My relationship with LOTR has changed over the years, as has my relationship with the books I still can reread. Each reading has illuminated new aspects, so there is always something to discover. At fourteen it was the plot, and the sense of yearning for something no longer attainable that I could sense but not articulate. And so on.

There are some old faves that gradually fall by the wayside as the years move on. But I can still appreciate them in retrospect. The early Tolclones I couldn't read because I knew what was going to happen (I recognized the LOTR substrate) and nothing else about the story drew me in. Though obviously many, many others felt differently.