Alright I know what you are thinking…we have already read that one, and who hasn’t seen the animated tale, etc.  So why is there a need to talk about a book that is as old as Abe Vigoda.  Ha ha, Abe’s actually older, but I digress.  I just read J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit, or There And Back Again,” again, and it was perhaps even better the second time around.  Of course I am much older now, and maybe digested the book a little slower than when I was 12.

This book is much more of a concise story than the sprawling epic of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, or the encyclopedia like “Silmarillion.”    Containing quite a bit less history, genealogy, and tangential descriptions.  Of course this will make an excellent story fit for Hollywood production.  My official advice is if you haven’t read this one, put it on your shortlist of things to do, especially before it comes out in theaters in 2012.