The prelude to the vastly read and praised Lord of the Rings Trilogy, this book chronicles the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, and how the ring turned up in the first place. Gandalf is in it, as is Golum, as well as a dragon and a hodgpodge of dwarfs. A bit shorter than each of the trilogy books, and not as long-winded.

Alright, all you LOTR fans are going to kill me for saying this, but personally, I think this book is endlessly better than the trilogy. Perhaps it is not fair of me to judge them without having finished them, but I got half-way through the second one and was bored to death. Usually length and description do not bother me, but I kept drifting off in the middle of the looooong descriptive paragraphs about the landscape, and having to either skip them or go back and read them again. This book, on the other hand, has a lot less of that, which makes the story very engaging and fast paced. It is also written with a little bit more humor.

This particular copy I found at a used bookstore by the name of Walk a Crooked Mile. One of my favorite used bookstores, actually, and located in a small train station.

The cover in the picture does not match the cover on the book, but I could not find one that did- I think it is a very old copy.

RELEASE NOTES:

Not sure exactly where yet. I'll be more specific when we get home afterwards. It's in an unzipped ziplock, so I may leave it outside on a bench somewhere.

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Put it on a bench in the girls' bathroom at the pool there.