Is it just me or are there others like me?

Howdy fellas,

It's been a while really. Have not been able to find time.

Random Matrix quote:
Merovingian to Neo, Morpheas and Trinity in MR:
"If we never take time, how can we ever find time ..." ;)

Just took a day off last week and did a little bit of everything, which included trying to read "Lord of Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" that my colleague gifted me on my last birthday. I have tried (yes, that's right) reading the book around 10 times over the past 11 months, all the times with the same result: Four pages into the foreword and I go to sleep.

I understand the book has a phenomenal following and the movies by Peter Jackson rock. But somehow, I am not able to read the damn book. For me, this is one complicated work. Probably, I am a bit old (at 27) to suspend my disbelief for such lengths. But what amazes me about the book is the grit of the author (Tolkien) in creating such an history for middle-earth, the language, the funny spellings and et al.

In more recent times, George Lucas and the Waschowski Brothers have been able to create their own parallel universe for fiction-sake in "Star Wars" and "Matrix" respectively. But their attempts, thanks to computer-aided animation and the wonderful reach of the celluloid, were a lot easier to follow; they were also surely a lot more superficial than LOTR.

Tolkien must have been one obsessed writer. He surely had far lesser tools than the Lucas or the Wachowskis (I know this comparison is sacrilege); He just had his mind's eye, which is why perhaps LOTR has survived this long.

But to me, LOTR will remain in the list of "must-read but never read".

Phew ... I am destressed now and can go back to my regular work.

And about LOTR, who knows ... this weekend might finally be the WEEKEND I read the book without sleeping ...