Spoiler Comment: I recently read this as well and was very happy with 3 distinct points. I've seen the movies a million times, and to see that Frodo never sent Sam away on the way to Shelob's Lair made the Sam & Frodo's connection even stronger than I felt watching the movies. I was also really happy to see that the Ents e.g. Treebeard wasn't as opposed to helping Merry and Pippin as he appeared to be in the movie version. I think the entire scene where Merry has to convince Treebeard was missing from the books. Movie version of Treebeard is much less "hastey". 3rd and finally, Faramir is such a better character in the book than the movie. He doesn't have that "backstabby" feel he has in the movies, and that was refreshing! I'm looking forward to reading book 3 for the first time later this month.
Book reviews have always been my favorite videos! I’m not interested in hauls, etc. Reviews are where it’s at and I’m so thankful Mike is still doing them!❤️❤️❤️❤️
I was surprised how much i loved the Two Towers. The treebeard chapter, all the stuff in Rohan, victorious banter between Pippen & Gimli, Gandalf's resurrection, getting brooding Gondor lore through Faramir, Shelob v Sam. I enjoyed it all. It was the little things for me. I think the first 'book' in Two Towers is my favorite 'book' of the bunch. But as a 'novel' i like Fellowship most overall.
A fantastic discussion of The Two Towers! I am currently reading The Return of the King and adoring it. Such an amazing story that is just timeless. Will
@@Wanderwilderreading I’m so excited, it looks beautiful and I wanted a copy that included all the books in one. I also got a great deal on it so that’s a plus ☺️
@@thebookbro3805 the first time I ever read LOTR was on my dad’s super yellowed and ugly copy that was HIS dad’s from the 60’s. Objectively the worst edition ever published lol.
I just want to say thank you. I’ve never found a book that I could sit down and read for fun. But thanks to you I found the Robin Hobb assassins books and I never sat down for the entire day and just read. It was so nice to get away from my screens. I just wanna say thank you!
I read or listened to this book and it did not let me down. I actually loved listening to Tree Beard. I wished he was in the movie that long. Looking forward to the next book.
I remember devouring these books in high school. I just fell in love with the story and the characters. I felt every bit of that journey with each character. Just one of those experiences where it's really disorienting to come back to the real world when it's all over. There really is nothing like that.
I've always been a LOTR fan since I first saw the first movie when I was 8 years old. I'm reading them for the first time and just finished The Two Towers and I have to say, I wanted MORE Treebeard. I was absolutely enthralled with every single word in those chapters. Everyone is different but I personally loved it as a first time reader.
Been reading the books for the first time pretty on your schedule, I just have Return of the King. I’m a bit torn as I admire so much of what he does but also find the walking, heavy description of the scenery, sleeping, eating etc a bit of a slog at times while also enjoying the character interaction and the (infrequent) battle scenes, even if they don’t have the raw brutality of modern stuff
When I read the series, it was after I saw the movies and I was blown away by the friendship between Gimli and Legolas, and they really didn't develop that storyline in the movies.
Thanks Mike for your ever going quest in your book reviews, especially LOTR. I am actually doing a re-read myself, reading FOTR at the moment. I love the stories that Tolkien represents and reading the world for the first time since the mid 1990s is a refresher, and is going quick due in part since I have seen the Peter Jackson films countless times. One thing that still puzzles me is the time referenced in the books. Example sometimes it would be like 17 years, or 9 years since last time the hobbits see Gandalf again. Maybe there is a reason that he does it , but it still kind of off for me. Obviously it made sense in the films to vastly shorten that timespan; it also made sense to me in the films to make the hobbits all relatively the same age, while the books Frodo was like much older, but in the book it made sense but I understood why it was done in the films differently. I can see as well why the tale of Tom Bombadil, though interesting in the book, why his part of the story was cut out in FOTR, it would have been a detractor and pace of the film would have been slow; still it would have been cool to see it done. All the best for now!!
Nice video. I like Tolkien. Do you have any plans to review any of the History Of Middle Earth books? I'd watch those. I'm a fan of the Silmarillion, but I have not read any of the others.
