I dislike stories without nice neat endings as well as leaving characters in the middle of a bad time; thus eventhough I am still inching my way through Fellowship of the Ring, I have decided to start this thread.

I found this reading guide for Return of the King. (There are also ones for FotR and TTT). I have copied the least spoilerish ones below. Feel free to answer other questions on the guide as well.

1. How are Gandalf's power, wisdom, and majesty manifested throughout the novel? How, and with what consequences, does he apply his powers in his relationships with the various other residents of Middle-earth?

2. How would you characterize the relationship between Faramir and his father, Denethor? What causes Denethor to be so critical of his son?

8. "It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I suppose," says Merry; "you must start somewhere and have some roots" (p. 852). How is this true of the hobbits and others?

9. Speaking of the Orcs, Frodo tells Sam, "The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own" (p. 893). Why is it significant that, while good can create "real new things," evil can merely counterfeit or mock creation?

10. When Sam sees the white star twinkling through the cloud-wrack above the Morgai, "the beauty of it smote his heart [and] the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing" (p. 901). In what ways is the Shadow of evil finally only "a small and passing thing"?