Who recommends it
- 10 Fictional Places We’d Love To VisitArticle
The Shire is a fictional place from JRR Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit. It’s a charming and idyllic place where the inhabitants are simple and content. Plus, the hobbits know how to throw a party with amazing fireworks and food!
- The Best Action Adventure BooksReading list
The Hobbit is an action-packed adventure story that follows the journey of Bilbo Baggins, a simple hobbit who is thrust into a dangerous quest. Along the way, Bilbo meets a cast of colorful characters, including the wizard Gandalf and the thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield.
- Christopher GreysonInterview
- Daniele BolelliInterview
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien was a master in allowing readers to immerse in the universe he created.
- Alison LittlewoodInterview
Oh, I feel like I should be choosing the one book that would make everyone be good to each other and magically make the world a better place. I’m not sure that’s possible, so I’m not going to pick some deeply philosophical tome. Instead, I’d love it if more people realised how wonderful it can be to read and enjoy…
- Elys DolanInterview
That’s hard to say and I’ll probably give a different answer to this tomorrow but for now, I’d say The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. I’ve got strong memories of my Mum reading me a chapter from it each night and I think that’s when I realised how rich the alternate worlds that books create can really be.
- Skye ClearyInterview
- Tim HarfordInterview
I associate The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien with my father reading to me and my sister in a big armchair.
- Jason PaulInterview
My Dad has a deep love for books and instilled that into me early on by reading The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien to me. Much later on he gave me The Journeyer by Gary Jennings. It’s the epic story of Marco Polo’s life and various escapades. Crazy stories from his travels mixed in with sexual adventures on the way where…
- Benjamin MurphyInterview
The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien was my favourite book as a child, and I re-read it a few years ago in anticipation of the film and it’s still as great as when I read it the first time.
- Trista MateerInterview
I actually reread The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, if not every year, then maybe every other year. I first read both at very different times in my life and they both mean different things to me but, mostly, they’re comfortable and they feel a little bit like coming home…
- Robin EisenbergInterview
I was obsessed with a series called Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin. They were short story picture books, and all about the adventures of a litter of kittens with wings who were born in a noisy city and had to find a safe place to move to. I was really allergic to cats as a kid and it made me wish I wasn’t so I could…
- Jeremy ZuckermanInterview
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is a big one for me. I remember the act of reading it was a clear moment of empowerment; it was the first novel I read without a parent. I was too impatient to wait for someone to read it to me, so I took the initiative. It was a good lesson!
- Ian FrancisInterview
The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson, which I think my parents subtly picked up because I was not the best at sleeping, and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.
- Meredith RussoInterview
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I still remember sitting with my sister while our Mom read it to us when we were little.
- Daniel CohenInterview
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien. My mother turned me on to them in the early 1960s when I was still in elementary school. They were not yet big on the public radar, but I took to them from the first page, and I read them quite often, probably every other year, all the way through graduate school.
Often recommended alongside
Moby Dick
Crime and Punishment
On Writing
The Catcher in the Rye
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Road
The StrangerMore books by J.R.R. Tolkien our guests recommend
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