I reread this weeks ago and forgot to update this blog! Ah, well...better late than never!
I thoroughly enjoyed rereading it, although I'm glad I did The Hobbit first, as sort of a gateway point back into the dense and complex lore of Middle-earth.
The main thing that stuck out to me was how much the Peter Jackson films, brilliant in their own right, of course, have come to inadvertently dominate how much The Lord of the Rings is seen! For instance, I only remembered Gandalf telling Frodo about Gollum when they're in the mines of Moria, whereas in the book, he spills all the beans to Frodo before they even leave the Shire! So not only is Gandalf a bit more forthcoming than I remember, but if even minor details like this could get forgotten, I was interested to see what more there was.
I knew about the major stuff, like the one and only Tom Bombadil...rereading his chapters was interesting. I thoroughly understand why he was cut from the films, but I loved him and Goldberry here. The whole first half (or Book 1, more properly) felt like The Hobbit 2 and Book 2 transitioned more into the LOTR that I was familiar with.
I don't think I have much more to say that others haven't already said far, far better than me (I'm not a Tolkien scholar, far from it), except that I didn't realise how much more present Gollum seemed. Unlike the film, the book always seemed to remind me that Gollum was there, always watching and hunting the hobbitses for his Precious. Gollum being one of the most interesting characters in the series (and literature as a whole) it set up his entry in the sequel very, very well.
That's about it for The Fellowship of the Ring in terms of what I can comment on! I'll post about The Two Towers soon enough.
Also, RIP Boromir, he died a hero.
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