The Lord of the Rings was written between 1937 and 1949 by JRR Tolkien, a man of incredible imagination and literary skill. The Lord of the Rings is a three part trilogy, set in Tolkien’s mythical world of Middle Earth.

The books trace the story of a hobbit called Frodo, who is set the task of destroying the One Ring, a ring designed by the Dark Lord Sauron to give him enormous power. Frodo’s arduous journey is split into three parts: The fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of The King. Throughout all of the books, Tolkien’s incredible imagination shows through, as multitudes of different characters and complex background histories are built into the book.

The Fellowship of the Ring traces Frodo’s discovery of the ring, and his journey from his home village of Hobbiton. He reaches the Elven of stronghold of Rivendell with three other hobbits and it is decided that the ring needs to be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom in Sauron’s land of Mordor. Eight others accompany Frodo- the three Hobbits, Sam, Merry and Pippin, Gandalf the Wizard, an elf named Legolas, a dwarf called Gimli and two men, Boromir and Aragorn. It is from these nine that the fellowship gets its name; the rest of the book traces the first part of their journey towards Mordor and the fracturing of the fellowship.

The second book of the three, The Two Towers tells the story of two armies of evil- Saruman the White’s fighting uruk-hai and the gathering army in Saurons tower of Barad-Dur in Mordor. The book centres on a huge battle between Saruman’s Uruk-Hai and the horsemen of Rohan, where Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas all play a large part.

The final book brings the story together- I won’t ruin the plot, but it traces the last of Frodo’s journey and the climatic battle between the kingdom of Gondor and Sauron’s forces of evil.

I think the reason that I rate The Lord of the Rings as some of the best books that you can buy is that you quickly become immersed in Tolkien’s writing and feel a fierce sense of loyalty to the good characters in the book. Tolkien builds up a really powerful narrative behind the books two- Middle Earth has its own previous histories which help place events in their setting and Tolkien even invented an entire language for the elves!

In all seriousness this is the best trilogy I have ever read- each book is pretty brilliant in its own right and I would recommend for adult readers as well as for younger readers. The Lord of the Rings films are also excellent, but like in so many cases, they simply cannot do the books justice.