I was not taken with my first read of LOTR. It wasn't until I read it with others who carefully unpacked for me so much more than I could see. And there is SO m

I was not taken with my first read of LOTR. It wasn't until I read it with others who carefully unpacked for me so much more than I could see. And there is SO much. Like, I could never tell the difference between Merry and Pippin before. They were just two copies of the same character to me. Now I see them individually, and I'm fond of one but not the other. And Faramir and Eowyn! A side love story that could be a whole book on its own. I pretty much glanced over it the first time, because a lot of it happens while we (and they) are stuck on the side lines of the "real" story. My mistake! > the story seemed pedestrian I'll intentionally misinterpret this: That's so true! ;) Tolkien very carefully timed the events of the story around how long it would actually take the characters to walk from here to there. Of course, that means he also knew the exact distances between places in Middle Earth.