Always love LOTR content. I read about half of Two Towers a couple years ago and was really enjoying it, but never finished it for some reason. I'm hoping to do a re-read of The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring before continuing on with the rest (which will mostly be first-time reads despite being a huge fan of the movies for years)
Really loved the final half of book 4, once the trio leaves Faramir. Just a great sequence. Sam is the best character EVER. I didn’t think his face off with shelob would be as good as it was in the movie, but it was actually better than the movie. It was truly terrifying stuff, even though I already knew more or less what would happen
Two Towers isn’t my favorite part, but that’s not to say it’s bad at all. It’s so good. The “resurrection” in this book makes complete sense when you know a bit more about the lore and the magic of the world. Once you know what the Istari are, it actually makes perfect sense. One of the few times I’ve liked the Resurrection stripe. Great review! -T
Books 3 and 4 (AKA The Two Towers) is not bad, but full honesty, the first two times through the story I read Fellowship and Return without halt but paused for a month or so while reading book three. It was Treebeard and its postscript which stopped me dead. There is no accounting for taste.
I loved The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring. Still to this day some of the best fantasy I ever read. I began the Two Towers with high hopes despite some friends who said the book was boring and tough to get through. Unfortunately they turned out to be correct, I really struggled to get through it. It took me about 3 years to read it, setting it down multiple times to read other books between where I left off. For me this book was exactly the kind of fantasy I do NOT like. Far to often the story seemed to take a back seat to the traveling, eating, sleeping, singing songs or poetry and that kind of thing. The bottom line is if I am not enjoying what I am reading, it is not for me, and there is no reason to continue, which is why I never read Return of the King. The odd thing is when I watched the Peter Jackson films, The Two Towers was by far my favorite of all of them and one of my favorite movies of all time. Go figure.
Yeah, the arachnid is... not my favourite, shall we say. I was kind of relieved to find her displaced from the second film to the third when I first saw Two Towers on the big screen; I'd seen the second Harry Potter film a few weeks earlier and wasn't really looking forward to two films with giant spiders in such close proximity. I have to say I prefer the film's interweaving of the two main narrative strands. I take your point about why you think it works, but when reading the book I never got a sense of how the two actually connected; it feels to me like two separate adventures one after the other and I never felt like they were actually happening at the same time (which they obviously are). It's a structural point that I think the film does better than the book.
and about death,i just wanna say 1.who returned is not human and he cant truly die , other one who died have Iluvatars gift ,so its normal that he cant go back...tried to not spoil :D
For me it's one book. I read the edition where they're all in one book first and I can't get away from seeing LotR as a standalone book. 😂 So I clearly love the whole of it.. there's no favorite. When I look at the movies.. maybe The two Towers, I love Rohan.. but then there's also the third film with all the feels.. 🤔
The Two Towers is my favourite of the books but least favourite of the movies. Tolkien's pacing makes the story exciting, whereas the way Jackson changed it (might have been necessary for adaptation) ruins the flow. So many interesting moments, particularly the Treebeard chapter and right before they enter Shelob's lair.
I wanna hear about Frodo and the ring. By Mr. JRR Tolkien. I first read this on High school, 🏫 o my gosh it's the sequel of the Hobbit. Frodo and companions of the ring. Frodo and his company made their escape, 1954, 🔙 to the Two Towers. Rain goes East ➡️ which is Frodo's party. Splitting the characters up, we get to see all places, studying that middle earth 🌍 map. These are happening concurrently at same time. Till they get to a certain guide, if you've read the Hobbit you would know who. Shelow one you get to meet again. Now we get to see a lot of the South ⬇️ East ➡️. There is no overlap, he doesn't do this with third 🥉 book. This budding friendship, no dwarf trusts Elves. There is a third party 〽️ here that I'm not mentioning. You get to meet Tree bird, 🕊️ and the Ents, why they are looking for the Ent wives. Those characters always there to protect the Hobbits. They could be killed at any moment. A pending since of doom. The waiting. Obviously Tolkien being in War in the trenches. I watched the movie 🎥 so many times, there was a part in Eyes in Guard, had some elements of horror. An eight legged arachna. He was fluxing his ... a bit. Your not just going to go on a still at three in the morning. This needs to be wrapped 🎁 up, come on Mr. T. Some people think 💭 this is way to long. You need RoeHan on your side. It will be worth it. This character is very different than last time you saw him. Not all deaths are created equal. It's a magnificent character that I wanted to come back. This isn't like Mallazon where everyone and his mother comes back to life. Characters like ThayAdone. Made them split the book 📚 in three volumes. I think if you like this world 🌎 he introduced, new 🌱 creatures you meet in middle earth. 🌍 Sam and Frodo have a long way to go to Mt. Doom. I love the two towers, I 💬 think splitting the cast up in two different ways, and adding new characters, was great. Good disciscion, some stuff somewhat frightening. I feel like I am a character guy. You want to see large scale battle, the journey goes on and on. By end of August, we'll be in Rings 💍 of Tower. This is probably my favorite fantasy world. 🌍
Just read this for the first time last week. I hated the movies, but I loved the Fellowship of the Ring book. Unfortunately, this one was very average. I can still where the movies get all their crap from (endless talking, shooting the same scenes over and over again). For me the main issue of this book is the editing, having book 3 being only the fellowship and Treebeard, then book 4 only Frodo. It made for a tedious read. Ultimately, very little happens in this book, there’s a lot of talking but not that much story progression. Although, this is the book where Gollum shines. Still a let down for the excellent Fellowship of the Ring
It sucks. It's too long, the print is too small, and it's boring. It should be a graphic novel if it has to exist at all. Tolkien stinks as a writer. Not.enough action.
