 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today we are talking about the second book in our Lord of the Re-Reads, Giant Buddy, Group Read, Whatever you want to call it. That is Fellowship of the Ring, and yes it's book 2 because we did the Hobbit first, but before we jump into the review, I am going to ask this fantastic literary book of answers by Carol Bolt whether or not we should go directly into the two towers, or if I should wait a week and kind of decompress, you'll figure out why I'm asking in just a second. So let's throw open the book and says, Clear the Ground That You May. Clear the Ground That You May by James Fenimore Cooper from The Pioneers. I don't know if you can read that or not, but I take that as saying, it says Clear the Ground That You May. So I'm going to go ahead and finish up all the reads that I have left. I only got 100 pages of the Shining left. I'm not going to finish up Jack Sparks because the last days of Jack Sparks because I got probably 200 pages left of that. And then I have about 50% left of the Lisa Jewel book, The Family Upstairs that I'm reading. So I'm at least going to finish the Shining first. So that's what I'm going to do. You guys can jump into the two towers if you want to. We're going to put that back there and we are going to go ahead and go full on into the Fellowship of the Rings review. This book was something else. It was a pain. It was a slog. It had some great moments in it, but for the most part, I was bored out of my fucking mind. There's so much sitting around and talking and preparing and getting to know one another, getting to know you, getting to know all about you. I was kind of done with it by the time the interesting stuff started, which is unfortunate, but it's the truth. So many people had warned me how boring the trilogy is. I don't remember it being this boring. I really blew through the three books. I believe it was right before the movies came out. I blew through all three books without stopping. I have a nice, but I should have brought that out. I'll bring it out for two towers. I have a nice big coat. It's not even an omnibus, really. It's the way the book was intended to be read, which is one big thousand page book, and I have that version of the book in a, I can't, Hofflin, Mifflin, or whatever one. If you guys remember from my Hobbit review, I have that version in the, I have Lord of the Rings in that kind of version. It's the same publisher. I'll bring that out for the next one or the last one, if I can remember. But yeah, so this one was a struggle. In fact, if it wasn't a buddy read, I probably would have quit because I was so bored. Three fourths of this book is just utterly droning, just boredom for me. And I hate that, but it is everything that I hate about fantasy is in this book. All the world building and my buddy Wayne Fenlan, he quit it because he couldn't stand the songs. He was tired of the songs. He's doing the audio book. I did audio book, I jumped back and forth because I was so bored. I listened to the audio book some. I listened to, and I just, I completely skipped past the songs. And then I went back and I read the songs because they're very easy to find in the book. All you got to do is, well of course I would go to the back of the book where there isn't as many. But you know, they're really easy because they're, they look like poetry. So because they basically are, but in lyric form. I want to say I recommend this book just because I know more stuff happens in the Two Towers and plenty more happens in The Return of the King. But I can't. The beginning of this, this book is, that's not just the beginning. It's the first three fourths of the book is utterly boring. It's literally them just walking from place to place, not really getting into too much trouble. There is a joke in Clerks 2, Kevin Smith's Clerks Part 2, where Jason Muse or, no, is it Jason Muse? I don't think it is Jason Muse. It's a, what's his name? Wow, I can't even remember the dude's name. Not the main character, but his buddy, his little sidekick dude. And not Jay and Silent Bob. I know them, but I can't remember the guy's name. But he's joking about how Star Wars is better because All Lord of the Rings is just a bunch of people walking from point A to point B. And that's pretty much what this first book is. Yeah, I was, I was bored to death. Even the exciting parts, like them escaping from the Nazgul, that kind of thing. All that stuff was really boring because he kept interjecting in the middle of the action, he would stop to say something else. That wasn't really part of the action. And then when the action got there, it went so quickly that we were back to the walking around and the descriptions of places, people and things. And it's everything that I hated about the Song of Ice and Fire is saying thing that I hated about the Robert Jordan books, just about any fantasy. There's just so much world building that has to be done. Same with sci-fi for me, sorry guys, but it's the truth. Same with sci-fi for me, there's so much world building going on that is just not interesting to me. I picture it just fine and all that. I just don't care. And that's bad to say, but I don't. And especially since I've seen the movie, reading the book, even though there's big differences here, there's huge differences early on. Massive differences in that first chapter, first couple of chapters, because it goes on much longer than the movie does. I honestly prefer the movie version over the book just because they hit all the plot points. The scene in The Minds of Moria, I think I'm getting that right. The scenes in that are much more exciting in the movie. I pictured the Balrog differently when I was reading the book than the movie, but I like the movie version more. I need to talk about the movies here, but if I'm honest, I really do prefer at least this first book. I prefer the movie, if I'm honest. But I think the main thing is this is all just not really an extended prologue, but this is all just building up for the action in the Two Towers and Return of the King. So I'm not too terribly mad at it, and I'm going to continue on. In fact, that's the only thing that really kept me pushing forward is I know more stuff happens in the Two Towers, and I know more stuff happens in the Return of the King, so if I can just get through this, I will be fine. And it looks like I'm going to at least finish the Shining. I've got 100 pages left on that, and I'm doing audiobook, and 30 pages in audiobook is an hour. I've got three hours left in that, and I listen to it while I walk. So we're looking at at least three more days of the Shining before I start the Two Towers, but if you guys want to jump ahead, that's fine, go on. I'm pretty much reading at my own pace now anyways, and I suggest you guys do the same, just have fun with it, and you know, read it the best that you can to where you can keep on going because I've been enjoying talking to you guys about it. Now as far as this past week has been concerned, almost two weeks, I haven't been talking much in the group because I have been finishing the Institute. I'm finally done with the Institute. Review will be up Thursday, but that's all I really have to say about this book. Let me know down there in the comments below whether or not you liked this book, if you disliked it. Let me know the reasonings behind it so we can have a discussion. Leave me all that down there in the doobly-doo, but until next time, I have been E, you have been U. This has been another book review. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!