Lord of the Rings April/May Check-In

April and May have been tough months for me. I've been reading a Dicken's novel which, while amazing, definitely takes some brain space. I also read Wuthering Heights which was... well... my review is on this blog. So with a good but long book and a fairly uninspiring book that I've been working on, my challenge sort of fell by the wayside.

At the end of the month, I'm only three chapters behind the pace I should be reading on to finish by the end of the year. The most exciting bit has been getting to read long swaths of text. Basically, all of the first part of Fellowship of the Ring with an interjection in the Unfinished Tales discussing how Gandalf discovered stuff about the Ring and how the Black Riders discovered Frodo.

As I read, I can't help but compare the books to the movies. I will admit, I love the Lord of the Rings movies. I've long maintained that they capture the spirit of Lord of the Rings so well that I'm okay with the changes. Having finished the first part of Book One, I'm surprised at how much slower the books are. It took many chapters to actually leave the Shire. There are parts that were missing, but I find I don't mind that at all. 

Pippin and Merry's characters have been changed a bit for the movie from what I can tell so far. Not enough that I'm bothered. 

What the movie has down very well though is the friendship between the four Hobbits. While I like how the book gets them together much better than the movie, I always thought the movie did a great job of showing their bond.