One of my goals for the year 2020 is to take my writing more seriously. To that end, I have signed up for the DIY MFA Writer Igniter reading challenge.
Challenge Prompt #1: What book am I reading?
For this challenge I will be reading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's a book I haven't read since age twelve, and have been meaning to get around to re-reading. Now that I finally have my own copy, I figured this challenge will help me to actually read it.
Challenge Prompt #2: Who is the protagonist?
Well, I'd post that Leonard Nimoy song, but that would be a bit spoilery, and I want to avoid that for folks new to the Tolkien legendarium (even if the book is over eighty years old).
Our protagonist is a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. Hobbits are a small race of people, smaller than dwarves and without facial hair. The only "magic" they have is the kind that can let them hide quickly from us noisy Big Folk, as hobbits are want to call us. They tend to be on the chubby side for their size, and have no need to wear shoes, as their feet have leathery soles and a good amount of hair on top, much like the stuff on their heads. They like to wear bright colors (green and yellow mostly) and eat dinner twice a day when they can.
Bilbo Baggins himself is a well-to-do hobbit living in a hobbit hole (which our narrator says means "comfort") in the side of a large hill that the surrounding folk simply call The Hill, where his family has lived for longer than anyone can remember. His parents were Bungo Baggins and the former Belladonna Took, whose family is known throughout the region as being not entirely hobbitlike. Namely, many members of the Took family are known for getting caught up on adventures, a very un-hobbitlike thing to do.
Other than being in the upper echelons of hobbit society, Bilbo is a very ordinary hobbit. He enjoys receiving visitors and eating good food and is overall very content with his current situation. But the adventure that Gandalf is about to set before him will definitely set him at odds with his respectable hobbit upbringing.
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