h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wait, is this a comparison of the books or the films? I suppose it doesn't matter as it's LOTR either way...

LOL
:D

The books I think
but I agree - much as I love the HP books, and I did enjoy the film - The LOTR film is outstanding.
It's everything Harry Potter could have been if it had had the confidence and heart to go for it.

what have u got against godd ol' Tom Bombadil?! hes 1 of my fav charactures! so & 2 any1 who wants rid of him!

My preteens are reading LOTR at the moment. One of them has just finished one of Philip Pullman's trilogies and passed the books on to my better half, who is enjoying them, but we're all waiting impatiently for the next HP.
How can you not enjoy them? Which one did you read?

Terry Pratchett has just brought out a book called The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.
It is absolute

Try it and

Good grief, has the Amazing Terry nicked another idea and added bits to it?

The man's talent knows no bounds.

If you want to know the truth about Hamlin, read "King Rat" by China Mieville. It's not for kids, mind, but then neither is LoTR (according to Tolkien).

I still think that the phrase "One Ring To Rule Them All" was curiously prophetic, given how many times JRR's ideas have been rehashed.

Sorry . That was a reply to post 70

I do wish this site wouldn't keep doing that to me.

I've been trying to read The Pied Piper of Hamlin by Robert Browning to my three-year-old daughter but she can't handle the rhyme scheme.

I haven't read Harry Potter and probably never will because it's been hyped too much. The books and merchandise are everywhere. Lord of the Rings hasn't received anything like the same amount of hype and has been around for much longer.

You can't really compare LOTR and the Narnia chronicles because they were written for two different age groups, and with different ends. The Narnia chronicles were written for children and are an allegory of the Bible. Lord of the Rings was written for young adults, contains no allegory (Tolkien said so and I believe him) and builds on a strand of 'The Hobbit'. I enjoy both LOTR and the Narnia chronicles, but find Narnia easier to read at one sitting. I've been reading LOTR, off and on, for a couple of months and I still haven't finished it.

I nearly forgot. Andy, don't try reading the Browning version of the Pied Piper to a 3 year-old. She'd have to be very precocious to appreciate it. Find a prose version that was written for children, and save the poem until she's older. I've been an avid reader all my life and I enjoyed the poem as a child, but not at the age of 3. I think I was 9 or 10.

Dragon, you should read Harry Potter. Not because the books have been hyped, but because many people who enjoy a good book have enjoyed them. But they are children's books. If you read them never forgetting this, you will enjoy them.

Hype does normally turn me off something, but for HP I got past that and enjoyed it. Admittedly, I've only read the first one so far, but it's on my list, along with at least a dozen other books which just happen to have found their way out of the shops and onto my shelves.

i got past the hype problem by nicking em off my boyfriend!

*RTR* Now, having read all except Goblet of Fire, I'm _still_ enthusiastic about them. And looking forward to the film, to which I have my ticket...

i may have ticket. am not sure... (m8 my have got me 1, dunno yet)
im eagerly awaiting TTT

omy

& in (very delayed) reply to post 164, Amazing Maurice rocks! tho i think tis quite scarey concept, esp towards the end!
& i should be getting my copy signed (or my boyfriend should be getting it signed) later this week!

omy

Oh no, not _another_ book that I really ought to buy and read. I'm going to spend years just playing catch-up with Mr. Pratchett...