I’m loving this LOTR content, Mike! Thanks for the wonderful dose of nostalgia!
Spoiler Comment: I recently read this as well and was very happy with 3 distinct points. I've seen the movies a million times, and to see that Frodo never sent Sam away on the way to Shelob's Lair made the Sam & Frodo's connection even stronger than I felt watching the movies. I was also really happy to see that the Ents e.g. Treebeard wasn't as opposed to helping Merry and Pippin as he appeared to be in the movie version. I think the entire scene where Merry has to convince Treebeard was missing from the books. Movie version of Treebeard is much less "hastey". 3rd and finally, Faramir is such a better character in the book than the movie. He doesn't have that "backstabby" feel he has in the movies, and that was refreshing! I'm looking forward to reading book 3 for the first time later this month.
YEEEESSSS! Book Faramir is far better than movie Faramir and I will die on that hill.
Thank you Mike for staying true to your channel name
It really sucks that actual book reviews seem to be a dying art on BookTube, but I'll keep doing at least one a week (as time permits).
Book reviews have always been my favorite videos! I’m not interested in hauls, etc. Reviews are where it’s at and I’m so thankful Mike is still doing them!❤️❤️❤️❤️
I was surprised how much i loved the Two Towers. The treebeard chapter, all the stuff in Rohan, victorious banter between Pippen & Gimli, Gandalf's resurrection, getting brooding Gondor lore through Faramir, Shelob v Sam. I enjoyed it all. It was the little things for me. I think the first 'book' in Two Towers is my favorite 'book' of the bunch. But as a 'novel' i like Fellowship most overall.
A fantastic discussion of The Two Towers! I am currently reading The Return of the King and adoring it. Such an amazing story that is just timeless.
Will
Just the video I needed, i ordered that exact copy of LOTR to read the series for the 1st time. Excited to start it this month.
I love this copy so much!
@@Wanderwilderreading I’m so excited, it looks beautiful and I wanted a copy that included all the books in one. I also got a great deal on it so that’s a plus ☺️
@@AlanisOcasio123 ah, I’m so jealous!
I wish I got this copy, the paperback is starting to hurt my eyes lmaooo
@@thebookbro3805 the first time I ever read LOTR was on my dad’s super yellowed and ugly copy that was HIS dad’s from the 60’s. Objectively the worst edition ever published lol.
I just want to say thank you. I’ve never found a book that I could sit down and read for fun. But thanks to you I found the Robin Hobb assassins books and I never sat down for the entire day and just read. It was so nice to get away from my screens. I just wanna say thank you!
Nice review without spoilers, I think it describes some dynamics of the Two Towers that helped make the series so beloved.
Dude... where can I get that Princess Bride shirt?! Also, great video! LOTR will always be my favorite fantasy novel.
I really need to get that hardcover with the sprayed edges.
Yes. You do
Listening to the 3 books with Andy serkis narrating
I read or listened to this book and it did not let me down. I actually loved listening to Tree Beard. I wished he was in the movie that long. Looking forward to the next book.
I may be in the minority here but Two Towers is my favorite LOTR book. Thanks for the review!
Hi Mike, would you consider doing a review on Orwell's 1984? Love your videos, man.
Dude, yes! That would be awesome!
Omg yes
I’m half way thru the fellowship of the ring, can’t wait to watch this after I’m done
Thank you for the review, I really need to reread these soon
I remember devouring these books in high school. I just fell in love with the story and the characters. I felt every bit of that journey with each character. Just one of those experiences where it's really disorienting to come back to the real world when it's all over. There really is nothing like that.
