The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

By J. R. R. Tolkien.

Much has been written about this classic tale of hobbits, wizards, men, elves and other creatures not known to our world. Movies, documentaries, recaps upon recaps.

I don’t aim to provide a synopsis of this tale, but rather to speak to the importance of reading something different than what I normally read.

If you’ve been following me for any stretch of time, you’ll see I don’t normally read fiction. I enjoy reading non-fiction.

The art of taking a thought and expounding upon it for pages and pages, telling stories of real life people with application for today. I love it.

And for a long time, I wondered at the importance of fiction.

Was it a waste of time? 

Was it, as Stephen King was accused of by his friends and family, a waste of time—a waste of a God-given talent to write?

It’s good to challenge our assumptions. It’s good to give air to our questions and time to answer them.

It’s been a long question for me, and only recently have I submitted to the beauty and need to read good fiction books.

It was in a recent book I read, Habits of the Household, that Justin Earley wrote of the importance of reading fictional stories. It encourages imagination, and helps expand our brain.

I read from a non-fiction book to read fictional books.

I’ve never read the Fellowship of the Rings. When I was younger, and the movies first started to come out, many of my friends and peers were picking up this tale and taking the time to read it.

I never did.

So it made sense.

It’s good to challenge our assumptions. It’s good to give air to our questions and time to answer them.

Sometimes we read books because it’s an encouragement from others—a recommendation for learning and understanding a new point of view. Sometimes it’s for knowledge about how something works. Sometimes we read because it’s a good story.

Read good stories.

Life is serious business. There’s always a lot going on. There’s always a decision to be made, some problem to solve, teaching conversation to be had with your kids, new business venture to explore. There’s chores, laundry, dinner, shopping. The list of to do’s is endless.

So we need to read good stories. It reminds us that life is more than just the day to day, somewhat mundane actions we must follow.

We’re meant to be swept away and caught up in a good story.

And actually, that’s why I picked it up. I needed to be swept away by a good story. There’s something in a fictional story, a fantasy that quickens my heart and gets me above all the noise of the every day life. 

There’s adventures to be had, people to meet, and places to go within the books that we can read. 

There’s a story to be read.

And here’s why I read the Fellowship of the Ring. It’s a good story. It’s a classic story full of adventure, imagery, hardship, celebration and victory. I know how the story ends, I’ve seen the movies. But when I read it, I get to go on the journey with the characters—I get to experience it with them.

We’re meant to be swept away and caught up in a good story.

Readers read good stories. Read a good story this year. If you’re like me and tend to read non-fiction, take the time to get lost in an adventure.

When I read non-fiction it refreshes my brain. Then I’m ready for the next non-fiction once I’m done.

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