The Hobbit

by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Reviewed by Ruby

Bilbo Baggins is an ordinary hobbit, living an ordinary life in the Shire, quite happy to be ordinary. Gandalf, the wizard, has other plans for him and, without Bilbo’s knowledge, has signed him up as the fourteenth member of a quest. All of a sudden Bilbo is besieged by dwarfs having dinner at his house. The dwarfs have had their home taken from them by a dragon and were forced to flee and scatter all over Middle Earth, now thirteen dwarfs lead by the grandson of the King Under the Mountain, Thorin, has decided it is the time to take their home back and Bilbo is going to help them.

What follows is an adventure that Bilbo will never forget, filled with trolls, orcs, wolves, giant spiders, elves, mighty eagles and, of course, a dragon.

I read this book years ago and I enjoyed it as much then as I did now. It was an excellent read and a light one, which is weird if you look at Lord of the Rings. I even like the way it was written, as if you were being told a story. It was a little bit childish in places but for the most part I loved it.

The main problem I had with this book was with the dwarfs. Thorin is a jerk throughout most of the book and most of the others are whiners. It was almost as if you had no choice but to cheer for Bilbo because I could care less about whether the dwarfs succeeded in their quest or not. All they did was complain and were pretty much useless for the majority of the book. And then they had the gall to get pissed at Bilbo. It was a little bit unrealistic.

If you discount that, it was an awesome book.

Grade: B