How old were you?

[Holdwine]

Well i stared reading the LOTR after i saw the fellowship for the first time when the two towers just came out and i read the hobbit also when i was 17 which is this year

 

[Paul]

i was read the hobbit when i was 7 or 8 and i frst read lotr at 14

 

[Earendil]

I remember i was 12 and a half. I got it for my 12th birthday and i put off reading it until christmas so it was a half a year after i got it that i started reading teh series. I read the Sill about...hmmm...i think a year later so about 13 or something.

 

[grendel]

I read The Hobbit when I was 14, and found it quite funny. Read LotR after that and, well, it wasn't quite as humorous. Read it again a couple of years later and began to "get it." I didn't read The Silmarillion until I was 30 and was amazed at how much of the background of LotR was explained.

 

[Aragorn21]

I think i was 14 when i read the hobbit, I read the LOTR right after.

Welcome to the forum grendel!

 

[Eliot]

I first read The Hobbit when I was 12 or 13, and I read both The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion when I was 13. Since then, I've read TH three times, TLotR three times, and The Sil once. I plan on reading The Sil for the second time sometime soon, but I'm not sure when.

Welcome to The Tolkien Forum, grendel.

 

[WizardMagus]

I read the Hobbit at 15, in one day. That same night I picked up the Lost Tales (a bit out of order, I know), and read that for a few weeks (a little dry for my taste). I think I read LotR at 16, same with Silmarillion, and a few more of the HotME books (I only read four or five).

 

[KellGreenleaf]

At age 15 I started reading The Hobbit, FotR, TTT, and ROTK.

 

[Lady_of_Gondor]

I was between the ages of 14 and 16 when I read them. I read them all in sequence because my aunt gave them to me for my 14th bday.

 

[aturina]

36 when I read The Hobbit and LOTR after seeing the movies FOTR and TTT. I guess I'm one of the oldest (if not, THE oldest).

I'm reading LOTR again as we speak.

I don't think I had the maturity at a younger age to truly understand the story of LOTR. I see SO many layers to it now. And I'm completely obsessed!

 

[Belegmacar]

The Hobbit when I was 11, LOTR when I was 11 and 12, and the Sil when I was 13.

 

[Durino Dagnir]

When I was around nine or ten (in fourth grade). I had seen the cartoons when I was little, but I only understood the hobbit. Even my mom didn't understand the Bakshi one. Then I heard that there was going to be a new LotR movie, and I had no idea what it was. I figured that there must be books, and I got The Hobbit from the school library sometime around September. Then I started reading the LotR. About halfway through TTT, I found this great website called thetolkienforum.com. I actually shadowed it for a few years before deciding to register about five minutes ago. I learned about these weird things called Maiar (that was the first word that entered my new vocabulary), and I got the Silmarillion for Christmas that year. I've been hooked ever since.

^ My very first post, ever. ^

 

[Ireth Telrúnya]

It seems to me that all of you were quite young when you encountered Tolkien.

Me? I was probably a little over 20 and it was in 1992 or 93 probably when I first tried to read The Hobbit but then dropped it after a while.(I should have started the Fellowship first!)
But I read all of them at thirty.

 

[Tinuvien21]

I was 11 when I read The Hobbit, and 12 or 13 when I read LOTR.

 

[Elessar II]

I was 12 when I read the hobbit and thirteen when I read LOTR and since then I've read the trilogy five times and the hobbit thrice. I tried to read the Silmarillion right after I had finished the trilogy but I got bored with it really fast. I'm quickly realizing that I am going to have to read it sometime soon. Oh well, I guess I'll have to pick it up at the library next time I go.

 

[Aragorn21]

I was 13 when i read the Hobbit and LOTR, and for the past 2 years I've meant to read them again...haven't gotten to it.

 

[Minuel Lasgalas]

I read the Hobbit first and then LoTR, at 15 I think. I asked for a copy of the Sil for my birthday when it was published - so that would be '77 sometime and I was in college. I lent it out after I had read it - a bad move - but I replaced it soon afterward.

My family has a tendancy to reread books as the mood strikes us... I've worn out three sets of paperbacks over the years - I broke down and bought the hardbounds - they are holding up better

 

[Lady Legolas]

I read the Hobbit when I was 14 years old. I read the Lord of the Rings the same year of the movie, but before the move came out.

 

[faila]

I was in like 2nd grade when i read the hobbit and 3rd grade when i read lotr so like 7 with hobbit and probobly 8 when i read lotr. I read big books at a young age.

 

[JennyDolfen]

Much like Rhiannon... I was ridiculously young when my mother read the Hobbit to me for the first time, must have been six. When we were done, I asked, "Does the story go on?" "Yes," she said. "Can you read the rest to me too?" I asked.

And she did. I was eight before we were done, and I saw that terrible animation movie by Ralph Bakshi sometime during that time, which left its marks as to the looks of some characters. Notably, short hair on many of them.

I started drawing scenes from the books straight away... and did so for the next ten years. I think the first time I completely read through all of LotR on my own was when i was 14--and before that, I'd tried reading on chapter in English when i was 13 (I'm German). I got very, vcery little. When i came to "Denethor's pyre" again in German, I was like, "Oh, Denethor *dies* in that chapter?!"