I had a friend at school who loved the book. I tried a few times to get into it and thought it was dull as anything so just passed on it after 200 pages or so.

Fast forward to the films and I actually enjoyed a lot of the first film but the 2nd and 3rd films I found pretty endless. Then later at university people wanted to watch the extended DVDs or whatever and I found better things to be doing those nights after the first time.

Everyone has different reasons for liking or disliking things, but for me my main dislike is the lack of genuine humour in the stories. It is relentlessly serious. I don't mean I expect jokes everywhere but it's particularly po-faced, the book especially. I tried reading it again a few years ago to see if I'd been too harsh on it but still couldn't make it to the end.

So what you’re saying is that you don’t like one of the greatest fantasy epics of all time, the original that spawned the whole genre, because it’s not a good comedy?

That’s like complaining that your stove doesn’t have an 8k display 🤦

I think it’s more the fact that it doesn’t have any sort of levity, it’s full on all the time

That’s what epic fantasy is supposed to mainly do.

Also, that’s not even true. The characters of Pippin, Merry and Gimli, for example, are mostly comic relief throughout the movies and there’s a lot in the books too.

Just because the genre isn’t for you or the instances of levity fell flat for you doesn’t mean you have to make shit up 🤦