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LadyEowyn_Of_Rohan
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Post Order to read books in?
on: February 09, 2004 03:21
I've read The Hobbit and LOTR and recently purchased The Silmarillion, The Book Of Lost Tales 1 and The Book Of Lost Tales 2. Which should I read first, The Silmarillion or the Books Of Lost Tales? Does it matter?


[note... I edited this several times in case anyone is confused ... it's a long story]

[Edited on 31/5/2006 by LadyEowyn_Of_Rohan]
rhia
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: February 09, 2004 05:02
Deffinetly the Simlarillion. It's a general story of basically everything that ever hapens in Tolkien's worlds. Unfinished Tales just goes into it with more depth. The order I read the books in was: The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion Unfinished Tales, and now I'm working on HoME serious. I think that that orders probably the best to read teh books in.
atalante_star
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: February 09, 2004 09:46
I agree with Rhia. Though I would just add, at some point before getting into HoME seriously, I would recommend reading a biography of Tolkien and the book of his Letters - those will give you a good background into his thought processes and inspirations, and should make understanding HoME a lot easier.
Maiaman
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: February 10, 2004 08:10
Definitely read Tolkien's letters before you get into HoME. Also you might want to read "The Lost Road and Other Writings" edited by Christopher Tolkien. It gives some interesting insight into Tolkien's whole ME process, and it does a good job with comparing some of the early writings with what they became.
atalante_star
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: February 10, 2004 08:38
Yup. The Book of Lost Tales (I and II) forms the first 2 volumes of HoME, and are a good introduction to HoME - more than the other books, they contain actual stories

Of the other HoME books, I'd really recommend Morgoth's Ring - which contains a lot of Tolkien's later writings on good and evil in the world. Some of the texts are fairly mind-blowing.
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: February 10, 2004 02:26
History of Middle Earth.

A series of books (7?) containing Tolkiens earliers writings, and creative process, as well as analysis of his works by his son Chris Tolkien.

Many interesting tid-bits of detail can be found in the HOME that are not to be found elsewhere.
atalante_star
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: February 10, 2004 10:35
1) Book of Lost Tales 1
2) Book of Lost Tales 2
3) Lays of Beleriand
4) The Shaping of Middle-earth
5) The Lost Road and Other Writings
6) The Return of the Shadow
7) The Treason of Isengard
The War of the Ring
9) Sauron Defeated
10) Morgoth's Ring
11) The War of the Jewels
12) The People of Middle-earth
13) The History of Middle-earth Index
Morwinyoniel
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: February 17, 2004 05:10
Unfinished Tales is a single book that contains extended versions of some of the stories in the Silmarillion, as well as backstories for some events and people in the LOTR. The Books of Lost Tales 1 and 2 are the two first volumes of the History of Middle Earth series. Seems that many people confuse these books because of the similarity of their titles.
atalante_star
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: March 13, 2004 10:28
I have the first two on this list. I have read maybe the first five pages of Book 1 and I get distracted. Anyway, I was wondering if there is a great deal of overlapping info throughout these 13 books. I dont mind the overlapping but I am just trying to see which ones arent necessary.


Yes, they do overlap. Quite a few of the HoME books are about the Silmarillion, showing the progression from really early texts to much later writings. I tend to like the War of the Jewels and Morgoth's Ring the best.

I've tried to put a summary of each book below. though that's rather a hard thing to do cos odd things tend to pop up in the middle of the books

1) Book of Lost Tales 1 - early Sil writings
2) Book of Lost Tales 2 - early Sil writings, including Fall of Gondolin
3) Lays of Beleriand - Lay of Leithian and other Lays of Beleriand (including the Children of Hurin)
4) The Shaping of Middle-earth - Ambarkanta (Shape of the World - lots of maps and diagrams), early Sil stuff, Quenta Noldorinwa
5) The Lost Road and Other Writings - The Lost Road, Etymologies, early Silmarillion writings
6) The Return of the Shadow - early LotR versions (approximating to FotR)
7) The Treason of Isengard - early LotR versions (approximating to TTT)
The War of the Ring - early LotR versions (approximating to RotK)
9) Sauron Defeated - early LotR versions for the end of RotK, Notion Club Papers
10) Morgoth's Ring - early Silmarillion stuff and Myths Transformed
11) The War of the Jewels - early Silmarillion stuff
12) The People of Middle-earth - The New Shadow, Shibboleth of Feanor, writings on language issues, lots of small essays covering aspects of Sil - RotK
13) The History of Middle-earth Index

Can I skip the books 3-8? I would greatly appreciate your recommendation.


