The Hobbit - Listen While You Work Audiobook Review

What I listened to ...

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien Prequel to The Lord of The Rings trilogy Genres: Adventure, Classic,    Fantasy, Young Adult Narrator: Rob Inglis

     I chose this as the first audiobook to listen to because I had hoped that the fact that I had just seen the movie would help me with visualization. This may have been a mistake. I didn't take into account how different movies can be from the books. I was constantly expecting for such and such to happen and was surprised with entirely different scenes.

     I am still a little dubious about my ability to listen to a book without my mind wandering because I found it doing so fairly often. I did seem to be able to follow the storyline pretty well though. I do have a general concept of what was going on but I also have the impression that this series at any rate needs to be read as there is so much going on and so many details to the story, half of which I probably missed while woolgathering or counting my stitches.

     Bilbo is a blundering little hobbit. He is not entirely sure how or why he was chosen for this adventure, or even why he agreed to it. Hobbits as a species are not very adventurous folk, though the Baggins family does have a bit of adventurous spirit in their blood. Yet Bilbo never seemed to have any yearnings to leave his little hobbit house and explore the countryside. Eventually Bilbo does gain confidence in his abilities and makes important contributions in this quest to help the dwarves reclaim their home and treasure from the dragon they had fled from years ago.

     I really enjoyed Rob Inglis's presentation of this epic story. He used different voices/accents for the plethora of different characters without sounding cartoonish. I've heard that this can be a serious pitfall to audiobooks when you just don't care much for the narrator. But Rob Inglis has a very soothing voice and almost classical diction. I really can't think of any other way to describe it, definitely entertaining and not at all monotonous to listen to. One aspect that I really enjoyed is that the narrator actually sang the songs as well. Often there are songs in a book and while I read the words and know it is supposed to be a song, I can't get any kind of tune in my head to make it an actual song. This was an unexpected delight to find that the audio version of a book could make up for one of my own shortcomings as a reader.

     Here I will quit rambling and sum up my feelings as to the fact that I enjoyed my first experience in the world of audiobooks much more than I had expected to but I can't help but feel that the book itself has to be chosen carefully... at least for me.

     For those friends on goodreads who may be confused as I finished this series quite some time ago, I decided to wait until today to start this feature so it could also double as the Serial Sunday feature.

I give it 4 stars!

What I worked on ...

     These blanket squares are made from scraps of variegated yarns and coordinating solid colors. I need to generate more scraps before I can get much further with this blanket. Be on the lookout for more pictures of this project when it is finished. I think it will be quite adorable.