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ItsBoughtnotBrought t1_jeanwu3 wrote

You're skipping pages? That's not reading the book though is it? Tolkien isn't for everyone but it's not boring and the dialogue is not bad. It's archaic and that's not your thing. I'd like to see some examples of the dialogue that led you to your conclusion though. I find these kinds of posts a little frustrating because there's never any examples to back up the critiques.

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jdbrew OP t1_jeaqpw5 wrote

I’m still reading it. I’ve maybe done this 4 times where I’m in a the middle of a third paragraph where I feel like he’s just dwelling on something that he has clearly already made his point; so I skip to the next paragraph, realize it’s about the same thing, skip to the next paragraph, realize he’s still prattling in about it, skip to the next paragraph… it STILL the same thing, so I skim everything to make sure I’m not missing new information, and I’m not… so by the time he’s moved on, I’ve skipped an entire page.

I don’t do this a lot when reading, but I do when I’m bored. Skipped through a good chunk of the beginning of The Stand doing this too, but you either pick up on the context clues later or the information eventually gets rehashed in a more concise way. If I miss a grand total of 4 pages out of 250, I’m still reading it

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GraniteGeekNH t1_jeaqnbo wrote

I responded above to a similar comment: skipping and skimming is definitely part of being a good reader. No need to slog through every word if parts of a book don't resonate for whatever reason - you're the reader, you're in control.

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ItsBoughtnotBrought t1_jeb4fgd wrote

If you're looking for information then skipping and skimming is good. If you're actually reading something for pleasure then it doesn't make sense. Sometimes in literature it's not about what the words say, it's about what they don't say, or it's about the information left out or the way something is said. A turn of phrase can impart a nuance of meaning that you might miss by skipping and skimming bits. Tolkien writes for the love of words, linguistics and myth. Part of the joy in reading his work is the immersion and the vibrant picture he paints with words. I know I'm in control of what I'm reading and if I was bored enough to skip bits that didn't resonate then I would just not read it. It's not some revelation.

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KINGGS t1_jebe1l0 wrote

You can say it 100 times, doesn’t mean it’s true.

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