Depends. If you like Tolkien's poetical works, you must get book 3 4 - 8 I personally find the least interesting of the books, but then again I find the Sil more interesting than LotR. And for some reason, I always find Shaping of ME really hard to read ...
LadyEowyn_Of_Rohan
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: May 06, 2004 02:04
You might have noticed, I'm getting more Tolkien obsessed by the day... I've read 2,628 pages and half of The Book of Lost Tales 2 since my post two or so months ago! Now I want to read every book he wrote, even if they overlap. Anway, I have to read The Lays of Beleriand to prove to my English teacher that I can understand poetry (I'm kinda failing even though I get mostly A's and A+'s in other stuff )
Anyway, what order should I read the books in?
Though I would just add, at some point before getting into HoME seriously, I would recommend reading a biography of Tolkien and the book of his Letters - those will give you a good background into his thought processes and inspirations, and should make understanding HoME a lot easier.
Where should I read these, and do you reccomend a biography? Where should I read Unfinished Tales? Is The Adventures of Tom Bombadil useful at all?
Sorry for all my questions; I hope they're easily answered.
atalante_star
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: May 06, 2004 02:50
Where should I read these, and do you reccomend a biography? Where should I read Unfinished Tales? Is The Adventures of Tom Bombadil useful at all?
Sorry for all my questions; I hope they're easily answered.


OK ... um .... let's take these one at a time

Unfinished Tales - read it whenever. If you've read the Silmarillion, UT should make sense.

Adventures of Tom Bombadil - it'll be no help at all - but some of the poems are *gorgeous*. Its definitely worth reading, but it won't help with understanding the mythology.

Biographies - I personally would recommend Humphrey Carpenter's book "JRR Tolkien: a biography". That's the one I've found says the most about Tolkien's life. Another good one is meant to be Shippey's "Tolkien: Author of the Century". I've only really flicked through that, but it looks just as good.

Letters - these are fairly essential reading, I think, because they show what Tolkien was thinking about during the creation of his mythology.

I would recommend reading a biography and Letters before you get into HoME. I know you're probably impatient to start reading HoME, but honestly, you'll get a deeper understanding of it if you read a biography and the Letters first.

As for HoME, and the order of reading that .... Well, it depends on what you're interested in. Morgoth's Ring is *fantastic* - and I would probably say to read that first. Its got a lot of things of interest in.

But then, really, any order you want. Have a look through the contents pages and see what takes your interest
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: May 06, 2004 06:08
I would recommend reading a biography and Letters before you get into HoME. I know you're probably impatient to start reading HoME, but honestly, you'll get a deeper understanding of it if you read a biography and the Letters first.


Atalante_star, I am definitely more interested in reading more about the Histories rather than LOTR.

Does the Letters have more about the Histories? I am currently reading Book of Lost Tales 1 and I absolutely love it. Perhaps I will include one of the biography books you recommended as well.
atalante_star
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: May 06, 2004 06:21
Letters contains a huge mix of things - from letters to his publishers, through letters to his children about Christmas presents, to long and rambling letters about his mythology. There is a lot of writing in there about *intent* - what Tolkien himself saw in his works, and the principles upon which they are based. There's a lot about allegory, religion, and what the various races represented to Tolkien. There's also a lot about names, languages, and influences such as Anglo-Saxon.

There's also - which is great - some bits about Tolkien's theories about what happened after the actual books. For example - somewhere in the Letters he says that he thought that Shadowfax went over the Sea with Gandalf.

So - basically, there's nothing much in Letters than you won't see in HoME - but what the book gives you is Tolkien's view of his mythology. And a very good understanding of the principles underlying it - and I think that's invaluable in really understanding and appreciating his works.
arvegil
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: May 06, 2004 06:39
Where should I read these, and do you reccomend a biography? Where should I read Unfinished Tales? Is The Adventures of Tom Bombadil useful at all?


I suggest reading Unfinished Tales prior to reading any more HoME, as I consider it almost an additional appendix to The Silmarillion and, to a lesser extent, LOTR. I agree with the fearless moderator that Tom Bombadil is a pleasant diversion, but of limited relevance to the rest of Tolkien.

