Happy Not for Sale Wednesday! And now watch while I lose all Internet credibility I ever had and confess: I have not read The Hobbit, nor Lord of the Rings. I tried, I really did, but oh my god they’re boring not my style. But people I know and respect love those books, and the movies to. And people I don’t know but still think are kind of awesome seem to really have taken the message of the books — which I think is something like “stay in your little round house, it’s scary out there” — to heart.
Hobbit houses! That’s what I’m talking about. People living like hobbits. Like these people, making it our first Lovely Listing in Wales:
Here there be Swiss Dwell-reading hobbits:
Above-ground hobbits:
…and couldn’t-get-approval-from-the-planning-committe hobbits.
Loveliest comment, by wasserpig: …”Hobbit houses! That’s what I’m talking about. People living like hobbits. Like these people, making it our first Lovely Listing in Wales:”… You mean: That’s what I’m tolkien about!
Found by: Erin
Found by: Cat
Found By: Nina and Lori
Found by Laura
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It’s no shame not to have made it through Tolkien’s books. I was *named* from them, and I read sci-fi/fantasy voraciously starting in 1st grade, and with that incentive I still didn’t manage to get through them until I was 15. Apparently my dad grew up reading them (hence my name)–I’m glad there was more enjoyable stuff, less tedious, by the time I came around.
They’re good books, yeah, but they are teeeeedious.
So your real name is… Gandalf? *looks up the characters in Wikipedia* Gilmi? Glóin? Gamgee? Gollum?
Um. I’m female.
Not . . . Goldilocks?
Gollumette?
Galadriel?
Mm-hmm. I’ve heard of several others, too–anyone who’s met any other Galadriel feels compelled to tell me about it, apparently. One of those other Galadriels did have a brother named Gandalf. Now *that’s* a kid who had my sympathy.
I’ll bet you’re Eowyn.
No – you start with a G. I’ll second Galadriel.
See if you can scrounge up a copy of “Bored of the Rings” by the Harvard Lampoon. It’s a hysterically funny send-up of LotR, with characters like Goodgulf Greyteeth, Frito, Spam, Moxie & Pepsi, Tim Benzedrino, etc. After reading it, I could never take the originals seriously again.
The first one (one that actually looks like a Hobbit house) comes with a skatestick (not a board). Well, Pippin always was the wild one after Frodo left.
I struggled to get through the books and I was working on the LOTR film production at the time!
Which explains many things about the films that make lovers of the books pull their hair out.
Yea the books are tedious..Ya have to know how to skim over stuff that doesn’t matter. But I find that a lot of books are like that lately. Dig the houses, altho the first one is a real fire trap! But that pink and black laundry is atrocious.
Yes, especially the songs, sometimes they go on for pages and they have NOTHING to do with the story. Always skip the songs.
Also, Treebeard is much funny when you realize Tolkein was making fun of C.S.Lewis with the SLOW AND PONDEROUS way he talk. That’s the only character he said he modled on someone in real life, and the only reason he had that is that he started the LOTR books on a bet with C.S.Lewis. Lewis said he couldn’t write anything with a plot, and Tolkein said he could, and was trying to prove it. I’d say it proves he can write plot, but it also proves he has no pacing.
Or maybe it’s a kitchen???
I think you’re right, but it’s such a horrible kitchen that the person who suggested “laundry” isn’t much out. It’s horrible not because of the size but because it’s so badly designed – and if you have the money for a house like that, you can afford to buy matching appliances. Ugh.
That third one down looks like some character out of Tim Burton movie, and it’s always grinning at the neighbors
I’m with you on the Hobbit (I don’t think Tolkien was really in his stride when he wrote that), but I really enjoyed LOTR – I’ve read it about 6 times :p That said, it took a few false starts before I got more than halfway through the first book. I must say, though, if you’ve watched and enjoyed the movies I have no sympathy for you not having read the books – so many important things get left out of the movies that they’re an order of magnitude more boring than the books (imho). Writing style disregarded, of course.
See, I’m the opposite — I’ve read The Hobbit like 30 times, tried 6 times before getting through Fellowship, and stalled out somewhere in the middle of Two Towers.
