: : You know about a year and a half ago accadamics voted for the top 100 books of the century. Tolkien did not get even honorable mention. When people called in they actually said Tolkien's was a nice little story but not worthy of the list. Ulisses (spell) was number one. Did you ever read that thing? It is horrible. Lord of The Rings is fantasy and not understood by many.

: Well, in response to the original message, my ex girlfriend didn't like Tolkien much at all. She like Robert jordan though.
: Anyway, there are definitely lots of people for whom Tolkien isn't a huge deal.

: Having said that, New Zealand voted for Lord of the Rings as the book of the century a while back, before we heard about the movie being shot here.

: Guess there are a lot of Tolkien fans out there, but not all of them are academics....

A number of bookshops here in Britain also had a poll to find the nation's favourite book of the century last year. And guess what won?

At the risk of sounding like a philistine, a lot of "literature", like most modern art, is an elitist con trick. If you don't like it or can't understand it, the academics will try to convince you that you are at fault.