Here is where I might be a bit of a heretic. If you liked The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, a good place to start in the History series is Vol. X, Morgoth's Ring. It really addresses a lot of the big-picture issues about how Tolkien's world is constructed, and has one one of the most interesting and depressing works in the entire History series: The Debate of Finrod and Andreth.
atalante_star
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: May 06, 2004 06:44
Here is where I might be a bit of a heretic. If you liked The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, a good place to start in the History series is Vol. X, Morgoth's Ring. It really addresses a lot of the big-picture issues about how Tolkien's world is constructed, and has one one of the most interesting and depressing works in the entire History series: The Debate of Finrod and Andreth.


Sorry to disagree - but that's not heretical I agree with you entirely. If you only ever read one book from HoME - make it Morgoth's Ring.
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: May 06, 2004 09:47
After having finished reading Unfinished Tales recently, I did just begin reading the first book from HoME, which I'm thoroughly enjoying. Although now after reading this thread, I think I want to read a biography and Letters before continuing with the rest of the HoME series ... thanks for the good tip atalante_star
... even though, yes, I am a bit impatient to get through the rest of the series . After reading some of the first one (Lost Tales I) however, I now understand why it would be helpful to read the Letters book first.
ladylirenel
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: May 22, 2004 07:08
I actually liked Unfinished Tales better than the Sil for some points. I've also read HoME 1-5 and have 7 and 8 i think. Need to look for 6. I really liked the Lost Road, particularly the time-travel bit. It was relaly cool how he and C.S. Lewis decided that one would do sci-fi and the other time travel. Lewis kept his end of the bargain (Perelandra trilogy was great). Too bad Tolkien got distracted.
Lady_Eowyn_Of_Rohan_03
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: June 13, 2004 10:10
I read The Hobbit first, Then you should of course read FotR, TTT, and RotK. Then the Silmarillion. Reading the Silmarillion last will help it to be more clear to you. I haven't read lost tales or anything else really, haven't had time or money always. I do have a four book set. Behing LOTR, The Man and His Myth, and I can't think of the other two names.

There is so much stuff in the Sillmarillion, that if you read it first you won't make any of the connections, and you won't notice some impotant stuff. And Tolkien did publish Sillmarillion after the Hobbit and LOTR. SO that may be the order in which to read it in.
Arwen_Evenstar_3000
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: June 27, 2004 04:07
Well, I am not as Tolkien crazy as some people on this site are, plus I am a newbie so you may not care what I think, but on with my reply:

I have never heard of Unfinished Tales. First, I read the Silmarillion, then, The Hobbit, next, The Lord of the Rings trilogy in order. Those are all of the Tolkien books I have read! See you around!

[/ For a moment Aragorn gazed in silence, but fearing that she would pass away and never be seen again, he called out crying, “Tinuviel, Tinuviel!”quote]

[Edited on 28/6/2004 by Arwen_Evenstar_3000]
PotbellyHairyfoot
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: July 14, 2004 01:07
I have all thirteen volumes of HOME , but I use them more as a reference work rather than as something that needs to be read in any particular order. They come in very handy if you wish to look up more detailed information on a topic. I'll also often grab a volume at random and read a chapter or two in my spare time.
I still don't have Tolkien's letters , or a biography of the man, so my collection stilll needs some expansion.




[Edited on 14/7/2004 by PotbellyHairyfoot]
LadyEowyn_Of_Rohan
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: September 04, 2004 03:37
Okay, I'm back... *everyone groans* So I've read The Hobbit, LotR, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Book of Lost Tales 2, Morgoth's Ring, and a Tolkien biography, and I'm planning on reading The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien next, so that leaves the rest of the HoME that I haven't read, and maybe some books that I'm not aware of.
Which of those should I read next? Does it matter? Is there anything really interesting that really stands out to you in the HoME that I should read before I die? And books by other authors about Middle-earth: I'm not really having trouble understanding the books without them, and I've heard that a lot of them aren't completely accurate; is there anything really interesting or insightful in any of the books, or should I just skip them? Anything you'd recommend or stay away from?
Thanks in advance!... That should be enough questions from me for a while ... just be glad I don't have this many on the actual content of the books.
atalante_star
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: September 05, 2004 06:22
OK .... Letters first - but you know that

In HoME, I would suggest People of Middle-earth (HoME XII) as the next most essential after Morgoth's Ring.

