/lit/ - Literature

It's either loved by people who respect it for its simplicity and comfiness or hated for the same reason. Disliking it I understand, but actively shitting on it for being easy to read and overrated is top-tier pseudism.

ITT: books that changed your life

For me one of the books is the Hobbit, as it taught me that adventure is out there, you just have to find it.

Just as valid as being a Shelley scholar or some such

Actually, seeing as Tolkien was in English academia himself, its probably more attractive than picking some poet with fewer collected works to specialize in.

This is scholarship, the only angle this is "childish" from is because of popularity. Tolkien is influential and literary enough to be studied on his own merits as much as a Faulkner scholar is justified in studying his author of choice.

I don't know why you guys like The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings so much, its SUPER full of cliches.

The country boy is picked up from his menial life and thrust into an adventure with fucking comically stereotypical wizards (lol) parties of dwarves and elves that look like something out of a 16 year old's DnD game. Along the way they fuck dragons (fucking lel) and defeat the evil dark man (you know he's bad because he wears black). Everything turns out happily ever after.

The whole thing is so full of every fantasy stereotype imaginable I don't know how any of you could like it.

So I'm halfway through this book (pic related), and so far it has given me an optimistic outlook on the near future of technology and the impact it will have on human intelligence and evolution.
We're all too familiar with dystopian literature and its cautionary messages about the future, so I'd like to get away from that and have a thread about fiction, nonfiction, novels, informative texts, comics etc. that inspires optimism about the future instead.

kill you'reself

Hey /lit/. I'm feeling philosophically stagnated and was hoping you could make some recommendations. I used to read a lot, and love reading, but now most of my time is being taken up by videogames...it makes me sick to think about. I want to make a change and gain a little more perspective. Can you help me /lit/?

pic related, it's my favorite book

Fuck the film. That thing was painful

Does the hobbit take place in england?
It's called "middle earth" but im sure that just what they call it in the book.
If this is not the case, could someone inform me where it actually takes place?

I've hardly read anything in the fantasy-adventure genre. Reading The Hobbit has me hungry for some recommendations.

Any?

That Hemingway cover reminds me of The Hobbit.

ITT: obvious things in your childhood books that you didn't notice until later re-reads.

Gandalf is a huge dick to everyone.

I have the original but I think I will buy this edition, it's cool

What are some books as good as this one?

looking for something as engrossing and is an easy read

Currently reading The Lord of the Rings right now. 2 chapters from finishing The Fellowship of the Ring.

Just wondering, /lit/, did anyone on here have a book in their childhood that was really special to them for one reason or another? One book in particular that brings back all the memories? Mine happens to be The Hobbit.

Is this book just a light hearted adventure or is there lore and epic in it ?

I'm fairly new to this board, but what are your thoughts on the hobbit?

Personally, it's one of my favorite novels.

/lit/ what are some iconic book covers?
Covers that in their own way are as instantly familiar as the stories they represent.
I can only think of two immediately off the top of my head...

I was always under the impression that this book was supposed to be "There and Back Again," the book Bilbo wrote about his adventure, but in the beginning the narrator says "...since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us."

Keyword: us.

What gives?