I read *part* of “The Hobbit.” Got so bored I didn’t finish, nor did I even try to read any of the LOTR. Didn’t see any of the movies, either. Just not my bag, baby.
That said, I like the first and third listings. Apparently the dome-house is really for sale; wish I could see the whole listing. Yeah, the sickly pink is awful; for that price, hand me a paint roller!
I thought the first one was awesome until I realised a) I’ve never read any of those books, b) I can’t sit through the movies and c) It’s in Wales and I hear Wales has alot of Welsh people living there.
I NEEEEEEEEEED that Swiss house. Perfect.
Firstly, I read the Hobbit when I was in second grade because my dad was taking a college class on Tolkein and I got lugged along whenever school was cancelled (and I was annoyingly precocious.)
Secondly, I both want the first Hobbit house and fear that having said Hobbit house would complete the social ostricization that began in point Firstly.
Don’t feel bad. Bilbo’s house is my for real dream home.
I actually read them all when I was young and loved them, then thought I would read them again when they made them into movies. But I could not get through them. That is some dense prose.
That being said, I really love these houses. I like the idea of living underground as long as some windows are worked in. That first house is really amazing.
The curve of the pit that Swiss one is dug into is completely messing with my perspective.
Am I the only person who reads this blog who thinks that Tolkien’s books are lovely and brilliant, and that the problem is not the “density” of his prose but the “density” of most modern readers?
Wow… and once again, “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” I must have hurt the blog’s feelings with my insult.
Are you calling me dense? I’m sorry, but honestly, I think most people who love the books can see that the prose is dense. The same charge could be made against many well-respected writers. I’ve never understood people who can’t see both the good and the not-so-good about various works. There is not much out there that is perfect and sometimes in finding the imperfections, we find the brilliance.
Also, insulting those with different opinions is really bad form, just in general.
Easy there, I was going for mildly snarky, not deeply insulting to anyone who is different from me.
If I had a serious point it’s that if we find a book too deep/ verbose/ intellectual for our taste, it’s not necessarily a “fault” in the book. I tried and failed to get through Les Miserables, but I consider that immaturity on my own part, not a flaw in the writing.
No, I get you. It took me over a year to finish Les Miserables, and it wasn’t because the book was weak, but that our taste in reading material (and, thereby, what is published nowadays) has changed. Sure, Tolkein is talky. So are Dickens, all of the Brontës, Thomas Hardy, James Fennimore Cooper, Poe, Jane Austen, and Shakespeare. They still tell a heck of a good story…I hope that the Twitter generation doesn’t get so caught up in brevity that they can’t enjoy a protracted and word-heavy read.
No, you’re not. I enjoyed all of them, altho I do think Two Towers was a bit draggy. The movie was better that time.
But you miss so much in the movies–the whole wonderful section about Tom Bombadil in the first book was completely left out, for instance.
But you non-Tolkien readers (and Tolkien fans too!) MUST read “Bored of the Rings” by the Harvard Lampoon, one of the most seriously funny books and best spoof I’ve ever read!
Eh, Two Towers was my favorite of the books and least favorite of the movies.
I think they seriously screwed it up, especially Faramir. To each their own.
I enjoyed the books when I read them years ago. The part I remember trudging through was the discourse on the perils of industrialization when the group returned to the shire. Sigh.
I agree. I watched/listened to all of the various commentaries on the DVD to see if anyone would explain the character assassination they did on Faramir, but not a word. I still can’t fathom it.
They did explain it (I heard it on some of the extras on the extended DVD set, don’t remember where exactly, though).
They just spent 1 1/2 films telling the audience how corrupting the ring is, how dangerous, making it into a menacing presence not even Our Mighty Heroes can withstand, a character in itself. Then suddenly this guy appears who takes a look at it and says, nah, even if I found it lying on the road I wouldn’t pick up that disgusting thing.
In the context of the movie it does make sense. How would you get across how special Faramir is? It would make the ring seem much less dangerous after they spent so much time making it feel evil.
