The Hobbit turned out to be an excellent first choice. It was an easy-to-read fantasy that allowed me to knock a few chapters down every night. The first half of the book read pretty slow to me, this included introducing our band of adventurers Bilbo, Gandalf, and the Dwarves. And as someone who is not a very visual reader, I found it hard to picture the landscape or follow the geography of the journey. I did find Bilbo’s receiving Dwarves again and again quite fun.
The book starts to pick up when the group leaves Rivendell and is captured by Goblins. This leads to probably my favorite encounter in the story between Gollum and Bilbo, in which they exchange riddles and Bilbo attains the ring. After this, the book rides pretty strong to its ending. Though I did think the exchange with Smaug and the Battle of the Five Armies was pretty anti-climactic.
The Hobbit served as a delightful prelude to the Lord of the Rings series. I would recommend The Hobbit to anyone looking for a classic fantasy, particularly kids and people trying to get back into reading.