Thanks for posting the LOTR content, Mike. I'm gearing up for a Lord of the Rings re-read either this month, or next month. Still my number 1!
I just bought that edition of the book! I love it
I've always been a LOTR fan since I first saw the first movie when I was 8 years old. I'm reading them for the first time and just finished The Two Towers and I have to say, I wanted MORE Treebeard. I was absolutely enthralled with every single word in those chapters. Everyone is different but I personally loved it as a first time reader.
Been reading the books for the first time pretty on your schedule, I just have Return of the King. I’m a bit torn as I admire so much of what he does but also find the walking, heavy description of the scenery, sleeping, eating etc a bit of a slog at times while also enjoying the character interaction and the (infrequent) battle scenes, even if they don’t have the raw brutality of modern stuff
When I read the series, it was after I saw the movies and I was blown away by the friendship between Gimli and Legolas, and they really didn't develop that storyline in the movies.
fun fact, scenes from The Two Towers are in all 3 movies, as they found the hardest to adapt
Thanks Mike for your ever going quest in your book reviews, especially LOTR. I am actually doing a re-read myself, reading FOTR at the moment. I love the stories that Tolkien represents and reading the world for the first time since the mid 1990s is a refresher, and is going quick due in part since I have seen the Peter Jackson films countless times. One thing that still puzzles me is the time referenced in the books. Example sometimes it would be like 17 years, or 9 years since last time the hobbits see Gandalf again. Maybe there is a reason that he does it , but it still kind of off for me. Obviously it made sense in the films to vastly shorten that timespan; it also made sense to me in the films to make the hobbits all relatively the same age, while the books Frodo was like much older, but in the book it made sense but I understood why it was done in the films differently. I can see as well why the tale of Tom Bombadil, though interesting in the book, why his part of the story was cut out in FOTR, it would have been a detractor and pace of the film would have been slow; still it would have been cool to see it done. All the best for now!!
Feel-good video!!! Love it!
what a great extemporaneous speaker.
MIke did you read the Children of Hurin ? its one of my fav.Tolkien books and other side of Tolkien (darl,tragedy)
Nice video. I like Tolkien. Do you have any plans to review any of the History Of Middle Earth books? I'd watch those. I'm a fan of the Silmarillion, but I have not read any of the others.
Always love LOTR content. I read about half of Two Towers a couple years ago and was really enjoying it, but never finished it for some reason. I'm hoping to do a re-read of The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring before continuing on with the rest (which will mostly be first-time reads despite being a huge fan of the movies for years)
In the fall. Hoping to do this in the fall. Forgot to finish that comment 😂🤷
Faramir is genuinely so likable in this one.
Really loved the final half of book 4, once the trio leaves Faramir. Just a great sequence. Sam is the best character EVER. I didn’t think his face off with shelob would be as good as it was in the movie, but it was actually better than the movie. It was truly terrifying stuff, even though I already knew more or less what would happen
Thank you Mike for the review and keeping it 💯 with your love for great literature.
Two Towers isn’t my favorite part, but that’s not to say it’s bad at all. It’s so good. The “resurrection” in this book makes complete sense when you know a bit more about the lore and the magic of the world. Once you know what the Istari are, it actually makes perfect sense. One of the few times I’ve liked the Resurrection stripe.
Great review!
-T
Books 3 and 4 (AKA The Two Towers) is not bad, but full honesty, the first two times through the story I read Fellowship and Return without halt but paused for a month or so while reading book three. It was Treebeard and its postscript which stopped me dead. There is no accounting for taste.
I loved The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring. Still to this day some of the best fantasy I ever read. I began the Two Towers with high hopes despite some friends who said the book was boring and tough to get through. Unfortunately they turned out to be correct, I really struggled to get through it. It took me about 3 years to read it, setting it down multiple times to read other books between where I left off.
For me this book was exactly the kind of fantasy I do NOT like. Far to often the story seemed to take a back seat to the traveling, eating, sleeping, singing songs or poetry and that kind of thing. The bottom line is if I am not enjoying what I am reading, it is not for me, and there is no reason to continue, which is why I never read Return of the King. The odd thing is when I watched the Peter Jackson films, The Two Towers was by far my favorite of all of them and one of my favorite movies of all time. Go figure.
I am feeling some serious nostalgia watching this review haha
Love the shirt
This was my favorite of the trilogy when I read them.