I still hate what they did to Faramir – I always loved that character and was looking forward to seeing him in the film.
Yeah rendoun, I got what they were saying but I disagreed. Tolkien’s point with the Ring is that most people were not *instantly* corrupted by it… and that’s what made it so dangerous. You could carry it for a while and be ok, which gave the false impression that you could go on with it indefinitely. The length of time it took to be corrupted was determined by the strength of character the person had to start with. Faramir would have taken longer than Boromir to be corrupted because he was made of finer stuff, but it would have gotten him eventually, too. And he was only exposed to it for a couple of days.
oh good God, a ‘Bored of the Rings’ fan?!? Bless you, I’ve spent years and much effort pressing that into the hands of every LOTR fan I can! Absolutly hilarious, from the foreword to the ending. Amazing how they could do such a loving parody of the LOTR trilogy in only 90 pages.
I love both ‘Hobbit’ and LOTR very much — first read them around age 11-12, and quite a few times since. I’ll accept that the prose is dense, as long as you’re saying ‘dense’ as thick, not as stupid! I didagree with skipping the songs; to me, they add yet another layer.
whoops, that’s ‘disagree’, not ‘didagree’!
Most definitely a fan! I’ve read that book so many times that it’s falling apart and I can quote from it:
“Tim, Tim Benzedrine! Hash boo Valvoline! Clean clean, clean for Gene! First, second, neutral park–High thee HENCE, you leafy narc!!”
>hee!<
and that absolutely WAY-over-the-top last page, when the doorbell rings….. sigh.
pardon me, I’ve gotta hot date with a hilarious book!
I’m with you. Most people now seem to read trash novels at best, and even then call them ‘chapter books’. Lol.
the “flower” shaped one. the last I heard of it. it was still in the planning stage. and the pics we are seeing. are of the 3D graphics demo on how it is to look.
You think LOTR is boring, try reading The Silmarillion. I gave up on it tonight in the subway when I realized I would rather listen to three self-absorbed female Fordham Law students in yoga outfits yammer on about their social lives than read another word.
as of Jan 2010 the one in PA was for sale. it is no longer on the market.
it was a foreclosure
Olivant Place, Larimer, Pa
hopefully the new owners were able to take care of the mold problem.
if the builders had not installed the outer walls like they did. and had done it full dome. the place would have had more sq footage.
too bad this one does not have two things. up near my man’s hometown and it is off the market.
Apparently it’s LOTR Day on the Cheezburger Network:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2010/06/30/funny-pictures-is-better-reading/
Ha! Just a coincidence.
I love everything by Tolkien, but I can understand how others might find him a bit tedious. That first house is amazing, and I want it like crazy.
…”Hobbit houses! That’s what I’m talking about. People living like hobbits. Like these people, making it our first Lovely Listing in Wales:”…
You mean: That’s what I’m tolkien about!
Good eye! You get a gold star for catching a missed pun opportunity!
Sorry – all I could hear was Bugs Bunny playing the banjo.
[No place for livin' like a hole in the ground, hole in the ground, hole in the ground...]
I’m glad there are a few other fanatics out there, though none on my scale, I think. I’ve read the books at least once a year since…
Um…
1977.
I do understand why some don’t like the books, though, but I’d say it has more to do with the change in readers’ tastes than any fault of either writer or readers.
And I so want the first house! The owner of that house (or a similar one) has a blog depicting the building of said house. It’s cheap, environmentally friendly, and no more of a fire trap than most modern houses, I would think.
You all speak so profusely about LoTR and how much you want the hobbit houses. Has even one of you stopped to think about what would happen when it rained?
Underground homes aren’t an exclusively Hobbitish concept.
Am I the only one who looked at the third picture and said ‘Totoro!’?
Ahem, I’m a Tolkein fan. I liked “Bored of the Rings” too (it’s been ages since I’ve read it). And I love the films. (Two words “Vigo Mortenson” Yummmm). I’m voting for house number one, because I love the idea of a hobbit hole….except I’d have to dig further back into the hill to accomodate all my books…sigh. And on a positive note….I live just over the Welsh border in England…I’ve GOT to find this place.