Reddit mentions of The Hobbit

Get off my lawn!

sorry man, but you're missing a few things

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

287 pages for mine (1984 paperback), 320 pages for a 2007 hardcover, 300 pages for a 2012 paperback...

I'm sure there are editions under 200 pages, but it looks like a completely normal fantasy novel on my shelf.

This is going to seem like a really strange choice, but it's coming from another 16 year old. I recommend Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman, as it is one of my absolute favorite books. It may only appeal to him if he likes science or engineering, but it's worth a shot regardless.

In a similar vein to the Chronicles of Narnia, may I recommend The Hobbit/ The Lord of the Rings? Both are great stories that he may like. Although they are not the best written books in terms of writing quality (in my opinion), the Inheritence Cycle by Christopher Paolini might appeal for entertainment value. Perhaps a lesser known author that I greatly enjoy is Megan Whalen Turner, author of The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia. I just became aware of this book and have thus never read it, but A Conspiracy of Kings by the same author is bound to be good.

Steering away from fantasy, he may also like science fiction. I recommend any Ray Bradbury. Most of his stories are short, so for someone who doesn't read often they are great. My favorite are the Martian Chronicles, but R is for Rocket is also a good compilation. All of the Artemis Fowl series are recommended as well.

If I think of any more, I will certainly edit this post.

The Hobbit (a book everyone should read at some point) by Tolkein.

All Creatures Great and Small, by James Herriott.

Oliver Twist by Dickens.

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

The Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

This hardcover edition is really nice. If the ~$30 price tag is to high then I would go with this one. There is also an annotated edition which includes a lot of additional information in it.

Amazon recently sent me a copy of The Hobbit in fucked up condition. If you file a return from your orders page, they'll send you a new copy right away. My replacement came perfect.

The 75th Anniversary Edition (link is to US Amazon) would probably be my first choice. It has both the color and b&w illustrations by Tolkien and his original dust jacket. (I should talk, though; I just counted and I currently own 17 different copies of The Hobbit, not counting some duplicates...)

There is a book about it actually, it might contain a few spoilers though: Amazon link

The Hobbit to match my LoTR hardcover box set. Thanks!

Glad to see you're so excited about it all . . .

Now here's a suggestion as to what to do next . . .

The Hobbit