Quote Originally Posted by Gandalf View Post
Quote Originally Posted by AdamGB View Post
How much of 1984 would you miss if you read it when you were 9?

A book that can be enjoyed by younger and older readers alike on different levels is masterful.
Younger people can enjoy Orwell, I first got into him through my school library. Every kid has read Animal Farm. That is a book that can be enjoyed as a fairy story for kids or a critique of Soviet Communism as an adult. 1984 emerges when you enter your teens.

As I keep repeating Tolkien can be fun, but it isn't higher literature. People don't study it on English courses for good reason. There are better books to analyze. It is correct that kids study To Kill a Mockingbird, Great Expectations and King Lear over LoTR.

But if you like it then that is COOL. I don't have an issue with you and others liking it a lot, I just don't elevate it like you do. I like it too, but it simply isn't anything I would put in my list of top 100 books to read in my final month to live or anything like that. I am not Christopher Lee.
That's exactly my point miles, Animal farm is more than a fairy tale! (unless read when you're 9).
I'm not elevating it into some higher piece of writing, simply saying that it is masterful. If you think that the heavier handed allegories of orwell are more masterful than the rich wealth of lore and history that tolkien infused his work with then that is COOL.

What you class as masterful writing is surely subjective to both the reader and intentions of the writer to a huge degree?

LOTR may not be suitable study material... But that is hardly conclusive. It's about 5 times bigger than any of the books you listed and again - written with a different purpose in a different focus and narrative.