Re: grrrrr
<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>the first 100 pages can turn even the most dedicated reader away<hr></blockquote>
In that case I'd consider myself (at this point) a more-than-dedicated reader.
The first time I read it, I was like everyone else in finding the first portion difficult to get through. I quit, restarted, worked through, then kept going. But the first time I read it all the way through, the WHOLE THING was hard.
The first hundred pages aren't harder than the following 260 or so pages.
But then the second time I read the book, I flew through the whole ~360 pages really easily.
I think the reason is because people are used to a more action packed arena of story telling, but when it gets to poetry, or theoretical/hypothetical/ancient concepts, like the music of the ainur, people get bored because ... it's not actiony.
<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>seems like a hell of alot of unnesessary setup...<hr></blockquote>
One thing that makes me smile is that I believe there is absolutely no set up in the Silmarillion. Either that, or the whole book is a set up. Or half of it is. There's nothing that is a set up for anything else, at least definitely. It's just whatever a single person finds exciting.
And I like every single part. I really do wish others liked it as much as I do. It would me that we all love it so much more... gah. The silmarillion is pretty much my TOP favourite fiction book I've ever read. Either that or Stargate.
*shuts up*