Reflecting on Tolkien: Preliminaries

I decided that since there seems to be yet another fuss about Tolkien that I would push forward my planned re-reading of The Lord of the Rings (my first since 1996) by a few months and go ahead and see what differences, if any, occur in my take on the series. I just finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring a few minutes ago and while tomorrow is likely out of the question, I do hope to blog about things that I noticed within the text, matters that I liked (and those I didn't).

Before any interject comments in regards to Tolkien's other works, I have read all of those in the past. However, my criticisms (whatever they might be) will be limited solely to LotR because I am more interested in that text than in texts that were unpublished in Tolkien's lifetime and also because what I have to say about LotR will revolve around that text alone.

That being said, the format likely will be different from most of my formal reviews and perhaps will be more "personal" in nature than what is the norm for me. Hopefully, there will be some willing to weigh in with their thoughts on the posts, which will in part reflect upon some of the issues debated in certain circles today about his writings. One suggestion before any start to post: there are no sacred cows when it comes to textual analysis. Keep that in mind, please.

OK, it's bedtime. More in a day or two.