The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

10/10

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien that is. Plus, amazing to have consecutive posts with the word 'Two' in it, I know. How I planned and planned to achieve that.

This book is awesome, plain and simple. This is where the fellowship disbands. And, unlike the movie, this book starts with the Boromir incident. The whole first half of the book focuses exclusively on chasing down Merry and Pippin and all the shenanigans there. We also get an awesome Gandalf update after the tragic and, may I say, borderline tearful departure from him in the first book. I actually liked the way the movie did it better, the going back and forth between the now two separate parties. Most of the time while I was reading the first half of the book, although I enjoyed it, I desperately wanted to get back to Frodo and Sam. It was quite the endurance tester at times.

The Frodo and Sam portion of the book is quite the nail-biter. They hook up with Gollum and depend on him to guide them to Mordor. Oh man, being led by an evil creature and being so much in his power made this a pretty tense ordeal. Also, unlike the movie (I think), the book ends with the Shelob incident and Frodo falling into the hands of the enemy in Mordor territory. Quite the cliffhanger.

Also, I find it unfair to label Lord of the Rings enjoyers as nerds. How dare you. More like you're a nerd if you don't like this, because how could you not? So there. Stick that in your long, Gandalf-like pipe and smoke it.

A quote:

"The praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards." This is from Faramir, who is much cooler in the book than in the movie.