years old. Or rather it is the 75th Anniversary of its publication.

Happy Anniversary, The Hobbit!

[MountainFireflower]

Happy anniversary, The Hobbit! What would we have done without you? Thank you, J.R.R. Tolkien, for writing such an amazing tale and letting us experience the adventure, too. I've loved every minute of it.

*dances a jig atop a table, in the style of Merry and Pippin *

[Movie Aristotle]

The Hobbit is a wonderful and imaginative book. I am happy to have read it twice, and am looking forward to a more studious third reading and the detailed discussion that will follow! Happy 75th!

[ramagut]

I am so excited to (finally) read the book all the way through! And, of course, to see the movie in December!
Hoping that the reading group will help me get through the book this time!

[Gymfan15]

I don't usually participate in reading groups, but it has been awhile since I read the Hobbit. Might be time to hunt down a copy. I feel like it's a bit misleading to say that I've read the book "several time" when in fact I think I've read it exactly twice.

[ValiantArcher]

I had a question about the book, actually---what's the difference between the authorized or revised version and the regular one? Or, I guess, why is there a revised version? I had never paid that much attention before, but I picked up a copy at a library booksale and noticed that it said it was the authorized version, so I was curious what that meant.

[Meltintalle]

The revised version has Bilbo tell a slightly different story about how he got the Ring than if one was reading the original first edition; it was changed after the Ring took on a more sinister aspect in Lord of the Rings.

As to authorized, I think back in the day there were pirate printings in America...

[ValiantArcher]

Thank you, Mel! I don't suppose you have any idea how different the two stories are?
Pirate printings? That's kind of horrible, but actually not all that surprising.

[Meltintalle]

I think I might have read this comparison once upon a time. Or something similar, anyway.

[ValiantArcher]

Thanks very much, Mel. How interesting!

[Varnafinde]

Great link, Mel!
A useful resource for study

In fact, the "account that Bilbo told the dwarves" of the events is what appeared in the first edition of The Hobbit in 1937. When the character of Gollum was revised (and his history and motivations more extensively explored) for The Lord of the Rings, Chapter Five of The Hobbit was subsequently changed by Tolkien in later editions to reflect the version described in LotR.

I read somewhere that Tolkien sent in a changed version of Chapter Five to his publishers as a suggestion or possibly a first draft - and that they just printed it without further ado

[ValiantArcher]

Touching back to this for a moment:

As to authorized, I think back in the day there were pirate printings in America...

There is the following on the back of my copy:

This paperback edition, and no other, has been published with my consent and co-operation. Those who approve of courtesy (at least) to living authors will purchase it, and no other.

J. R. R. Tolkien

So, yes, I guess that answers for sure the issue of pirate printings.

[Varnafinde]

There definitely was a pirate printing of LotR - and the sorting out of that issue made Tolkien better known, I think - so it's likely that there might be some of his other book as well.

[Purpleotter]

I read the book and I watched the 2012 movie It's great, I thought the visual effects to the film were the best I've seen since the Narnia movies.

[Eustace]

My family and I read it together outloud at the dinner table, and we started to read it again before the first movie came out and we went to watch it in theaters.