[ssiikmuz]

I would agree with Lord of the Rings as well. I just found it more enthralling than the Harry Potter stuff, which I found a little schmaltzy and twee to be honest. Its not quite Enid Blighton, but not that far off....


Plus I'm an Oxford boy, so there may be a bit of bias there. Incidentally, I had a couple of pints with my dad and my fiancee in the Eagle and Child when I went back to oxford 10 days ago, thats the public house that Tolkein could often be found in! Now THATS cool.....

[ptmQqoxw]

I can't believe you guys are having a debate about LOTR. I know I am in a minority, but I've never understood why it's so popular. The plot is abysmal, the are songs dire and it just goes on and on.

You'll be discussing the Silmarillon next.

Stop the madness!

I've read that too! Bloody hard going at times because of the way its written, but enjoyable the second time round, and actually aids your understanding of LOTR.

You know your problem lucien-chan? No Culture!!

[Markdogas]

Lord of the Rings.

[Forex Trading Software]

More importantly, who would win in shiai: harry potter or Saruman?

Potter, because Saruman's flail is underweight and he would be disqualified.

Jakob

[abishiots]

Lord of the Rings, not only were the book gr8 but all 3 movies Jackson made were very good to, at the end of number i was wishing i lived on Middle Earth lol, but thats me im a fanatic when it comes to Lord of the Rings.

[mortgrhhh]

Indeed

Jakob

I forgot about your previous job altogether... you must be pretty bored of conversations like this by now!

[Attarderb]

Why does one have to be better than the other? Can't they both be enjoyed? Is there someone somewhere who's been ordered to read only the better book, and will be killed if he doesn't pick the right one?

Seriously, this is all very silly. Which is better, Star Wars or Star Trek? Descartes or Kant? Plato, Aristotle, or Socrates? Kendo or Iaido? Samurai or Ninja? Apple or orange? Red or blue? Day or night?

We should enjoy things as they are, and not feel a need to constantly rank them and pick the "better" ones. People have different tastes, enjoy different things differently, and don't have to think the same way as others about different things.

So, Potter or Lord of the Rings? I don't know, why don't you read both and make up your own mind? After all, there's no point on relying on others to tell you which one you'll like best, you're the only one that can know.

[SodeSceriobia]

You do get kind of sick of the main characters being brutalized and violated in every way imaginable after a while.

I wonder if Terry Goodkind is psycho.

.

I know what you mean. Just when you think they might get a break, one of them gets hauled half way across a continent to be abused for half a year, and other such craziness. Loads of messing with heads and all that, kinda gets a little samey after a while, and the series does need a small breath of fresh air into it, but I still found it quite enjotable, especially the prophecy! Best one was the second one for me, with gratch!

And I reckon he must be a psycho....

I agree about the dragonlance stuff too, too much stuff that only the "in" crowd would get. Switched off quickly.

[pupyississido]

Witches and Warlocks, what kind of idiot reads that crap??!?! *hurries of to the disc to beg Granny Weatherwax and Gytha Ogg for forgiveness*

Oh, boy...maurice's little pals will be widdling in my porridge and the wee nac feegle's will be drinking all my booze fer that comment.

hahaha

PRATCHET IS GOD

[gactanync]

More importantly, who would win in shiai: harry potter or Saruman?

Definetly Saruman, he would defeat Harry and his cronies easily, with the power of Isenguard and Mordor behind him oh yeah and an army of 20,000+ Urak Hai cheering him on all with Pom Poms in their hand "If Saruman can't do it no one can" lolol. Go Team Samurai Saruman!

[kuzbaslachek]

I think JK Rowling deserves a special commendation for getting people to read, an activity that was greatly in disuse.

greatly but lord of the rings has more action and i have a short attention span so somewhat regretably, i have to say, lord of the rings. well, that is for the movies. i had to read a LOTR book in 7th grade. i thought it was terribly boring.

[Shootohoist]

Read all of Terry Goodkind's stuff actually. Bit off the wall but quite enjoyable!

I lost interest after the 4th book, though I've read them all. The 5th book and on I just read bit by bit at the bookstore while I wait for my wife to finish her shopping....

The mind twister is interesting...esp the 4th book...about how breaking the the prophecy is what fulfilled the requirements for the main character to get to the place where he could get the answer...hope that's cryptic enough for those who haven't read it yet to not spoil anything.

You do get kind of sick of the main characters being brutalized and violated in every way imaginable after a while.

I wonder if Terry Goodkind is psycho.

IMHO, I can't stand Tolkien. He's just too longwinded.

Ironically, the Chinese version of Harry Potter is actually a better read than the original English version. This is the first time a translation actually beats the original language version for me.

My current favorite series is Deborah Chester's the Sword, the Ring, and the Chalice.

Old favorites were Terry Goodkind and David Eddings.

The Forgotten Realm books and Dragonlance books are OK...too much "game" language in them to make it work for me though.

P.S. LOTR was my 7th grade summer reading too...made for a LONG summer.

[EHjEjdqe]

Yeh LOTR has so many storylines going at once, i really like that about it as, you never get bored, but u hav to be in the mood to read it, with harry potter it is prett ymuch pic up and read where u left off.

[drgshmcm]

I would agree with Lord of the Rings as well. I just found it more enthralling than the Harry Potter stuff, which I found a little schmaltzy and twee to be honest. Its not quite Enid Blighton, but not that far off....


Plus I'm an Oxford boy, so there may be a bit of bias there. Incidentally, I had a couple of pints with my dad and my fiancee in the Eagle and Child when I went back to oxford 10 days ago, thats the public house that Tolkein could often be found in! Now THATS cool.....

Oxford boys should definitely read His Dark Materials. Not only is it written by an author from oxford, but a large chunk of it takes place there. Go on, get volume one, Northern Lights, you'll thank me for it!

[Andrius]

More importantly, who would win in shiai: harry potter or Saruman?

[Aluback]

tough call......

if were introducing new series, lets talk dragonlance and forgotten realms

[Nikitka]

I definitely prefer LOTR, and since we're talking about the fantasy genre, I'll propose a new candidate - the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Far superior to Harry Potter in my mind (although I kind of lost interest about 2 books back, so I don't know about the new one).

I concur, His Dark Materials is my favourite series, I prefer it to both LOTR and Harry Potter.
If we start proposing series then I think Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea series is very good, it was made into horrible tv films some years ago but tthey really are not related to the books.

[swwatch]

well it was the last one and as always, i put it off untill 2 days before school started and we had a huge test on it and so i read about 7 million pages and realized that i was only half way and gave up but paid attention in class during the discussion and made up an essay about the whole book over 2 sentences i overheard a kid saying and passed.
thats how i handle my homework.

kendo is a different story. much more dedicated.

[FoetAgerhot46]

It doesnt matter because Star Wars beats both of them combined.(sp?)

[JohnTruels]

of course you hav your Batman! lol