But seeing as we were going to live separately for a little bit (graduation, anyone?), he decided to give me a little love and watch all three  extended-version movies with me in one swift (quite long) go. And let me tell you, the obsession came back with full force. Lines were mumbled/yelled, movies were streamed (The Hobbit I, II & III), books were purchased (Silmarilion...again). And the need to know every single little piece of Trivia became one of the most important aspirations of my non-employed, graduated life. Let's face it- if someone doesn't hire me soon, I might just have to become one of those freaks who have no life, but have an obscene amount of useless information stored in their biological hard-drive.

Lord of the Rings has always been one of my favorite books. Tolkien was a genius. There is no one else like him. No one. The guy came up with THOUSANDS of characters, worlds, languages, narratives... And he did so from pure personal fascination with the beauty of language itself. He did not consider himself to be a genius and thought that the people who were obsessed with him were more or less crazy. But nonetheless, he created something that has changed lives. I know that it changed mine for sure. The movies are far from doing this beautiful piece of literature justice. I honestly think everyone should read it, just so they can see how deep it actually is. But the story goes far beyond Lord of the Rings. There are thousands and thousands of pages of literature, information and unfinished tales that provide us with peaks within Tolkien's magical world. They are all connected. Granted, he never really finished the story of what happened after the events from LOTR, because he considered that particular text to be too grim, but Silmarilion, The History of Middle Earth, The Children of Hurin, etc., all give us the possibility of learning even more about the world of Tolkien, creating new characters, which add color and depth to this already complex world. The Hobbit is largely considered to be the second best book by Tolkien (after LOTR), but truthfully- they are all equally amazing. Seriously. 

I need to go read some Trivia now.