Should I read the hobbit before reading LOTR?

Not necessarily. The story of the Lord of The Rings can stand alone from The Hobbit. It's just that some of the events and characters mentioned in LOTR are explored in detail in the Hobbit. For instance, the family of Gimli has a large role to play in The Hobbit. So, if you want to familiarize yourself with the genealogy and importance of the dwarves, then I suggest you read The Hobbit first.

 

It hardly matters which of them you read first. It's not like The Hobbit is about a quest to find the one ring. In fact, initially it was written as a standalone story not a prequel to LOTR but the publishers had the book re-written. I have to tell you though that the stories are really boring to read. If you've watched the movies then don't bother reading the books because you haven't missed much.

 

I think it is a god idea to read it first, but not necessary. They are independent stories that have a few of the same characters, but are not essentially intertwined. I think the Hobbit is actually a much simpler story than Lord of the Rings, and Tolkien has a very unique writing style. If you are not familiar with his style at all, you might want to start with the Hobbit, just to get used to it.

 

I would read The Hobbit first as even though it is a stand alone book as it sets the scene and the plot is simple. It is more of an enjoyable read IMHO and if you have seen the film, (which was bad) it is much better. I always like to read in order if I can, but I guess you already know the outcome of the books so it won't be a great surprise.

 

I read the Hobbit along time ago and loved it. I saw Lord of the Rings and did not get it that it was based on the Hobbit. After I saw the new version of The Hobbit I understood the Lord of The Rings better. My suggestion is to read The Hobbit first.

 

It really doesn't matter which one you read first. If you read The Lord of The Rings trilogy first you can then consider The Hobbit a prequel, and you will enjoy seeing the past stories of characters you already love. If you decide to read The Hobbit first then it will all be in chronological order and you will enjoy it just the same. Whatever you choose to do will be fine, both books will leave you wanting more and you will end up reading them all anyway.

 

Don't read any of them if you hate old English speak. Just watch the films. They're better anyway.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a book hater or anything. I love books. I'm a wide reader. I read a lot of novels when I was in college because that was the main entertainment and relaxation method that I had. I read the Harry Potter series and Dan Brown Books and Nancy Drew Mysteries and The Divide series and many others. Then I saw The Lord of the Rings trilogy in my cousin's room. I borrowed the first book. I didn't even make it to the 10th page. It was booorring.

I suggest that you simply purchase the DVD package for the Trilogy. You'll be more entertained by that.

 

I think it is a good idea to read The Hobbit before LOTR. I greatly enjoyed The Hobbit, I could not read LOTR. Tolkien rambles a great deal in Lord of the Rings and it is difficult to follow. However, The Hobbit is a simple story, that ties nicely into LOTR, but isn't exactly necessary to understanding Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit is a little slow moving, but the story is well worth it.

 

It doesn't matter in the slightest. Both stories can stand on their own rather well. I suppose the only difference would be is the background knowledge you had going into the 2nd book you read. So if you read the Hobbit first, you'll know different things when starting to read LOTR and vice versa.

The LOTR series takes a looong time to get through though, so be prepared for that.

 

I read it backwards, starting with LOTR, Hobbit and then the Silmarillion; imaginatively, it felt like going back in time within the world Tolkien conceived. The 2000s LOTR editions, specifically Return of the King, provided a index detailing the history Tolkien had scribed as the history of middle-earth, which allowed me to understand the events that transpired in the past of the series; the Hobbit doesn't provide such information, being the first book of the middle-earth series. The only book I have not read yet is the latest published works of Tolkien, called "Unfinished Tales".

Truly, it's all how one desires to experience their reading of these magnificent works of literature, which Tolkien hinted that he wrote it to describe and allude to our own human past and history, but in a fantasy context.

 

Not necessarily. Personally, i really do like The Hobbit book, I've read it twice because it is very well written and i love the adventures in the book. However, i haven't read the LOTR books, i think i got scared of how thick the book looks. lol But I've seen the LOTR movies before I read The Hobbit and i don't think I've missed any important details. I think in the LOTR books, they've mentioned some back story from The Hobbit so i guess it does give you an overview of what's in the Hobbit book. It should be okay if you decide to forego reading the Hobbit and start the LOTR series.

 

I haven't watched either, so you might think that I am not credible to speak up about this. But I have a lot of friends and relatives who are very into the two. My sister especially is a fun and she keeps on recommending me to be the same as she is, or even at least watch or read. She said that I don't really have to read the Hobbit before watching LOTR. In fact, going directly to the LOTR and foregoing the sequels is quite more exciting according to her. I am sharing what's been recommended to me.

 

It's up to you. I watched the movies first before I tried reading the books. Although it may come across as spoiling things for me, I find that watching the movie first actually enhanced my imagination when I finally got to read the book. To make matters worse, I read LOTR before The Hobbit. I think either way is fine. There way The Hobbit was written, it can actually stand on its own like a separate story.