Lord of the Rings

There are many excellent and edifying novels out there in the world. It is to the world of classics that I am pointing specifically here, and despite them being fiction they have much to teach us. 1984 is a great and disturbing story, Lord of the Flies calls us to question our essential goodness or lack there of. Then there are those such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and the works of Austen that speak to the behaviour of people and help us look back on a time in our history. I could list others of course and may in another post because I'm all about the reading, but today I want to focus on The Lord of The Rings (LOTR) trilogy.
First - some back story. I read The Hobbit for the first time in grade 4. Reading was the only part of school in which I excelled and one ambitious teacher had me do my book study on The Hobbit so I wouldn't get bored with the book list in her class at that time. Well, I loved it. Not long after that I went to visit my father in Newfoundland and he owned the LOTR series which is essentially a sequel to The Hobbit. Apparently, I stole his books when I returned home to Calgary and never returned them, but I don't remember that...what I do remember is loving those books and loving them ever since.
LOTR is the ultimate battle of good and evil. It explores our ability to withstand temptation and the consequences that come when we don't. The books speak to the ability of every single person (no matter how small) to be able to do great things. They take us into the very heart of darkness and allow the light to explode from within knocking the darkness back. I really cannot recommend these books enough. They are well worth the time and energy to read and, while the movies are also great, the books bring a great deal of depth and insight that is understandably missing from the movies.
So, if you're looking to expand your knowledge of classic novels, or just like a good read, or for that matter, enjoyed the movies then read The Lord of the Rings novels. May I also recommend The Hobbit and his other works, but don't delve into The Silmarillion unless you're a devout fan, it's not for the faint of readers. I haven't even gotten through it more than once. As a point of interest, J.R.R. Tolkein was devout Christian man who helped to influence C.S. Lewis to become a Christian although he didn't always enjoy Lewis' allegorical tendencies (Chronicles of Narnia are also good reads). Okay, that's enough book recommendations for now.