Problems with non LOTR readers...

I have been reading Barrow’s Boys, a book about nineteenth century British exploration, which has long quotations from the logs and diaries. Even the prose of these army and navy men, not the most literary gentlemen, or so one would suppose, wrote prose as complex as Tolkien’s (or like this post!). It seems that the writing abilities of the average citizen have diminished somewhat in the last two centuries!

Muskrat said:

It seems that the writing abilities of the average citizen have diminished somewhat in the last two centuries!

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The quality of writing in your hall is somewhat lessened of late, Theoden King!

I could have read it at age 9.
I was in third grade and reading at an 8th grade level (13-14 year old typically).
But I seriously doubt I would have appreciated it.

Deimos said:

I agree with him if one is writing, say, an article for a journal, or an op-ed.
The phrase I learned is "write tight and make it sing".
But if one is writing fiction and any of its sub-genres (e.g., mystery, fantasy, SF, historical fiction, dramatic ) well, all evocative description would have to be jettisoned. It would make for very dry, unexciting reading.

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I failed his class the first time, and I know why - I didn't follow his "don't write long-winded sentences like Tolkien did" rules. (I'm a fic writer. Who failed a creative writing class. Talk about irony.)

The Witch-king Of Angmar said:

I failed his class the first time, and I know why - I didn't follow his "don't write long-winded sentences like Tolkien did" rules. (I'm a fic writer. Who failed a creative writing class. Talk about irony.)

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Asking this strictly out of curiosity: what kind of reading (title, authors, genres etc) did you do while growing up, prior to entering university?
Don't sweat this...just whatever you can recall.

Deimos said:

Did you happen to read the Hobbit when you were a child ("Child" is very broad... at what age did you attempt LOTR?).

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Yeah, I read The Hobbit, but it didn't really grab me to be honest! I think I was around 11 or 12 I believe, when I read that and attempted LOTR. It was the early/mid 80s, and at that time I got more seduced by Dungeons and Dragons and Fighting Fantasy books, so that's where my head was at.

Deimos said:

Asking this strictly out of curiosity: what kind of reading (title, authors, genres etc) did you do while growing up, prior to entering university?
Don't sweat this...just whatever you can recall.

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As a kid I read stuff like Famous Five but also things I found in my mother's old book collection (I was mostly raised by my grandparents, and her old book collection was there, so I grabbed it), like St. Clare's. But also a lot of German authors, my favorite being Michael Ende. Sadly never any Tolkien, he wasn't on my radar at all for a long time, only the first LOTR movie made me interested in the books. Later on as a teenager I read a lot of Stephen King and Michael Crichton.

The Witch-king Of Angmar said:

As a kid I read stuff like Famous Five but also things I found in my mother's old book collection (I was mostly raised by my grandparents, and her old book collection was there, so I grabbed it), like St. Clare's. But also a lot of German authors, my favorite being Michael Ende. Sadly never any Tolkien, he wasn't on my radar at all for a long time, only the first LOTR movie made me interested in the books. Later on as a teenager I read a lot of Stephen King and Michael Crichton.

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Thanks for the reply.
I was curious because a person's preferred reading prior to university can determine in no small measure how he reacts to what his professors say, especially if you have a prof of the "Do this/ don't do that" variety.
The fact that you gave the impression (at least to me) that you didn't think much of your prof's instruction "don't write...like Tolkien did" prompted me to think that you, when younger, (and even tho' Tolkien wasn't readily at hand) were still reading reading works superior to vapidly written stories.