How long did it take you to read TLotR?

[Pitchike12]

Just wondering, considering that over this summer I am planning to attempt reading it once again. I've only ever got halfway through, mainly because I decided to have a good go at it and then a new SW book came out...:p

[Alcuin]

Just wondering, considering that over this summer I am planning to attempt reading it once again. I've only ever got halfway through, mainly because I decided to have a good go at it and then a new SW book came out...:pFirst time, 3 weeks. Since then, sometimes a week (as in, sick and snowed in and nothing else to do) to much longer, but 3 weeks is about average.

Is it possible to convert this into a poll so we can see the results after a few years?

[GrayMouser]

Four weeks...but only because I had to wait two weeks for someone at the library to return "Return of the King". Longest two weeks of my life.

[EllethValatari]

I'd also say about four weeks. We started reading it at school, at a very slow pace. I got into it very quickly though and finished it on my own before the class even finished FotR. That was a long time ago! :rolleyes:

[the insane one]

When I first read LOTR it felt like months, but then again everything seems to take a long while when you are young.
Laterly I have been able to read the trilogy in 2 weeks, but I still think it is better to take ones time and truly savor the text.

I believe it is more realistic if you reach mount doom after a few weeks of reading, just like frodo. Afteral, Tolkien spent the best part of 10 years on and off to write it, so its a shame to blitz straight through and then dismiss it

[BeardofPants]

First time took awhile because I got stuck on TT, but thereafter, prolly between 2-4 weeks, depending on how prioritised the reading is. I've read it more than 10 times now.

[Valandil]

I usually take my time, and sometimes have to read in snippets. I tend to stretch it out to a few months.

[Galenavar]

A month. I was 12 or 13 at the time, I remember reading the trilogy in a month (Two Towers was difficult) and then I checked out the Silmarillion from the school library.

And proceeded to renew it for the next two months as I read it all. The librarian got a kick out of that.

[Alcuin]

I was 12 or 13, too. It’s the second half of Two Towers that’s so difficult, particularly the first time through. I thought Frodo’d never get out of that wretched marsh, or through Ithilien, or over the mountains! Not that there weren’t pleasant surprises – Faramir was a pleasant surprise! – and unpleasant ones – Shelob was an unpleasant surprise! And when we returned to that part of the story in Return of the King, it was all exciting until there was mile after mile after mile of Gorgoroth – and then woof! Sammath Naur! It was long ago, but that’s my recollection… Nowadays, it doesn’t seem that way any longer, but back then…

[Valandil]

Yes - it's amazing now to realize how few pages there are in Book 6 that describe Frodo and Sam in Mordor!

[Beren3000]

I usually take my time, and sometimes have to read in snippets. I tend to stretch it out to a few months.
Same here.

[Serenoli]

My first read: took one day, and I'm not kidding. :P

My brother borrowed it from his school library for me and threatened (jokingly) to return it the very next morning; and I took him seriously, and read furiously from afternoon till 2 am. I still count it as one of my biggest achievements in life :D