The works of J.R.R. Tolkien, filmmaking, messing around online, learning new things, listening to music, and plotting to take over the world.
First Lord of the Rings reading experience:
When I was 10, I read "The Hobbit" after watching the animated film with my dad. After I watched "Fellowship of the Ring" in theatres in 2001, I borrowed the trilogy from the library (one by one, of course), and read all three just before the theatrical release of "The Two Towers." I also got to take a college class on Tolkien in the fall of 2006 at Honolulu Community College.
Favorite Tolkien character:
Gollum/Sméagol. He's quite possibly the most unique, original character ever to arise from a 20th century work of any kind; he's conflicted, driven mad by obsession, and yet retains a measure of the youth and naiveté he once had before he discovered the Ring.
That said, I love all the major characters in the stories -- Gandalf, Aragorn, Bilbo, Frodo, Arwen, Elrond, and even Smaug and Saruman are awesome characters. My favourite character after Gollum, though, would probably be Samwise the Brave.
