The Hobbit is my favourite book, although when I was made to read it at school I didn’t enjoy it much. Maybe it was reading only a chapter a week, and then having to talk about it and do “projects” that spoilt it – I would rather have just read it end to end in one sitting!

Since that initial mis-start, I’ve read it maybe once every year or two ever since. That’s probably forty years of reading it.

I am practically word perfect with it.

(Which is also why I hated the Lord of the Rings films because they changed the words … as a result, I’ve never seen The Hobbit films).

Because I knew it so well, I figured that it might be a good novel to start reading in Spanish. I would always know the context and have a good idea of the author’s intent. For that reason I’ve called it my Rosetta Stone.

Reading in Spanish is almost like learning to read for the first time: the story reveals itself more slowly and there are surprises as my cognition clicks and then I laughed out loud with a child’s joy. It seems to be the same with my new book, in that the discovery of the characters and plot is slower and somehow more surprising. I guess that will pass as my reading skills improve, so I’ll enjoy it while it lasts!

What I didn’t think of when I started reading it is that it’s about a journey. I have accompanied Bilbo on his journey through Middle Earth, just as he’s followed me on my trip round Spain.

He had a dragon, and goblins, and a Gollum to cope with. I only had trains and buses to worry me.

I always feel sad when I finish that book because I just want more. I finished it two weeks into my holiday, leaving me with one week on my own … to start a brave new novel written in Spanish for a Spanish audience!