My mother didn't like the Hobbit, and she read it after reading the Lord of the Rings. I read it as the first book in the series, and as a child, and I love it! It was actually written for Tolkien's children, so please don't use the same standards on it as on 'good' literature.

kat - You didn't like Women Who Run With The Wolves???!!!!
I loved it so much! Of course, it took me a week to read it, because I kept having to put it down and think about it, and I can usually finish a book of that thickness in a few hours... So a 'normal' person would take a few months to read it.

I used to hate the story of Bluebeard, her interpretation really helped me understand the story, and understand why I had hated it previously.
That illumination happened with several of the stories that she tells in it. I particularly liked Vassalisa, as my dad used to tell me that story. He was part Russian. That story is one of the few good things I've inherited from that side of the family.

~*sirepseh*~