I DNFed Fellowship of the Ring

A second attempt of reading a classic this year and second classic I have quit. But maybe the only one I will consider coming back to at a later day. 

As you all know, dearest reader, fantasy is one of my go-to genres, but I have never read Lord of the Rings. I have seen the movies (I rewatched the original trilogy a Christmas or two back - though I have no interest in watching the Hobbit trilogy), but never read the books. To some of you guys, how can I call myself a fantasy reader without attempting to read the Godfather of modern fantasy?

Well, I tried. I tried to audiobook Fellowship read by Andy Serkis (Gollum in the movies) and got a good way through (about 48-50%) and I did like his reading. I did go a 1x speed as there was a lot of details I need to understand and I did want to savour it. 

BUT... 

Of course there's a BUT. I did quit this, after all. 

But I never felt that need to rush to this audiobook when I had a spare moment. I never felt that urge. Not sure if that was because I have seen the movies so I knew the basic beats (though there were things/people that were written out of the movie such as Tom Bombadil), or because the pacing is a lot slower than I originally thought (I knew it was a slow paced fantasy, but I was braced for that as I like my fantasy/crime reads to move with a bit of zip!) or because the writing felt juvenile at times. Or maybe it was because every chapter, the hobbits sang. 

Oh yes, they sing. In every chapter. For a good five/ten minutes. And each song has no relevance to the plot. None. Yes, I was warned years ago that there's a lot of singing and if you are reading, just skip them parts. But in audiobook form... tad more tricky. Especially when most of your listening is when you're driving. 

So yes, I did feel a little frustrated over this, which lead me to going "You know what? Am going to quit this and maybe come back at a later date." Because yes, I am thinking of coming back later this year to finish this off. I think once we get to a certain point, I'll find myself enjoying where the book is going (at the moment, it's mainly "Hobbits Goes Camping") and fly through. 

I might change my mind about going back to finish this off. I might go towards fnatasy titles that have an edge and a different view of the genre. Maybe I will just keep the films as my Lord of the Rings. Maybe not the latter - I mean, have you not seen French and Saunders's version?