Bilbo Baggins Triumphant

Last night, we finished the adventures of Bilbo Baggins as told in The Hobbit. Interest in reading (and, in my case, rereading) this book came on Christmas Day of this past year when I received a video game based on The Hobbit. The kids were already familiar with Bilbo from the Rankin-Bass adaptation, and so off we went with Bilbo and thirteen Dwarves in a Quest to defeat a Dragon and reclaim a treasure.

I was most surprised that chapter two, Roast Mutton, had the most affect on Katie. For a while, I was learning about the undocumented adventures of Tom, Bert and Bill. They seemed to turn up everywhere, and many pieces of paper were consumed in detailing their exploits.

The most satisfying parts of the book were the chapters that either expanded what was in the movie, or had been removed all together. For the kids, these were completely new and you could see the look of enjoyment on their faces.

Unfortunately, as with most “long” books that we read, what begins with a good start, ends up as an unfinished journey. Then a friend of our family related that, as the quickest of the eaters in their house, he would simply pull a book out and start reading aloud after he had supped. What an idea, and that was how we made short work of the last five or six chapters.