i do not subscribe to some people's rule of finishing books you start. if i don't like a book for any reason, i put it down. i simply have too many books i hope to read to spend time on one that isn't panning out. i have a short list (20) of books stacked in my bedroom that are on the to be read next list and another 100 in my library that have been directed to me in one manner or another. what is unique about this book is that this list is reserved for those that i have finished and even though i did not complete this one, i have something to say.

i read and enjoyed the hobbit. when very young, i tried this subsequent series but it did not hold my attention and i moved on. when i heard the movie was coming out, i decided to give it another try in that i hate how movies ruin any potential enjoyment to be had by reading the (always-better) book it was based on. the first book in this series was ok. at the end i felt it was a pretty long path for a fairly basic story. this second one is even worse. i'm 150 pages into it and these guys haven't done a thing but walk around the country looking for each other. sure, they bump into a curious fellow or two along the way, but that's about it. they prattle on about who they know and where they come from and sing the occasional weird-ass song about what i honestly cannot say because i've learned to skip any longish italicized sections in tolkien's works (studied on their own they may possess merit, but interspersed as they are they simply prolong my agony). in the end i have concluded that if these ax and bow wielding do-gooders had a car this series would not be a trilogy but instead an 80-page novella.