Catching up with an old friend

Last week, I met up with an old friend. We haven’t seen each other in 45 years. Oh, we’ve crossed paths at the movie theater several times over the years. But, we haven’t had a chance to sit down and connect over a soda or coffee since the early 80s.

Sure enough, we picked up right where we left off. We found a quiet area to reconnect and it felt like old times. We were going back and forth and enjoying our time together. He looked the same as the first time I met him. He looked none the worse for wear. He spoke whimsically about some of the past adventures that he’s been on in his life. He’s still a fan of magic and has strong thoughts about good and evil.

And boy can he tell a great story. He’s got you riveted the moment he starts talking. It felt like old times.

Oh, my friend is not a real person. At least not a living breathing person. I’m talking about the novel The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. I first read The Hobbit when I was 11 or 12. I got a taste of the Tolkien’s world again when Peter Jackson directed The Lord of the Rings films in the early 2000s. However, the book has always touched me more.

Head buried in a book

I find that I have my head in my phone too many times throughout the day. In fact, I saw a survey last week. It estimates reading for pleasure in the United States is down 40% over the past 20 years. I know I certainly can’t refute the finding. To change that, I’m trying to put my phone down and instead pick up a book. I’ve gone back to reading books for enjoyment. I’ve been trying to re-read some of the great books that got me into reading in the first place.

Here’s a few of the books on my to be read list: To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee; Little Women by Louisa May Alcott; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis; The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway; The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara; Call of the Wild by Jack London, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling.

Out of this list though The Hobbit has always held a special place. Tolkien first scribbled the opening line of the book “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” on a blank page in a school notebook. It’s now known as one of the best-known opening lines in modern literature. I just know that it drew me in and never let go.

Going back to a familiar place

In the book, Bilbo Baggins is persuaded by the wizard Gandalf to leave his village and join Thorin and his 12 dwarfs to recover their stolen treasure, guarded by a dragon named Smaug. During the expedition through Tolkien’s richly imagined world of Middle Earth, Bilbo finds a magical ring. The ring renders the wearer invisible. The ring goes on to figure prominently in The Lord of the Rings, published in three parts in 1954−55.

When Bilbo and Gandalf return to Hobbiton, Bilbo is no longer accepted by the Hobbits. His adventurous behavior has been deemed unhobbitlike. The Hobbit is the story of Bilbo’s transformation. He matures from a seeker of warmth and comforts to a fighter, however humble, for the greater good.

Bilbo proves to be an unlikely hero. He has a pool of inner strength that he did not know he possessed. As I fought with pimples, made friendships, and found my place in the world, Bilbo became a crazy kind of role model for me. He showed me what anyone could become if only they believed in themselves.

I was reading about Bilbo, but I learned mostly about myself. You go Bilbo, I’ve got your back! Thank you good friend.

What’s a book that you return to often over the years or want to read again? What well-loved books have I left off my list?

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On a related note, check out fellow blogger Edward Ortiz’s excellent post on Tuesday Book Bans Hurt Education. He talks about the rise of book bans in schools across the U.S. Most of those bans have been targeting books focused on sexual content, teenage trauma, racism, and LGBTQ+ themes. Instead he proposes that parents sit with their children and have discussions about these difficult subjects.

I can’t agree more.

Tolkien’s work has received mass approval, but it still has faced the occasional ban. The use of magic and supernatural elements in the stories has been a common reason for bans, as some groups have seen it as dangerous or corrupting.