Happy Hobbit Day!!!!!

The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien is one of my all time favourite books I own at the moment 7 different copies of the book. This one was bought for me by my husband last year and is by far my favourite copy. It is filled with the beautiful illustrations of Jemma Catlin which just adds to the magic of the story.

I read The Hobbit at least once a year. It is my favourite of all Tolkien's works. The story just seems to flow from the page almost as if it were music. Every time I read this book I still feel excited even though I know the story like the back of my hand now. It just never gets old and if I'm honest I feel the older I get the more I enjoy it. As Tolkien's good friend and fellow inking C.S Lewis once said - "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again", and I feel that now, especially I enjoy fairy tales more than I ever did as a child.

For me opening up The Hobbit is like opening the door into The Secret Garden or Falling Down The Rabbit Hole. I feel wonderful, warm and safe surrounded in my own little world. I think as we get older as adults the magic gets taken from the world and is replaced by the harsh realities of life. Don't get me wrong life isn't all bad but as adults it's harder and harder to escape from the harsher side of life as children we are usually shielded from such things by our innocence, our imagination and our parents. Books are a way of escape, especially fairy tales and fantasy novels. When I was younger I wanted grown up stories I wanted true life tales of tragic dramatic lives but now as I'm older I'm not as pushed on those things anymore. My reading time is precious and in a lot of ways it's my only escape from my own worries so I'm less inclined these days to pick up a book about somebody's true life experience of immense suffering and more inclined to reach out for something I can escape into and forget everything if only for a while. 

The Hobbit for me has everything I could want in a book. It has the unlikely hero, far off lands, a dragon, strange creatures and bucket loads of adventure. Don't get me wrong there is darkness in it and tragedy but I think the fact that it is so far away from reality is what makes it so appealing. 

As I'm writing this I'm at home in bed with the flu. I can smell chicken soup simmering away in the kitchen and I have The Hobbit sitting beside me awaiting to be read again. I know by the time I drift off to sleep tonight despite being ill I will be happy and content and really isn't that the mark of a wonderful book.