THE HOBBIT: Billy Connolly On Playing 'Dain Ironfoot'; Finds Tolkien "Unreadable"

lol I havent even read it yet either

Well, that is a shame. To some, reading jokes on a bathroom wall is literature.

It's true!! Haha. I've tried reading it, and its full of gibberish words and nonsense. I made it through about a quarter of a book and gave up because I was bored to tears. The movies are better, but that's only because it has special effects. They were still a giant snooze up until the end of The Two Towers. IMHO they were NOT great movies, and can't hold a candle to Star Wars...even Return of the Jedi.

i couldn't even listen to the audiobooks, yet love the movies to bits

I've read LOTR before seeing the movies, but only because I felt a responsibility due to the legacy behind the literature to do so. I won't this time for The Hobbit. I agree with him, Tolkien is unreadable. It bored me to death. I think it took me months to read Return of the King and finally finished an hour before I saw the film in the lineup. I think the focus and narrative is completely off when he writes. The stuff you want to read about, he doesn't bother to go over, since it basically happens in the background, or the literary equivalent of a movie scene happening off screen.

The problem with LoTR is it reads like a history, not a story and you get bogged down with all the historical stuff. The Hobbit has too much poetry and songs for me. I had to stop and read a song every couple pages and it took me out of it.

I love what Tolkein came up with but I personally enjoy the films more.

For Billy Connolly to admit he doesn't like people who read Tolkien may not have been the wisest thing to say to LOTR and Hobbit fans. It's hard to return the respect to someone who has none for the fansbase.

But I do notice, a lot of X and Y Genners also don't like reading Tolkien for the simple fact that it's too lengthy and they haven't the attention span that the older generation has. In today's fast-paced, quick cut video games and music video world they get bored easily. Another reason is the lack of profanity and sex they so desperately desire to see in all their media outlets. Tolkien is, well...too "G" rated for them. Like watching an old Disney movie, albeit with cooler villians.
Personally, as much as I love Jackson's Tolkiens movies, I'll take the books any day over them and to hell with Billy Connolly.

It's perfectly normal. People just like to consume stories in different ways. My brother never reads but he watches all tv shows and movies he gets his hands on and has watched LOTR a billion times. Doesn't make him any less of a lotr fan, he's just part of that group of people who otherwise would have missed these great stories, just because they hadn't been told in his preferred medium.

i find it interesting that he has never read any of the books but finds them unreadable. How does he come to that conclusion?

The Hobbit is a children's story that can be read in a few hours.The Lord of the Rings is a bit more mature story that is no more difficult to read than, say, a Tom Clancy novel. If someone finds LOTR difficult, I would guess that they probably don't do much reading!

@Orphix- Really? I was saying that the effects actually gave some life to an extremely boring series! Since when is it a requirement to read Tolkien, and be bored out of my ever-loving mind, to be a nerd? Next you're gonna tell me (in pitch perfect Klingon no doubt) that I'm not a nerd because I don't know what the hell you're saying! How do you say "Get bent" in Orc?

@earzmundo DAFUQ??? have you ever read the silmarillion or the lord of the rings? those were masterpieces that no one, after tolkien , have topped. The work of mind behind those books is far from george martin's (but i respect him) Sorry but the Middle-earth's world set-up the modern fantasy imaginarium for a reason, an entire world and its history, languages, and people invented by one man, it's much much more than anything ever written in the last century (maybe dune could reach the complexity of the mythology but not the details of its world)

However i think that very few us people could understand it... the culture for books is very faded in the us youth..so..keep read the hunger games guys.

LOTR: yes it is a hard read and not for everyone. i never had issues reading it, but understand some do

Hobbit: fun and an simpler read but again understand not for everyone.

i get connolly and him stirring the pot is nothing new. great casting job and if a dude who is completely uninterested in the source material signed on cuz he dug the script, its is a good sign.

if you enjoy the movies cuz of special effects, i am glad you got something out of it. but as a fan of the books two towers while fun was a let down and return of the king was a mess too. i still dig the trilogy, but find my self having to watch the exteneded versions back to back to feel like i got the adaptation i wanted. or close enough ;)

hobbit as 3 films, not too sure how i feel about that until i see the finished prequel trilogy. but as most on this site i am sure will agree, any fan who see's an adap on a property they love will have to see it as a companion piece. have rarely seen a movie that better than the comic/book/cartoon/game/film its based on.