This was my fifth or sixth reading of this book, and it was better than I remembered. Tolkien's rich, almost indulgent descriptions of land never fail to draw me in. I see each hillside, tree, leaning stone, small stream or towering mountain as if I had know it since childhood. I was reading this out loud to my family while we drove from California to Idaho to watch the eclipse. It felt very right to be reading it while on a road trip and traveling ourselves through vast and overwhelming views.

That being said, this book isn't perfect. The complete lack of speaking parts for women in this series is well documented, but this time what I was struck by was the constant equating of light/white/silver/gold/paleness with goodness and black/dark/brown/swarthyness with evil. The Ring Wraiths are referred to as the Black Riders, though under their clocks they are dead white men. Tolkien was also very fond of the word "queer" in its older usage meaning "strange or mysterious". Its use to describe twisted old forests struck me as an artifact of a different time.

I know for sure this won't be the last time I read this book. The poems in it are like old friends. The characters are the heroes of my youth. Visiting them again makes me want to be brave, and take the difficult path to make the world a better place for growing and living.