And then, I like The Lost Road and The War of the Jewels, but I think after MR and PoME it becomes more a personal preference of which bits of Arda one is most interested in.

Other books .... hmmmm .... you're right, most aren't utterly accurate. I like The Road to ME by Shippey and Tolkien's Art by Chance. But both of those have a very mythological bent - which I like
scirocco
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: October 10, 2004 04:00
Yes it is. My second favourite behind Morgoth's Ring.

The Swedish Tolkien society Mellonath Daeron has a very good summary called What's in the History of Middle-earth?. This gives a book-by-book breakdown of the HoME series. Very useful, as it's quite hard to remember exactly where everything is.

Something I haven't seen mentioned in the replies to this thread so far is that HoME isn't so much a history of Middle-earth, as a history of the writing of the stories of Middle-earth. Thus, the earliest books in the series contain Tolkien's writings from when he was a young man, 30-40 years before the publication of LOTR. He repeatedly revised his Silmarillion stories, and as a result the earliest books (BOLT1 and 2) are a long way removed from The Silmarillion as Christopher Tolkien finally published it. I don't find them all that interesting, but that's a personal opinion.

Here's my personal potted summary of the HoME series:

HoME 1 and 2 - (Book of Lost Tales 1 and 2): The very earliest forms of tales which you would call Silmarillion stuff. No hobbits. Very fanciful and written in archaic language. Quite hard to read.

HoME 3 - The Lays of Beleriand. Verse (poetic) versions of the stories of Turin and Beren and Luthien. Also pretty hard going but there are good patches. If you love poetry you may get into this more than I did.

HoME 4 - The Shaping of Middle-earth. The first Silmarillion proper, plus the first Annals; a kind of chronological history; Year 1 - this happened, Year 2, this happened etc.. Still all very preliminary stuff. Useful for reference - I wouldn't read it cover to cover.

HoME 5 - The Lost Road. Getting better. Tolkien's time-travel novel and the first drafts of what became the Akallabeth in The Silmarillion. Silmarillion tales revised again - taking proper shape now, Annals revised. Plus the Etymologies - an alphabetical list of Elvish words and meanings.

HoME 6,7 & 8 and the first part of 9: Pure LOTR history. Three and a half books of all the early drafts of The Lord of the Rings. Very interesting historically but you tend to say "well, okay, but that's not how it ended up, is it". A good read, though, because we all love LOTR so much.

HoME 9 - latter part: Second Age/Numenorean themed. Second go at the time-travel novel; The Notion Club Papers. You can see the Numenorean ideas coming through. Plus the two parallel threads which came together to finally form the Akallabeth; The Drowning of Anadune and the Fall of Numenor. Some good stuff here.

HoME 10 - Morgoth's Ring. The jewel in the crown of the HoME series. Tolkien's development of the Silmarillion after the publication of LOTR. So, yes, another Silmarillion revision and another Annals revision. But the really juicy stuff is in essays and a story called the Athrabeth. Was the earth really flat or round?; The nature of evil; why are Men mortal and Elves not; do Orcs have souls; how did Morgoth and Sauron's evil work; mind-reading; the Wizards; the motivations of the Valar; Laws and Customs among the Eldar; lots of stuff that isn't just early drafts of published stories. And for the first time, hints that Tolkien was unhappy with some parts of his stories and contemplated throwing them all away and starting again, but couldn't. My favourite.

HoME 11 - The War of the Jewels. Sort of HoME 10 part 2 - more of the same. Not quite as good as HoME 10.

HoME 12 - The Peoples of Middle-earth. Back to early drafts of LOTR (Appendice and Prologue). Lots of interesting details about hobbits, Dwarves, Men, calendars, family trees etc. Again, this is stuff that adds on to LOTR and Silmarillion rather than just being early versions, which is what makes it so good. And Tolkiens' unfinished Fourth Age of Middle-earth story. Great stuff.

