Micro-post #90: The unique strangeness of Tolkien and Middle-earth

Tolkien's books (along with Dune) are in that category of things I try to get into every few years yet often get side-swiped out of for some reason or another. Something doesn't gel, I'm not feeling it, life gets in the way, something always happens. I've learned to appreciate The Lord of the Rings without really reading it in full (love the movies but know they aren't the same), especially the fact that the guy himself was, on the face of it, so weird. This hit stronger when I came across the following comments from Reddit that highlighted this fact and I think that only makes me appreciate him more. There's also been a couple of videos from Damien Walter about this very thing, which I've included here as well:

Reminder: I'm currently taking a blogging sabbatical and this was a pre-planned scheduled post. If there's typos or mishaps, I'll take care of them once I'm back. Thanks for understanding! - AB