It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.
By now, I think practically everyone has either read the book or seen the movies, hopefully both. (Full disclosure: I will judge heavily anyone who has only seen the movies; why would you do that to yourself?) The book, as is frequently the case, is loads better. No unnecessary romantic subplots, no characters who are dead making appearances, no characters showing up far too many years in advance, no storylines that contradict what comes in The Lord of the Rings; when that happened with The Hobbit, Tolkien went back and changed several scenes in the book to flow into LOTR better.
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, started out as a bedtime story Tolkien used to tell his son Christopher. It was only written down because Christopher, being your typical small child, starting calling his father out on the inconsistencies between recitations.
Plot summary: Bilbo Baggins, Hobbit and persnickety introvert, gets his house invaded by one wizard (Gandalf the Grey) and thirteen dwarves (Thorin Oakenshield, Fili, Kili, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Nori, Dori, Ori, and a partridge in a pear tree!) Thorin, their leader,
is taking his Company of Dwarves and the going-along-for-the-ride Wizard to reclaim their kingdom, Erebor (the Lonely Mountain, Thorin’s kingdom) from Smaug, a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm; Smaug, the Great and Terrible, Smaug, “the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities”, Smaug, the dragon that invaded and took over many years ago.
As they do not want to be a Company numbering an unlucky 13 (14 when Gandalf is around, and as he says, he won’t always be around)
Where did you go to, if I may ask?’ said Thorin to Gandalf as they rode along.
To look ahead,’ said he.
And what brought you back in the nick of time?’
Looking behind,’ said he.
Gandalf has suggested they bring along a burglar to sneak in and check if Smaug is still amongst the living; and Gandalf has decided that Bilbo is that burglar. Because if Smaug is still alive, he’s never smelt a Hobbit before, so Bilbo will have the best chance of sneaking in and out and surviving; a slim chance, but a chance nonetheless. Doesn’t matter that Bilbo is a homebody, anti-adventure, mildly fussy,(if you have read Good Omens and not The Hobbit, Bilbo is an early precursor to Aziraphale) somewhat hedonistic (he likes his dry little Hobbit Hole, and his tea set, and his handkerchiefs, and not being set on fire by dragons, thank you very much); he’s going and that’s that. So off they go, to deal with Trolls, Goblins, Orcs, singing Elves, giant Spiders, incredibly crotchety Elves, greedy Mayors, and who knows what else. Oh yes, and the rumor of someone called the Necromancer, and a strange little creature who hides in the dark named Gollum, and his shiny little birthday present…..
Look, I read this book for the first time when I was five; my parents (my mother especially) had a very liberal policy of “if it’s on the shelf where you can reach, then it’s okay for you to read it” where books were concerned. Also if you questions about what you read, ask away. And seeing as this was (and still is) one of my mother’s favorite books, this was on a shelf where I could reach it. The Hobbit has one of the greatest opening paragraphs in the history of literature:
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle.
This is where I gained my lifelong love for not only green doors, but round doors; to this day I am truly sad my house does not have one. And Bilbo as a main character is exactly how I would probably be if I had to go on an adventure: miserable at first, exasperated at every turn (for true comedic writing, I will suggest you look to Bilbo’s comments towards the Dwarves vis a vis their escape from the dungeons), and then begrudgingly, and very much against his will, actually taking a shine to the entire thing. I always loved that not only did the Dwarves have hoods (Thorin’s sky blue with silver tassel always stood out), but that they undertook the first leg of their journey carrying their musical instruments on their backs; Thorin carrying a full harp being my personal favorite. Beorn, a skin-changer the Company meets, has one of the greatest introductions to the Company; I guess Gandalf decided that if it worked on Bilbo, it would work on other people. At the end of dealing with Thorin et al, I think Bilbo and Beorn both know how frogs feel when being cooked.
Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
And Bilbo’s confrontation with Smaug, if no other time (and the entire book is basically another time), shows why The Hobbit is considered a Classic to this day.
I’m not really going to go in to the varied ways the book is superior to the movies; first of all, this is a book review website, not a movie review website; and second, I don’t think anyone really wants to sit here for the four or five hours it would take to read that review. Nor does anyone probably want to deal with the profanity; let me just say that in order, I would recommend:
1: reading the book
2: listening to an audiobook (I recommend either Andy Serkis, or the one produced by The Mind’s Eye)
3: the animated movie by Rankin & Bass (as my mother called it, “H.R. PuffinBaggins”; I am still sore you can not get the soundtrack to this on iTunes)
4: not having anything to do with The Hobbit
5: reading a Wikipedia article on it
6: having someone else tell you the plot
7: watching Jackson’s trilogy
If you have not read this book, what are you waiting for?
There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.