HoME 13 - The Index. Blatant rip-off. No new content, just copies of the indexes from the other books.
RiverWoman
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: December 06, 2004 10:22
There are some other stories, not really related to LOTR, that I really enjoyed - "Smith of Wooten Major" and "Farmer Giles of Ham" - the latter especially amusing, these 2 shortish works came bound in one volume. I also have something called "The Tolkien Reader" which includes the Tom Bombadil poems, and 3 extremely thought-provoking works; a story called "Leaf by Niggle", a dramatic poem based on the Battle of Maldon fragment, and an essay called"On fairy Stories" that really helped me understand what Tolkien was all about (I first read it decades before the "Letters" were available, but it is still very useful).
LadyEowyn_Of_Rohan
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: December 06, 2004 12:37
OK .... Letters first - but you know that

In HoME, I would suggest People of Middle-earth (HoME XII) as the next most essential after Morgoth's Ring.
*looks over birthday presents* I now have almost everything except letters and The Peoples of Middle-earth (and the index). And now that I've given up on actually finding them and decided to buy them online, I can't incase someone bought them for me for Christmas. The irony is killing me. *bangs head on desk* Would it really matter if I read The War of the Jewels first?

What's The Road Goes Ever On? I noticed a lot of references to it in Unfinished Tales.

[Edited on 7/12/2004 by LadyEowyn_Of_Rohan]
scirocco
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: January 12, 2005 06:55
What's The Road Goes Ever On? I noticed a lot of references to it in Unfinished Tales.


The Road Goes Ever On is basically a book of music. It contains sheet music for about ten of the songs from LOTR. These were set to music and performed by Flanders and Swann, a well-known duet from the Fifties and Sixties. The performances are available but are getting a bit hard to find now.

What makes the book really interesting, though, is a short commentary written by Tolkien. It contains translations and elaborations of the poems Namarie and A Elbereth Gilthoniel. There are mentions of the palantiri of the Tower Hills and an explanation of where Gildor and his companions (the Elves which the hobbits met on theirway to Crickhollow) were headed.

The dust-jacket has the poem Namarie, beautifully handwritten in tengwar by JRRT himself, and is just about worth buying the book for alone.
Morwinyoniel
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: February 18, 2005 12:40
Just go on and read the Silmarillion; don't be discouraged by the style, which is quite different from the LOTR, and the several characters with quite similar names. After that, I'd recommend Unfinished Tales; it has fuller versions of some parts of the Sil, plus stories and essays that deepen and widen the view on Middle-earth and its inhabitants.
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: March 04, 2005 07:26
Humm I would most likely start with the Hobbit because it starts it all. I wouldn't begin with the Silmarilliom because it then you could learn the present before the history. To know what exactly is going on to fit the puzzle pieces together. And well duh the Lotr next cause thats the main.the silmarillion. Then probably the unfinished tales to get the details on the silmarillion. After that maybe the book of lost tales 1&2 because they have the tales from the silmarillion changed a lot.
The~White~Lady~of~Rohan
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: March 26, 2005 11:38
I read the Hobbit and the 3 LotR first, then the silmarillion, unfinnished tales and with the HoME i have just read chapters at a time in no real order.

I know it sounds wierd but i found to understand what is going on in the whole history i needed to read LotR a few times, and to me reading Sil and HoME in one go was very difficult in piecing the information together, i also found that each time i read the books i noticed something i had missed the time before, which explained what i had just read somewhere else in HoME.

I don't think there is any one order to read the books in, it depends whether you can put the puzzle together through a time order of the story, or the 'present' first and then the background.
shadowofarda
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: April 04, 2005 04:22
>.< I've read Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, Return of the King, The Hobbit (shush! I know, I should have read it first... but give me some credit, I did read that HUGE long prologue that put some people to sleep concerning all those who hadn't read the said Hobbit!), and I'm struggling through the Sil.

Well, I did. A while back. ETS likes to eat their students alive, so I've been battling these devious Orcs (you know they are!) therefore I'll have to go back to them...

Are the HoME easy to find? I have none, nor have I read any. This depresses me. >.< They're not out of print, are they?

::horrible Tolkien fan for not knowing these things::
lilybeth
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: April 07, 2005 01:12
Hello there.

I am a big Tolkien fan, especially of the books. I was hooked when I saw the first movie and bought immediately the books. Since then I've read The Hobbit, The Sill.(my favourite book of all time) and even Roverrandom (although I'm way passed the age for tales). Unfortunately, there are no more books translated in my mother tongue to read :cry: and I just crave for a Tolkien book. I researched the market and got the chills when I saw the prices of the foreign publishers.

