The lord of the rings contains within itself every single fantasy book ever written after it....there is not a single writer of the genre whose work does not display influences from tolkien...the master himself drew inspiration from the indian and greek epics and the reason why, like the epics, LOTR has stood the test of time is that though he painstakingly created an entire world peopled with varied races all speaking a language unique to themselves, the themes he used to tell the story are universal, timeless and recognizable...so there are hobbits and they do have strange hairy feet and are shorter than dwarves but the darkest demon they have to wrestle with is neither an orc nor a balrog but a fear that has beset man from the beginning of time - a fear of the unknown...once they have conquered this particular nightmare the little hobbit is a david to beat a goliath of any size, be it even the dark lord of mordor....from the shire it is a fascinating journey into the unknown...it is not a tale for the fainthearted...there is death, there is treachery, there is violence, there is redemption...in the end there is victory but not without a price....the book teaches us many things and not least of it’s lessons is the one that tells you that life is lived at a cost and it is the burden of the individual to live this life without losing one’s humanity...i love this book because I recognise many parallels to life as I know it myself...this is a journey that in a sense we all make, the ring stands for all the minor crosses each of us have to bear...we’ve all been there and back again.....