A review by charlottejones952
Farmer Giles of Ham/The Adventures of Tom Bombadil by J.R.R. Tolkien

3.0

This was a book of two very distinct halves for me; the first part, Farmer Giles of Ham, was a wonderful adventure story which felt like a myth from centuries ago, and the second part, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, was a collection of poetry about various characters in Middle Earth. I found the poetry didn't engage me as much as I would have liked. The structure of each poem was quite similar and almost all of them consisted of rhyming couplets. Poetry isn't something I usually read for leisure but this wasn't the type of poetry I enjoy at all. I like poetry that has a lot of metaphor and depth whereas these felt quite shallow. I felt similarly towards the poems and songs that were included in The Lord of the Rings.

Overall I did enjoy this book and I'm glad I have finally read it as it has been on my shelf for quite a long time now. I loved the first half and disliked the second so I've had to give the book as a whole a middle of the road star-rating, however I would recommend reading Farmer Giles of Ham if you like fairytales or myths.