My question is (more a cry for help actually) how can I find the other books (in English) at a resonable price? Please, help...
Kadaveri
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: April 07, 2005 11:31
I would recommend buying the Letters after you have read the Hobbit, LotR and the Sil. They really help you understand Tolkien, whereas Unfinished Tales just expand the stories and they have dodgy information in them.

For the HoME it all depends on which book you like best, the Lord of the Rings or the Silmarillion. If you like LotR then it would be best to start at volume 6 and read up to volume 9 first for an easier read. That's what I did. Then start with the Book of Lost Tales and work your way through.
If you like the Silmarillion then start with the Book of Lost Tales first and work your way through.
Or if you can't resist the hype of Morgoth's Ring you can buy that one first. It really is 'the Jewel of the HoME series' as scirocco puts it. If you're interested in Orcs and/or Elves then it is a must. The essays are brilliant! The Myth's Transformed Texts are very informative. The whole "Morgoth's Ring" concept is very thought-provoking. Countless gems in here. Buy it!

Although this is a more difficult way of doing it I advise reading the HoME volumes 1-5 and 10-12 before you read the Silmarillion.The Silmarillion is a great book but telling a good story is all it is useful for, if you want answers about Tolkien's world it is more of a hindrance than a help. The Silmarillion was not published by Tolkien. A lot of people do not realise what the Silmarillion is. Much of it has been rewritten by Christopher Tolkien, lots of things have been edited for no apparent reason. It is a mesh of bits of Tolkien's words written from 1916 to 1973 all shoved together. Then rewritten. There are countless mistakes and contradictions. The most famous ones being that "Orcs were bred from Elves" is said in the Silmarillion as 'fact' and the death of Elu Thingol by Dwarves was not written by Tolkien. Make sure you read the foreward.

[Edited on 22/5/2005 by Kadaveri]
Morwinyoniel
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: April 08, 2005 08:06
As far as the Silmarillion goes I knew it was corrected by Tolkien's son, but I dind't think he actually rewrote some bits.

He simply had to compose some bits of it, because all his father had written about some topics and events were just fragmented notes and short drafts. If you get to read the HoME series, you'll notice that it was quite a task so, I think the result was surprisingly good.

And, Kadaveri, I wouldn't dismiss UT; I regard it as one of the "basic" books (in addition to The Hobbit, LOTR, and the Sil) just because it expands some of the central stories in the Sil, and gives interesting background information about some peoples and events.
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: May 01, 2005 07:28
Ok, after going through this thread here's a quick recap of the general concensous, as I understand it:

The Hobbit
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
The Silmarillion - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Unfinished Tales - Edited by Christopher Tolkien

For Silmarillion fans:

Morgoth's Ring - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
The Peoples of Middle Earth - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
Book of Lost Tales 1 - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
Book of Lost Tales 2 - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
The Lays of Beleriand - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
The Shaping of Middle-Earth - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
The Lost Road and Other Writings - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
The War of the Jewels - Edited by Christopher Tolkien

For Lord of the Rings fans:

The Peoples of Middle Earth - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
The Return of the Shadow - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
The Treason of Isengard - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
The War of the Ring - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
Sauron Defeated - Edited by Christopher Tolkien


For Poetry fans:

The Lays of Beleriand - Edited by Christopher Tolkien
The Adventures of Tom Bombodil
Elessar60
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Posts: 37
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Post RE: Order to read books in?
on: May 21, 2005 01:59
Hmmm, I read the Hobbit first, then LOTR 3 volume set, then I TRIED to read the sil...didn't make it the first time! But, that was many many years ago....I tried again, and have now read it twice, and as soon as I finish PoME, I will more than likely go back and read it a third time. It DEFinitley needs to be read after LOTR.... it adds a lot to it, at least for me it did. Am also in the process of reading Letters, and his autobiography....I have read the first 3 of the HOME, have 6 or 7 of them....will need to find the rest, as I find them most fascinating. I think reading his letters and the autobio helped ME to understand more of the LOTR.... Tolkein was a genius, but he was also a perfectionist...which I do understand, as I am too.... I haven't gotten some of the various books by other authors about ME...not sure if I will....just depends on if I can find a deal on them.........
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