The Hobbit: There and Back Again

[green_amberjade]

They've released a couple of set pictures from the new Hobbit movies. Words cannot describe my giddy reaction at seeing Bilbo Baggins, who has to be the most adorable Hobbit in existence. Not that I don't love Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry, but BILBO! My first literary love!

Comments

[revdorothyl]

Granted, we took a much longer time than we would have if my mom had continued reading, but it's one of those childhood experiences I'll always treasure.

I think that's one of the best gifts a parent can give a child, to let the child help with a family activity, even when it takes so much more of the parent's time than if they just kept the child in a passive role. I'd never realized what a gift this was, until I met other people my own age who couldn't cook (much) because -- unlike my folks -- their parents couldn't spare the time and energy to let them bumble their way around the kitchen as children, cooking various dishes for the family that would've gone much faster, tasted better, and caused much less mess if done by mother alone.

My folks would bring a book or two on vacation so Mom could read aloud to us in the car on those long trips, and I remember being so thrilled when I was allowed to take my turn reading the book to my family in the car or at night in the camper. After I was in 3rd or 4th grade, the folks stopped this practice, but I reinstated it when I was going into 9th grade, bringing along my often re-read copy of Pride and Prejudice for us all to take turns with on the long car trips. When we finished that book by Austen, we worked our way through some of my favorite Georgette Heyers and at least one James Clavell (it was my dad's turn to pick, so we read Shogun that time), before the demands on everyone's time became so great (and the distance between parent and child reading tastes so much larger) that we dropped the practice again, for good.

Great memories!

[green_amberjade]

That's so sad because some of my fondest memories of when I was a child was of spending time with my parents. Both of my parents worked, so I had a lot of nannies growing up, but no matter how tired they were when they came through the door, my parents always made time for me. It's sad to know that not everyone would have that. (And now I wish that I lived closer to my parents because I just want to give them a hug).

That's a beautiful memory. It makes me wish that my family had done something similar on our car trips. :) Although, I'm a bit surprised that your dad didn't go insane with all the "chick-lit". Although, if it had been my dad, he would have probably begged for it after being forced to listen to a bunch of sci-fi and fantasy.

[revdorothyl]

I think my dad just tuned out most of the Regency romance-type stuff (and since he always insisted on doing all the driving, it wasn't like he didn't have other things to occupy his mind).

And sci-fi and fantasy was where the generation gap was most keenly felt in my family -- my parents had and still have zero interest in it (even when written by theologically astute folks like C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien, and they've never heard of Madeleine L'Engle, I'm pretty sure), while I practically cut my eye-teeth on reading Andre Norton, then proceeded to work my way through the small town library's entire SF collection between 5th and 7th grades, then promptly became addicted to Anne McCaffrey, and so on (while my baby brother read and re-read The Chronicles of Narnia several times while he was house-bound with rheumatic fever for several weeks in 2nd or 3rd grade and became an ardent Tolkien reader by the time he started 6th grade, and my little sister became an ardent fan of Gordon R. Dickson before she ever started High School).