Yeah, the arachnid is... not my favourite, shall we say. I was kind of relieved to find her displaced from the second film to the third when I first saw Two Towers on the big screen; I'd seen the second Harry Potter film a few weeks earlier and wasn't really looking forward to two films with giant spiders in such close proximity.
I have to say I prefer the film's interweaving of the two main narrative strands. I take your point about why you think it works, but when reading the book I never got a sense of how the two actually connected; it feels to me like two separate adventures one after the other and I never felt like they were actually happening at the same time (which they obviously are). It's a structural point that I think the film does better than the book.
and about death,i just wanna say 1.who returned is not human and he cant truly die , other one who died have Iluvatars gift ,so its normal that he cant go back...tried to not spoil :D
The spider: Nature's perfect killing machine.
I read the first book in 8th grade .i was too young to appreciate it
For me it's one book. I read the edition where they're all in one book first and I can't get away from seeing LotR as a standalone book. 😂 So I clearly love the whole of it.. there's no favorite.
When I look at the movies.. maybe The two Towers, I love Rohan.. but then there's also the third film with all the feels.. 🤔
Two Towers is my favorite of the three!
The Two Towers is my favourite of the books but least favourite of the movies. Tolkien's pacing makes the story exciting, whereas the way Jackson changed it (might have been necessary for adaptation) ruins the flow. So many interesting moments, particularly the Treebeard chapter and right before they enter Shelob's lair.
I wanna hear about Frodo and the ring. By Mr. JRR Tolkien. I first read this on High school, 🏫 o my gosh it's the sequel of the Hobbit. Frodo and companions of the ring. Frodo and his company made their escape, 1954, 🔙 to the Two Towers. Rain goes East ➡️ which is Frodo's party. Splitting the characters up, we get to see all places, studying that middle earth 🌍 map. These are happening concurrently at same time. Till they get to a certain guide, if you've read the Hobbit you would know who. Shelow one you get to meet again. Now we get to see a lot of the South ⬇️ East ➡️. There is no overlap, he doesn't do this with third 🥉 book. This budding friendship, no dwarf trusts Elves. There is a third party 〽️ here that I'm not mentioning. You get to meet Tree bird, 🕊️ and the Ents, why they are looking for the Ent wives. Those characters always there to protect the Hobbits. They could be killed at any moment. A pending since of doom. The waiting. Obviously Tolkien being in War in the trenches. I watched the movie 🎥 so many times, there was a part in Eyes in Guard, had some elements of horror. An eight legged arachna. He was fluxing his ... a bit. Your not just going to go on a still at three in the morning. This needs to be wrapped 🎁 up, come on Mr. T. Some people think 💭 this is way to long. You need RoeHan on your side. It will be worth it. This character is very different than last time you saw him. Not all deaths are created equal. It's a magnificent character that I wanted to come back. This isn't like Mallazon where everyone and his mother comes back to life. Characters like ThayAdone. Made them split the book 📚 in three volumes. I think if you like this world 🌎 he introduced, new 🌱 creatures you meet in middle earth. 🌍 Sam and Frodo have a long way to go to Mt. Doom. I love the two towers, I 💬 think splitting the cast up in two different ways, and adding new characters, was great. Good disciscion, some stuff somewhat frightening. I feel like I am a character guy. You want to see large scale battle, the journey goes on and on. By end of August, we'll be in Rings 💍 of Tower. This is probably my favorite fantasy world. 🌍
Jackson ruined Faramir in the movie with the one line he uttered in the cave. Ruined the Two Towers for me. Sorry for the movie talk.
I predicted the eagle had caught him.
I think The Two Towers is the best book of the Trilogy
Niiiiice
Just read this for the first time last week. I hated the movies, but I loved the Fellowship of the Ring book. Unfortunately, this one was very average. I can still where the movies get all their crap from (endless talking, shooting the same scenes over and over again). For me the main issue of this book is the editing, having book 3 being only the fellowship and Treebeard, then book 4 only Frodo. It made for a tedious read. Ultimately, very little happens in this book, there’s a lot of talking but not that much story progression. Although, this is the book where Gollum shines. Still a let down for the excellent Fellowship of the Ring
🤩🤩
I guess I'm the only person in the world that thinks LOTR books are overrated.
Try reading GANTZ
I will say that the Two Towers is still the weakest arc of LoTR, both book and movie. I had a really hard time getting through it.
The orcs ruin this book...
It sucks. It's too long, the print is too small, and it's boring. It should be a graphic novel if it has to exist at all. Tolkien stinks as a writer. Not.enough action.