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JRR Tolkien reads from The Hobbit for 30 Minutes (1952)

314 points by bookofjoe

by wewewedxfgdf

6 subcomments

This is the most magnificent audio version ever recorded of The Hobbit - by Nicol Williamson in the early 1970's.
Zip file with mp3 in it:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b2aPKgVVguOKMOOqWskaliOviYr...
Best enjoyed on a rainy afternoon in an armchair with a cup of tea.

by haunter

8 subcomments

My favorite recent LotR media:
There is a Lord of the Rings MMO (like World of Warcraft) and a guy made a video recording a walk from the Shire to Mordor. Like you can just walk from the Shire to Mordor in the game. And it's almost 10 hours long in real world time to do that! But on top of that the whole journey is narrated by the Lord of the Rings audio book, with the relevant parts of the journey.
https://youtu.be/LYipECdYpXc
Incredibly relaxing

by krupan

1 subcomments

This is so good. You can tell that Andy Serkis based his gollum voice off of this.

by willdotphipps

1 subcomments

I drink in his old local. A bit weird in there I would imagine if you're an American. Although I am a bit American and it is a bit weird in there.

by harywilke

0 subcomment

Ranged Touch's Shelved By Genre podcast is doing an entire year on The Hobbit + Lord of the Rings. https://rangedtouch.com/2026/01/02/the-hobbit-part-1/

by Angostura

1 subcomments

Is there a version minus the music?

by nelblu

0 subcomment

tangential comment, but if anyone is interested in one of the best (imo "legendary") audio books on LOTR look no further than Phil Dragash : https://archive.org/details/tlotrunabridged.

0 subcomment

by weslleyskah

0 subcomment

It is amazing how Lord of the Rings persists in the world.
Christopher Lee reading the Children of Hurin is also fantastic.

by russellbeattie

0 subcomment

I listen to a lot of Audiobooks and some authors are really, really not suited to read their own works of fiction.
Some are definitive, however. If you haven't heard Douglas Adams read all his books [1], you're definitely missing out. They're harder to track down, and not the best quality as most are copied from old tape cassettes, but I love listening to the genius at work.
Yahtzee Croshaw reading his books is fantastic [2]. As is Patrick Rothfuss reading The Slow Regard of Silent Things [3].
A more recent author I listened to was Adrian Tchaikovsky reading Service Model [4]. He was so good, I checked to see if he had theater training! Really great.
1. https://youtu.be/F_tcznHREXE
2. https://www.youtube.com/live/NNpQROC7dWA
3. https://youtu.be/wm6T7uUr_C8
4. https://youtu.be/Myl1ChiFGTw

by elcritch

0 subcomment

Okay who’s going to clone this using AI and have it read the entire book? Anyone?!

0 subcomment

by mexicocitinluez

0 subcomment

People who don't like "On The Road" should listen to Jack read it in his own voice.

by alex1138

2 subcomments

Of course he didn't live to see the Peter Jackson movies but I think I've heard his son didn't like them

by bschmidt2

0 subcomment

[dead]

by hackerforkie

0 subcomment

[dead]

by ParentiSoundSys

7 subcomments

I wonder what Tolkien would say of so much of the symbolism from his novels being used to bootstrap a horrible dystopian control grid? Would he approve or disapprove? The way that orcs are dehumanized you have to wonder.