Y’know, I always really liked Lord of the Rings.

I’m talking about like taught-myself-elvish, the-poem-I-recited-because-of-a-mandatory-English-requirement-in-eighth-grade-was-TheLayOfLethian, my first TWO email addresses were elvish references, my first online internet friend was from Lotr role playing forums, that’s how much I liked LOTR, liked LOTR sorta person.

Everyone here so far as I can see is kind of focusing on books that changed who they were on some fundamentalist, Ayn Rand sort of libertarian level.

Nah I ain’t got that. I haven’t read a book that singlehandedly shaped me politically or changed how I related to my peers. On that note, Holden Caulfield is kind of a piece of shit.

But was I gifted Sméagol/Gollum posters almost every secret Santa we had in high school? And could I write in Dwarven characters if I was pressed?

You bet your god damn ass on both counts I can, and for that, and the Lay of Luthien which I can still at least begin to recite —

the leaves were long, the grass was green

The hemlock umbels tall and fair

And in the glade a light was seen

Tinuviel was dancing there

The light of stars was in her hair

And in her raiment, shimmering...

Aye, yeah, those books changed my life. And my early internet friendships, through LOTR role playing forums, brought me here. I wouldn’t be half so accepting (and loving) of your took-fools if it weren’t for that. Ay, me. Memory lane, and it smells all of Kings-foil.