WOW!! I received several Tolkien related memories from Tolkienites all over the globe! I am going to select one each week, in no particular order, and post them here! Here is installment #1!
When I was 5 and my brother was 7 my dad read The Hobbit to us. We liked it so much that he started reading The Lord of the Rings to us for a little bit every night. My dad loved the book and he would do different voices for all the characters. My brother and I looked forward to it every night even though we didn’t quite understand everything that was going on. We would sit there curled up next to dad on the couch in our pajamas as he read to us from the Big Red book that a friend from college had given him as a wedding present. We got all the way to the part where Frodo took Gollum prisoner, then we made him stop because it was getting too scary. Now as a sophomore in College I have read The Lord of the Rings 3 times and The Silmarillion once. I have hazy memories of black riders and beautiful elves from that first time but I was able to experience it on my own later when I could fully understand Tolkein’s writing. However, I will never forget dad’s gollum voice or the quality time he spent with us sharing a book that meant, and still means, so much to him.
Thanks Lindsay for the great Tolkien memory!!