Funny story.

When I was a young person, I want to say somewhere between 12 and 15, I did something my Dad deemed bad and his punishment was the most creative he’d ever come up with: homework, in the summer. A book report, to be exact. On a book he KNEW I loathed. Not because I’d read it and formed a valid opinion, of course, but because he liked it. I knew that because he talked about it ALL the time. And what teenage girl wants to read the same books as their Dad?! I read Mom’s Danielle Steele books for years but I wouldn’t even peek into Dad’s “old, weird, boring, sci-fi” stuff.

Enter: The Hobbit.

Within a few chapters I was transfixed. Sitting outside under the ivy-covered pine trees with Bilbo and company became my favorite thing. At first I vehemently denied enjoyed reading the book; God forbid Dad know I’m enjoying being punished! But, as with any fandom, things got so good I couldn’t NOT talk about the book with him. After a few days The Hobbit became our nightly dinner topic. I read every spare moment I had between chores. I read that book over and over and over. Every time I think about the movie coming out, I cry. I CANNOT WAIT to take him to see it.

I realize now that he wasn’t trying to punish me at all. I can’t even remember what it was I “did” to deserve a punishment. He simply wanted to share something he loved with me, and this report was the only way I’d touch that book. He tried MANY times before to convince me to read it, but I always went, “Blech, it sounds boring,” and wandered off to do whatever it is I did back then.

I don’t remember if I ever wrote a report or not. If I did, it was amazing. If not, I assume it’s because Dad considered our nightly fangirl/guy conversations report enough. I will never forget how lost my brothers looked, and how happy it made Mom to see Dad and I sharing something that was “just ours.” Good times. GREAT times.

I refused to see the LoTR movies because I was infuriated that they didn’t make The Hobbit first. That’s how I experienced it, book-wise, and that’s how I wanted to see the movies. Come December 2012, I’ll finally be able to watch them all the way I want to.