This book jumped out off the shelf at me, and I'm curious to figure out why.

"In a hole, in the ground, there lived a hobbit."

79 years ago today our world was first graced with those words. Happy #Tolkienday !

It's #tolkienweek ! This is my background at school, at home, and alwhere (I made up a new word in honor of Grandfather Tolkien). I will have more words later, but I wanted to at least memorialize with a picture.

This is a #weirdbooks for the ages. He says so himself. That doesn't make it any less beautiful.

For most of my young life, there was only Tolkien in terms of fantasy. And then I discovered this book. Not to usurp my first fantasy love, but to instead come alongside it, showing that complex fantasy stories exist outside of middle-earth. Simon is potentially one of my favorite characters ever, in terms of pure development. The Storm-King is one of the best villains.This book is up there with the best ever in fantasy.

What an odd little book- it makes you feel like you're a child again, and never lets you trust it. But it resurrects feelings of childhood, and in that, it is brilliant.

This book is strange, in that I know that it is incredible, but I couldn't say why. The characters are complex and profound, but not anything I've never experienced. The plot is intriguing, but not groundbreaking. The prose is excellent. I think this story confounds me because from the first word that I read, I expected nothing short of excellence. And I was not disappointed.

This book makes those of us who are broken able to feel slightly more beautiful- it allows us to think our stories are worthy of such a telling as this.

This is a book that, more than most, embraces the sweetness of the brevity of life. That it portrays this in a way that leaves one almost in tears is simply a bonus. You will put this book down never looking at stories the same way again.

Stories tell truths, and the best stories tell the truest truths in the most profound ways. This does that.