Bored of the Rings--Book Review

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Bored of the Rings: A Parody of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Harvard Lampoon, Henry N. Beard, Douglas C. Kenny. Roc, a division of Penguin Books. New York, New York. 1993.

Book review by Joel
This book was lent to me by a friend from work. I was supposed to have given it back by now but I can’t seem to get myself to do it. Right off the bat, the authors, Henry N. Beard and Douglas C. Kenny of the Harvard Lampoon let it be known that the only reason they wrote this parody of the The Lord of the Rings was to make money because they were broke. Which I think is an amiable task. However, this book was pretty lame. It may be due to the fact that it was originally written in 1969 when pop references to drugs and sex and sloth were funny just because you mentioned them in print, whereas today our government protects us from such assaults to our collective fragile eggshell minds. Now as we watch “America’s Most Talented”, we [that is the über WE] are absorbing ad copy heretofore unknown to the hippy force of yore. They would crumble under the might of it.

As I sit here holding this book an arm and a half’s length from me, I truly feel superior to those Harvard hippy types, and wish them only fowl smelling things from the bowels of my mind.

But really….

Why read the book when you could watch the movie?
Joel.

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Do you like this book review? Joel has written for Book Reader's Traverse since its conception in 2004. He often finds his books in unusual places, including hometown shops where he visits, and even dumpsters at times. See his comical bio and picks--Joel's Picks.

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