While on an overnight trip to a mountain refuge in the French Alps of Chamonix the other week. Part three of my now recurring series - reading Tolkien in high places.

Hi! Loving the deluxe slipcase editions of the children of hurin, fall of gondolin, beren & luthien, fall of numenor and others. Just wondering wether or not we think the 12 "history of middle-earth"-books will ever be republished in their own deluxe slipcase editions?

Was able to pick this set up at my local thrift for $5. I am a teacher and was going to put it in my classroom library, until I looked up what this edition goes for. Yikes, $50 is a number I saw pop up a lot, so now it is going on my own shelf.

Finally got my hands on this boxed set, and yes it comes with the CD

I did some deep diving and only seemed to hit the shallow end while trying to research the Appendices page reference issues that I found in my copy (ISBN 978 0 00 847128 6).

It appears that only the handful of references that point to The Two Towers Book 4 are incorrect, being off by 2 pages.

I found an older thread where someone commented that it was because the 2020 Alan Lee copy had the off-by-2 issue in RotK, and so some witchcraft was employed to correct that by reflowing the text in Book 4. But that seems to have just shifted the issue rather than fix it.

TLDR; My question is, does anyone know why the page references to Book 4 weren't fixed besides "it was missed"?

New additions to the collection:

* Chinese (translation by Lucifer Chu)
* Chinese (translation by Li Ya)
* Russian (translation by Leonid Yakhnin)
* Hungarian
* Lithuanian
* Occitan
* Croatian

The Chinese translations are marketed as prequels to LotR and feature characters not even present in the novel... The Russian translation has some awesome, unique illustrations.

I’m looking to obtain the book Beowulf and being a Tolkien fan, am considering his?

However, I’m not sure how readable his translation is or how it compares to other published versions?

Anyone read Tolkien’s version and/or others, and can make a recommendation?

TIA!

I'm posting monthly real-time updates of a new book I'm writing about Lord of the Rings. Never shared the process like this before!

For the HarperCollins 2007 one-volume edition of LOTR (ISBN: 9780261103252), does anyone have any images of what the spine looks like?

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780261103252

Blackwells listing for the one I'm talking about. For the life of me I cannot find a picture of what the spine of this version looks like lol.

I saw a post a bit ago about the LotR deluxe illustrated box set being found at Ollie's, so I had been keeping my eye out. Today I hit the jackpot! They had the deluxe LotR for $50, the deluxe Hobbit for $20, and the Great Tales box set for $15. They had about 5 of each in stock. I hope that some other fans snag the rest, instead of them being scooped up by resellers!

Yes, I have a problem. 😂

Not bad for $200!

Look at the copper foil!!! Loving this display look!

Been slowly building my Tolkien collection over the years. A good number of these have been thrift store finds, which makes collecting even more enjoyable!
The History of Middle-earth
Vol. 1 – The Book of Lost Tales, Part One (1984): First American edition, first printing.
Vol. 4 – The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986): American edition, third printing.
Vol. 7 – The Treason of Isengard (1989): British first edition.
Vol. 8 – The War of the Ring (1990): British first edition.
Vol. 9 – Sauron Defeated (1992): First American edition, first printing.
Vol. 10 – Morgoth's Ring (1993): British first edition.
Vol. 11 – The War of the Jewels (1994): British first edition.
The Lord of the Rings – British Hardcovers
The Fellowship of the Ring: Second edition, seventh impression (1973).
The Two Towers: Second edition, sixth impression (1971).
The Return of the King: Second edition, sixth impression (1971).
The Silmarillion
First American edition, third printing (1977).
The Hobbit & LOTR Boxed Set
Vintage American paperback set from the 1970s.
The Hobbit: 56th printing (1975).
The Return of the King: 49th printing (1975).
Most of the hardcovers still have their original dust jackets, with some expected wear.
Still looking to complete The History of Middle-earth. Always keeping an eye out for older Tolkien editions!

Another one!

My favorite author since I was little. I also have the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in Dutch but they're in behind these because I prefer reading the original language

Hi there

Im wanna start a collection of the tolkien books. For a first buy im looking into alan lee illustrated ones. Does anyone have a good bookstore like barnes and noble from central europe, where i can get all the books in the same style?

Thanks ln advance

A fellow nerd

My wife bought these for me for my birthday when she saw me looking at them and saying how much I really liked them. I've read The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and LotR since the early 80s, rereading them in the fall yearly since the late 90s or so. At nearly 56yo now, I had to switch from reading physical books to my Kindle several years ago.

With a larger format, nice paper, and hardback, these are much nicer for reading physical books again! I had recently started the fall reading cycle again, so I am going to try and switch over to these to see how it goes for regular daily reading!

Fellowship also came with this leather bookmark around the middle of chapter 3. They were purchased from a seller in the UK, so I am thinking maybe they sat in the rectory or library at Norwich Cathedral. They look practically unread! I am so happy with these!

The Silmarillion: William Morrow, 2004
Illustrations: Ted Nasmith

The Hobbit: William Morrow, 1997
Illustrations: Allan Lee

Lord of the Rings: Houghton Mifflin, 2002
Illustrations: Allan Lee

i already ordered the hobbit from the collector's edition series cos i wanted to get started but was still reading 1984 by george orwell at the time, so just let it rest for then. (it's been a bit since, can't return anymore)

in the meanwhile, the illustrated edition (my original choice) dropped down in pricing from about $65 (then) to about $45 (now), which is close enough in my budget for what i wanted to spend going into the series,

the current collector's edition set's gonna set me back about $38when i get it complete anyway (which also includes the silmarillion however, instead being about $30 thenwithout it for the main 4 volumes that overlap)

now i would totally prefer the illustrated edition but at the end of the day it is a fair $15 more than my current choice, not to mention my copy of "The Hobbit" which i'll also probably have to keep but worst case if i do end up going with the illustrated i'll probably just gift it to a friend or a cousin or so, as it's literally an entirely new piece still in packaging.

what i want to know is this, is it really worth it for me to pivot towards getting the illustrated edition instead, even though it has me ending up with a spare copy of the hobbit, AND setting me back a further 15 bucks over my original choice, is it worth it?

i'm aware the collector's edition is in no way, a low-quality set or in any way inferior or whatsoever but from what i've heard, the entirety of LOTR being as imaginative and deep fantasy as it is i would love an illustrated edition if it makes a meaningful impact to my experience, so my question is does it?

TLDR ; impulse-purchased the hobbit - special collector's edition. The illustrated set (my original choice before, but ended up getting knocked off my cart cos of a higher price then) got a meaningful price knockoff putting it in my budget now, and now i don't know anymore if i should stick with the edition i'm already going for or if that's a valid worth-it upgrade.

key drawbacks :

1) i end up with a spare copy of the hobbit, (can't return)

2) it costs about $15 more.

what changes can i possibly expect in the illustrated edition, the paper quality, the print, and so on.. is it a better set worth upgrading to at this point now for sure?

edit : removed asterisks and slashes that came copy-pasting my original post in r/lotr that container bold and italics in the body