Although I usually don’t read books written by college professors for fun, Tolkien’s have always been an exception. These are the books that I cannot put down until I’m done. From elves to dwarves to orcs to goblins Tolkien has repeatedly set the standard for fantasy books and continues to do so with The Hobbit. Although not using most modern language, the book is still exceptionally easy to understand for being written before World War 2.

The Book is about Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit (An exceptionally short race that never wears shoes) who gets caught up in a wild adventure with thirteen dwarves and the wizard Gandalf. Along the way they come across trolls, goblins, talking eagles, elves, and Sméagol, the evil hobbit who loves riddles.

Although the book is based on one of the most overused topics for a fantasy book ever, a quest to slay the dragon, Tolkien mixes it up in a good way even with a deadly surprise after the dragon is killed. For the most part I found the book to surprise me quite a lot in turns of twists between the plot with the right amount of different storylines going on at the same time to make it a must read.