One of the great things about having kids is having the excuse to go back and read some books that I read when I was a kid. With the first installment of the movie looming, we attacked The Hobbit, a book I hadn’t read in way too long. The book was a challenge to get through due to not only the language, large swathes of detailed description and long songs/poems that probably are better sung (by someone who sings much better than I do). But in the end, the wonderful characters and quest carried the book through. So, let’s see what happens.

Note: There will be spoilers ahead. Since the book is 75 years old, you should already know what happens.

Bilbo Baggins is a happy hobbit, He loves his life in the shire until he is tricked by the wizard Gandalf to host a party for a bunch of dwarves. Needless to say, the part leads to a quest and Bilbo soon finds himself on a quest. The dwarves are on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug and think they have the key with a map that shows a hidden back door into the mountain.

Before long, Bilbo finds himself under attack by trolls, goblins, elves, eagles and eventually the dragon Smaug. Bilbo heads out on his journey with Gandalf (who is only able to join them for half the quest) and twelve dwarves. There is too many dwarves for any of them, besides the leader Thorin, to make create much of an impression. The story of the book IS the story of Bilbo. When the dwarves are separated from Bilbo, it’s Bilbo we follow. When the dwarves are separated from each other, we follow along with Bilbo. And Bilbo finds himself able to do a lot more than he (or the dwarves) thought was possible. Gandalf, on the other hand, always had faith in Bilbo.

The book is well written and a great quest, but I do have a couple problems with it. The first problem I had was that after Bilbo discovers Smaug’s weakness (an uncovered spot under a wing), we cut to the humans and they are the ones who fight Smaug and kill him. We spend a huge time following the dwarves and Bilbo on this quest only to have someone else fight the battle. The second problem I have with the book is during the Battle of the Five Armies, Bilbo gets knocked out and we miss most of the fight. It just seems like that we should have been around for that Battle and the dwarves should have fought Smaug.

But those are minor distractions for a simple story of a quest that changed the world. It was fun to see Gollum again and the origin of how Bilbo got the ring. But even without The Lord of the Rings, trilogy being based off the actions of Bilbo in this story, The Hobbit is a great story and one of the great adventure stories. Highly recommended