I’m excited for Peter Jackson’s first instalment of The Hobbit. You should be too—and I want to help you get there. An Unexpected Journey is just around the corner (opening December 26 in Australia), and to get you in the mood, here are the five best things you can do to stir up those same feelings of magic and whimsy we all felt a decade ago when The Lord of the Rings came out!

Join us, precious.

Read the book

Seems obvious, right? Maybe. But you’d be surprised how many people steadfastly refuse to read the book before they watch the filmic version (or TV show or video game or what have you). Why not? Are you afraid your imagination—this thing of endless complexity and staggering creativity—somehow won’t stack up against the final filmic vision? Come on, you jerk! Read the book.

JRR Tolkein’s The Hobbit suffers from none of the dry, verbose descriptions of lineages, races and histories that bogged down his Rings trilogy. It’s a tight, self-contained adventure story that has great pacing, solid twists and a bunch of great ideas. Reading it should be mandatory for anyone intending to watch the film.

Watch the making-ofs

Peter Jackson and his team of visual wizards at Weta Workshop put together a series of terrific production diaries taking fans on a surprisingly in-depth and intimate journey (no pun) through the ins and outs of creating a blockbuster film. These diaries span a couple of years of production and, if you watch them all back-to-back, add up to nearly a feature-length film in and of itself.  It’s the perfect way to get you thinking about Middle-earth again.

Re-watch the trilogy

Book out twelve hours, buy yourself a pizza and settle into a fantasy world, away from your boring job as a bank teller, fast food technician or tabloid journalist. Peter Jackson’s seminal Lord of the Rings trilogy still stands as one of the most in-depth and fastidious adaptations of all-time.  Not only will re-watching the trilogy establish a lot of the characters and reoccurring themes of The Hobbit, it’s also going to remind you of just how far we’ve come technologically since the early 2000s.  

Grab the soundtrack

Howard Shore, you marvellous bastard. Stand aside, John Williams. Howard Shore’s original themes for The Lord of the Rings were outstanding, stirring up all kinds of feelings. The Hobbit’s soundtrack, available now, is just as evocative. The gorgeous strings, dark horns and mellow tunes are also spot-on for people re-reading the book (hint-hint). Snap it up and embrace the feelings.

Get a hilarious novelty tattoo that you’ll absolutely never regret ever

If all else fails, just hand someone a chunk of change and get a permanent reminder of your poor life choices scribbled into your flesh! Check out some of these winners:

WIN

SF are giving you the chance to win the entire LEGO The Hobbit collection! CLICK HERE to enter!