GraniteGeekNH t1_jeaq7n8 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 5:25 PM

Reply to comment by grilledbeers in Finally reading Tolkien by jdbrew

I disagree - the ability to skip and skim is an important part of being a reader. I'd call it one of the most important skills that makes reading fun and useful.

There are parts of any work, fiction or nonfiction, that may not resonate with you or might be redundant to something you already read. There's no need to slog through them; skim over it and get to the parts that are good for you. It's not all-or-nothing!

KINGGS t1_jebdrxi wrote on March 30, 2023 at 7:55 PM

You’re completely delusional

Intergalactic96 t1_jeeksd5 wrote on March 31, 2023 at 1:24 PM

☝️

Dialent t1_jeb2ig5 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 6:43 PM

While I think that's true of a lot of books, with Tolkien, one of the main reasons he is so beloved is the quality of the prose. The downside of this is that a lot of the writing is spent in description, or in retelling old legends, and other pieces of fluff that do not advance the narrative or tell us much about the characters we're following. I do believe that if you were to skip over this because you find it boring, you would be missing out on a large part of why Tolkien is special.